large and important rivers, but this is a mistake. There is not a drop
of water in any of them at any time of the year except during heavy
storms, when the drainage of the mountains is immediately carried down by
these channels and lost in the desert. It is no more right to mark these
channels as rivers than it would be to see Piccadilly marked on a map of
London as a foaming torrent because during a heavy shower the surplus
water not absorbed by the wood pavement had run down it half an inch deep
until the rain stopped.

To the N.E. we saw much more clearly than the day before the extensive
salt deposits at the base of the mountains, and to the N.N.E. a grey
mountain with a fluted top. A high mountain mass stretched from the South
to the North-West and then there was a wide opening into another flat
sandy plain. Far, far beyond this a distant range of high mountains could
hardly be distinguished, for a sand-storm was raging in that direction
and veiled the view with a curtain of dirty yellowish grey.

This caravanserai, called Haoz Panch (or "Fifth water") altitude 5,050
feet--was built by some charitable person to protect caravans during
sand-storms, and also to supply them with water, which was quite
drinkable, if one were not too particular, and if one did not look at it.
The caravanserai, very solidly built, was left to take care of itself,
there being no one in charge of it. The _kilns_ erected to bake the
bricks with which the caravanserai had been built, still stood near it.

It is rather curious to notice what effect a drink of fair water has on
the temper of one's men. My camel man, Ali Murat, for that was his name,
was in high spirits and came to fetch me to show me how he made his
bread, for he was keen to know whether camel men(!) in my country made it
the same way! I reserved my answer until I had seen his process.

The hands having been carefully washed first, flour and water, with great
lumps of salt, were duly mixed together in a bowl until reduced into
fairly solid paste. A clean cloth was then spread upon the ground and the
paste punched hard upon it with the knuckles, care having been taken to
sprinkle some dry flour first so that the paste should not stick to the
cloth. When this had gone on for a considerable time the paste was
balanced upon the knuckles and brought gaily bounding to where the hot
cinders remained from a fire of camel dung which had previously been
lighted. The flattened paste wa