the houses were scattered, and then at full
gallop when the desert stretched around us on all sides. We rode 105
miles in sixteen hours, with three relays of horses and barely an hour's
rest. We stayed a day at Hamadan, and then rode on to the capital, with
nine relays of fresh horses. During the last fifty-five hours I never
went to sleep, but often dozed in the saddle. At length the domes of
Teheran, its poplars and plane-trees, stood out against the morning sky,
and, half-dead with weariness, and ragged and torn, I rode through the
south-western gate of the city.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] At the time of this journey, the railway ended at Vladikavkas. Since
then, however, it has been extended to Baku along the northern side of
the Caucasus and the coast of the Caspian (see map, p. 30).

IV

THE PERSIAN DESERT (1906)

ACROSS THE KEVIR

We must now resume the journey to India. You will remember (see p. 33)
that after arriving at Teheran from Trebizond I made up a caravan
consisting of six Persians, one Tatar, and fourteen camels. On January 1
everything is ready. The camels are all laden; thick rugs cover their
backs to prevent them being rubbed sore by the loads, and the humps
stick up through two round holes in the cloths in order that they may
not be crushed and injured.

The largest camels go first. Each has its head adorned with a red
embroidered headstall, studded with shining plates of metal and red and
yellow pompons, and a plume waves above its forehead. Round the chest is
a row of brass sleigh-bells, and one large bell hangs round the neck.
Two of these bells are like small church bells; they are so big that the
camels would knock their knees against them if they were hung in the
usual way, so they are fastened instead to the outer sides of a couple
of boxes on the top of the loads. The camels are proud of being decked
so finely; they are conscious of their own importance, and stalk with
majestic, measured strides through the southern gate of Teheran.

My riding camel is the largest in the caravan (Plate V.). He has thick
brown wool, unusually long and plentiful on his neck and chest. His
loads form a small platform between the humps and along his flanks, with
a hollow in the middle, where I sit as in an armchair, with a leg on
each side of the front hump. From there I can spy out the land, and with
the help of a compass put down on my map everything I see--hills, sandy
zones, and large ravines. Camel