t, the
thumb only being somewhat short and stumpy, but the fingers supple, long
and tapering. The few lines which they possessed in the palms of their
hands were very strongly marked. There was a good deal of refinement
about their facial features and hands which made me think that these
people came from a good stock, and even the ears--which were generally
malformed with all the natives of Persia which had so far come under my
observation--were in this case much more delicately modelled and
infinitely better shaped. The chins were beautifully chiselled, even when
somewhat slanting backwards.

I give here a photograph which I took of two typical young men, and
which I think bears out my remarks.

There was an extraordinary family resemblance in nearly all the heads one
saw, which made one suspect constant intermarriage among relations in the
small community. In fact, on asking, they professed to be all related to
one another.

Another very curious point about the faces of the male members of Naiband
village, which contrasted with other natives of Persia, was that, whereas
the latter can grow heavy beards from a comparatively very tender age,
the Naiband young men were quite hairless on the face, almost like
Mongolians--even at twenty or twenty-two years of age. When they had
reached a fairly advanced age, however, some forty years, they seemed to
grow quite a good black beard and heavy moustache, somewhat curly, never
very long, and of a finer texture than with modern Persians. The hair of
the skull was perfectly straight, and was worn long, parted in the
middle, with an occasional fringe on the forehead.

Nature's freaks are many and varied. While the men had invariably long
aquiline noses, elongated faces, and eyes well protected by the brow, the
children, until the age of ten or twelve, had rather stumpy faces with
noses actually turned up, and most beautiful large eyes softened by
abnormally long eyelashes, the eyes themselves, strangely enough, being
quite _a fleur de tete_. I noticed this curious phenomenon in members of
the same family, and the older ones told me that when they were young
their faces were also stubby and their noses turned up.

The inference I drew was that it must be the climatic conditions of the
desert that have the elongating effect, not only upon the facial
features, but on all the limbs of the people. The people were not
naturally born elongated. The climate certainly has an elongating