d and
spouted away as fine a collection of insults as one may expect to listen
to in one's life. The Naiband people may certainly be congratulated on
the possession of a most extensive and complete vocabulary of swear
words.

Pretending unconcern, but keeping a watchful eye on what was taking place
all round, I stopped here and there to examine the small water-skins
hanging in couples or more outside each doorway, and halted in the small
square of the village to admire the wretched buildings all round.

The lower portion of the houses was of mud, the upper of stone. Down the
side of the main street gurgled the limpid little stream. Each house had
a sort of walled recess outside the front door, reached by a step or two,
where tilling tools rested against the wall, and where the women's
spinning wheels were worked during the day. The wheels, however, were now
idle, for the women had joined the men in the demonstration.

It was most evident that _ferenghis_ were not popular at Naiband, but,
come what might, here I was, and here I would stay as long as it suited
me. A stone flung with considerable force hit me in the knee--stones
always have a way of striking you in the most sensitive spots--and it
took me some minutes before I could recover from the pain and move on;
but I never let the natives suspect what agony I was enduring, or they
would have done worse.

The slow march through the village up to the highest point was decidedly
not pleasant, missiles flying pretty plentifully all round. Fortunately,
no more hit me quite as badly again. The camel man had warned me that the
population of Naiband was a mixture of robbers and cut-throats, and the
facts fully proved his words, so I was rather glad that I had taken not
only my rifle with me but a pocketful of cartridges as well.

Things were getting rather hot, and it was only when, having reached a
high point of vantage, I stopped and, in full view of the crowd, inserted
a five cartridge clip in the magazine of my Mannlicher, that most anxious
inquiries were made from the camel man as to what I was about to do. The
camel man, amid a sudden silence and eager attention, explained the
terrific powers of a _ferenghi's_ rifle which, he said, never misses and
ever kills, even ten miles off; and to add more humour to his words he
explained that shots could be fired so quick that one had not time to
count them.

At this point of the lecture I casually produced a handful of ca