Benn rather than to
instructions from home, but great caution should be exercised in the
future if this prestige, now at its highest point, is to be maintained.

The Russians are advancing very fast, and their influence is already
beginning to be felt in no slight degree. The Sistanis may or may not be
relied upon. They are not perfectly Europeanised like peoples of certain
parts of Western Persia, nor are they quite so amenable to reason as
could be wished. They can easily be led, or misled, and bribed, and are
by no means easy folks to deal with. For a few tomans one can have people
assassinated, the Afghan frontier so close at hand being a guarantee of
impunity for murderers, and fights between the townspeople and the
Afghans or Beluch, in which many people are injured and killed, are not
uncommon.

[Illustration: The Sar-tip.]

One of these fights, between Sistanis and Afghans (under British
protection), took place when I was in Sistan, and I think it is only
right that it should be related, as it proves very forcibly that, as I
have continually urged in this book, calm and tact, gentleness and
fairness, have a greater and more lasting control over Persians than
outward pomp and red-tape.

The Consul and I, after calling on the Amir, proceeded to visit the
Sar-tip, the Amir's first son by his legal wife. The Sar-tip is the head
of a force of cavalry, and inhabits a country house, the Chahar Bagh, in
a garden to the north outside the city. He is a bright and intelligent
youth, who had travelled with Dr. Golam Jelami to India--from which
country he had recently returned, and where he had gone to consult
specialists about his sadly-failing eyesight.

The Sar-tip, of whom a portrait is here given, received us most kindly
and detained us till dark. Being Ramzam-time we then bade him good-bye,
and were riding home when, as we neared the Consulate gate, a man who
seemed much excited rushed to the Consul and handed him a note from
the Belgian Customs officer. As I was still convalescent--this was my
first outing--and not allowed out after dusk, Major Benn asked me to go
back to the Consulate as he was called to the Customs caravanserai on
business. I suspected nothing until a messenger came to the Consulate
with news. A crowd of some 300 Sistanis had attacked some fifteen Afghan
camel men, who had come over with a caravan of tea from Quetta. These
camel drivers had been paid several thousand rupees for their services o