aching as I was all over, and with the indescribable exhaustion that
fever of the desert brings on. Luckily, with the rising of the moon, the
wind had somewhat abated, but the electricity in the air was as
unpleasant as it was extraordinary. One was absolutely saturated with it,
and discharged sparks from one's finger-tips when one touched anything
that was a good conductor.

In the morning at the foot of the mountains we passed a large fortress
where, they told me, twenty soldiers had been stationed the previous year
in order to suppress brigandage that had been rampant here. Both Afghan
and Sistan robbers seemed to be most partial to this spot, probably
because it is that at which all the caravans from Birjand and Meshed
converge on their way to Sistan.

We actually perceived some trees in the distance, and at last we arrived
at Zemahlabad, a quadrangular fort, with two such peculiar structures at
the sides that I really could not at first guess what they were. Sadek,
called upon to explain, was no wiser, and we had to find a solution to
our speculation from one of the local authorities. They were windmills,
and most ingenious and simple they were, too, when once one had grasped
the mechanism of them. Only in their case the large opening to the east
and west, to let in and out the wind, had been screened with elaborate
wood-work, and it was not easy to understand the principle of the device
until one visited the interior. We shall come later in our journey to
some quite superior ones, which I will endeavour to describe.

There were many palm trees at this place and some few patches of
vegetation. A great many mat-sheds had been erected, and hundreds of cows
were to be seen; the land, being marshy, provided fair pasturages.
(Altitude 2,700 ft.)

To the extreme east of the long valley we had traversed the Bandan
mountains, converged into an acute angle with those on the opposite side
of the valley, and on the north-east side we had again the same formation
of rock in horizontal strata with some contortions at its western end. A
salt stream flowed here through a narrow gorge, between the picturesque,
wall-like barrier to the north and the handsome hills to the south-west.
A great number of palm trees gave quite a tropical appearance to this
gorge, although the whitish sand mixed with salt impressed one like dirty
snow, and the sky was also whitish and promising real snow. It was none
too hot--thermometer 34 deg..

J