wind.

The camel man returned and led the camels back a long distance until we
came to a faint track along a streamlet, which we tried to follow, but it
went along such precipitous places that we had to abandon it for fear the
camels, who could not get a proper foot-hold, might come to grief. In
Birjand I had only succeeded in obtaining just sufficient animals to
carry my loads, Sadek, and myself, and so was not very anxious to run the
risk of losing any and becoming stranded in such an inhospitable place.

We eventually contrived to take the camels down to the flat without any
serious mishaps, and wandered and wandered about and went over another
pass--my compass being all we had to go by.

Sadek, whose high fever had affected his vision, now swore that we were
going back towards Birjand instead of going on, and said he was certain
my compass was wrong; but I paid no heed to his remarks, and by carefully
steering our course with the compass--which involved a reckless waste of
matches owing to the high wind--I eventually got the party into the open,
upon a wide plain of sand and gravel. Here, having shown Abbas Ali the
right bearings to follow, I got upon my camel, again wrapped myself well
in my blankets and went fast asleep.

So unfortunately did Abbas Ali, who was tired out after his exertions
among the rocks, and at 3 a.m. I woke up to find the camels going as and
where they pleased, and the camel man, buried under his thick felt coat,
snoring so soundly upon his camel that it took a good deal of shouting to
wake him up. I had no idea where we had drifted while I had been asleep,
and the night being an unusually dark one we could not well see what was
ahead of us, so we decided to halt until sunrise.

[Illustration: In the Desert. (Tamarisks in the Foreground.)]

When it grew light in the morning I was much interested in some curious
circular and quadrangular pits only a few yards from where we had
stopped, which were used as shelters for men and sheep but were now
deserted. These pits were from four to six feet deep below the level of
the ground, and from ten to thirty feet in diameter (when circular), a
section being partitioned for sheep by a fence of thick but soft cane
that grows in the neighbourhood of water. In the part reserved for human
beings there was a circular fireplace of stones, and some holes in the
earth at the sides for storing foodstuff. The lower portion of the inside
wall all round the pit