e Persians; then the blue (grey) ones with
differently coloured eyes, and the tabby ones. Mine were, one perfectly
white, the other tabby.

At midnight I said good-bye to Major Phillott, whose kind hospitality I
had enjoyed for four days, and began my slow and dreary march on
camel-back. Swung too and fro till one feels that one's spine is breaking
in two, we wound our way down from the Consulate at Zeris, skirted the
town, now asleep and in a dead silence, and then turned north-east among
the barren Kupayeh Mountains.

We had a fine moonlight, and had I been on a horse instead of a camel I
should probably have enjoyed looking at the scenery, but what with the
abnormal Persian dinner to which I had been treated in the afternoon (see
Vol. I.)--what with the unpleasant swing of the camel and the monotonous
dingle of the camels' bells--I became so very sleepy that I could not
keep my eyes open.

There is very little style to be observed about riding a camel, and one's
only aim must be to be comfortable, which is easier said than done, for
camels have so many ways of their own, and these ways are so varied, that
it is really difficult to strike a happy medium.

Sadek had made a kind of spacious platform on my saddle by piling on it
carpets, blankets, and a mattress, and on the high butt of the saddle in
front he had fastened a pillow folded in two.

As we wended our way along the foot of one hill and then another, while
nothing particularly striking appeared in the scenery, I thought I would
utilise what comfort I had within reach, and resting my head on the
pillow, through which one still felt the hard wooden frame of the saddle,
and with one leg and arm dangling loose on each side of the saddle, I
slept soundly all through the night. Every now and then the camel
stumbled or gave a sudden jerk, which nearly made one tumble off the high
perch, but otherwise this was really a delightful way of passing the long
dreary hours of the night.

We marched some nine hours, and having gone over a low pass across the
range, halted near a tiny spring of fairly good water. Here we were at
the entrance of an extensive valley with a small village in the centre.
Our way, however, lay to the south-east of the valley along the
mountains. We were at an elevation of 6,300 feet, or 800 feet above
Kerman.

The heat of the day was so great that we halted, giving the camels a
chance of grazing on what tamarisks they could find during day-l