Belind Khan making his salaams in
the Ziarat, the altar of which was made of a pile of white marble pieces
and rounded stones with sticks on which horns and a red rag had been
fixed.

Chah Sandan possessed three wells of excellent water. The distance from
Tretoh to Chah Sandan was 23 miles 760 yards.

CHAPTER XXXIV

The picturesque Gat mountain--Strange-looking
mountains--Mirui--White covered country--Sotag--Desolate shed at
Chakal--The _Karenghi rirri_ deadly plant--The Mesjid or
Masit--Their characteristics--The religion of
Beluch--Sects--Superstitions--The symbol of evil--A knife
"possessed"--A Beluch's idea of a filter.

Due east of Chah Sandan was the Gat mountain, this time, as there was no
mirage, duly resting upon the desert. It was a most attractive looking
mountain, and quite one of the most striking sights in the scenery upon
the Nushki-Robat road.

Five miles from Chah Sandan we again struck high, flat-topped sandbanks,
and a great many conical sand hills. Ten miles off we went through a cut
in the hills near which are to be found a well of brackish water and a
great many palm trees, of two kinds (_Pish_ and _Metah_). Big tamarisks
(_kirri_) were also abundant, and there was good grazing for camels,
_regheth_ being plentiful. Near the salt well stood a gigantic palm tree.

We had come east-north-east (70 deg. b.m.) from Chah Sandan, and from this,
our nearest point to the Gat mountain, the track turned east-south-east
(110 deg. b.m.). One really had to halt to look at the Gat, it was so
impressive. Two enormous blocks of rock several hundred feet high, one,
roughly speaking, of a quadrangular shape (to the north) and one
rectangular (to the south), were joined on the east side by a
perpendicular wall of solid rock. Up to about two-thirds of the height of
the mountain these huge blocks had accumulations of debris and sand,
forming a slanting pad all round except on the west side, where there was
a sort of hollow recess.

There was a large plain with good camel grazing to the east-south-east,
bounded from east to south by a semicircle of low hills.

After leaving Gat there was nothing of interest on the march. Another
extensive sand bank, 50 feet high, forming the eastern part of the hilly
semicircle above mentioned, was crossed, then we were in a barren valley.
Further on, however, after going over yet another sand dune (extending
from north to south) we entered