go a short distance only
for the first stage. The object of this is probably to find out by actual
experience on the road whether anything has been forgotten or overlooked,
before they get too far away to return and rectify the mistake.
Semi-civilized peoples are wedded very strongly to the customs in vogue
among them, and the European traveller finds himself compelled, more or
less, to submit to them. My intention is to overtake the fourgon the
following day at Shahriffabad.

Accordingly, soon after sunrise on the morrow, the road around the outer
moat of Meshed is circled once again. A middle-aged descendant of the
Prophet, riding a graceful dapple-gray mare, spurs his steed into a
swinging gallop for about five miles across the level plain in an effort
to bear me company. Three miles farther, and for miles over the steep and
unridable gradients of the Shah-riffabad hills, I may anticipate the
delights of having his horse's nose at my shoulder, and my heels in
constant jeopardy. To avoid this, I spurt ahead, and ere long have the
satisfaction of seeing him give it up.

In the foothills I encounter, for the first time, one of those
characteristics of Mohammedan countries, and more especially of Persia, a
caravan of the dead. Thousands of bodies are carried every year, on
horseback or on camels, from various parts of Persia, to be buried in
holy ground at Meshed, Kerbella, or Mecca. The corpses are bound about
with canvas, and slung, like bales of merchandise, one on either side of
the horse. The stench from one of these corpse-caravans is something
fearful, nothing more nor less than the horrible stench of putrid human
bodies. And yet the drivers seem to mind it very little indeed. One stout
horse in the party I meet this morning carries two corpses; and in the
saddle between them rides a woman. "Mashallah." perchance those very
bodies, between which she sits perched so indifferently, are the remains
of small-pox victims. But, what cares the woman?--is she not a
Mohammedan, and a female one at that?--and does she not believe in
kismet. What cares she for Ferenghi "sanitary fads?"--if it is her
kismet to take the small-pox, she will take it; if it is her kismet not
to, she won't. One would think, however, that common sense and common
prudence would instruct these people to imitate the excellent example of
the Chinese, in taking measures to dispose of the flesh before
transporting the bones to distant burial-places. Ma