ical sand mounts--Natural protections against
the northerly winds.

We were benighted on the mountain and did not reach the village of
Deh-i-Husena till nearly nine o'clock, our friend and guide having lost
his way in the dark and having taken us round the country for a good many
more miles than was necessary. It is true the night was rather black and
it was not easy to see where the low mud-houses of his village were.

The distance in a direct line from Deh-i-Husena to the foot of the
Kuh-i-Kwajah mountain was 4 miles, and the village of Deh-i-Husena was
about 15 miles from Sher-i-Nasrya, the village of Dadi we had passed
being 9 miles off, and Sanchuli 143/4 miles from the city and only a
quarter of a mile from Deh-i-Husena. To the south of the latter village
was Deh-i-Ali-Akabar.

We spent the night at Deh-i-Husena, Mahommed Azin, the head village man
and guide, being so entertaining in his conversation that he kept us up
till all hours of the morning. He professed to be one of the only two
surviving members of the Kayani family which formerly reigned over
Sistan, his cousin being the other. According to his words--which,
however, could not always claim to be models of accuracy--his family had
a good deal of power in Sistan up to about forty years ago (1860). They
were now very poor.

Mahommed Azin had well-cut features and bore himself like a man of
superior birth, but he was very bitter in his speech against fate and
things in general. It was, nevertheless, wonderful how a man, living in a
small village secluded from everybody and everywhere, had heard of flying
machines, of submarine boats, of balloons that _ferenghis_ made. His
ideas of them were rather amusing, but he was very intelligent and quick
at grasping how they worked when I explained to him. Surgery interested
him intensely, and after that politics. The Ruski and Inglis he was sure
would have a great deal of trouble over Sistan. He could not quite make
up his mind as to which was the bigger nation. When he heard Ruski's
accounts of themselves he certainly thought the Ruski were the greater
people, but when he listened to the Inglis and what they could do he
really believed they must be stronger.

"Who do you think is the most powerful?" he inquired of me.

"Of course, the Inglis, without doubt."

"Then do you think that your king will grant me a pension, so that I can
live in luxury and without working to the end of my days?"

"The king