h wind was raging and sweeping the dust along
the ground. A mad jackal came into the Englishmen's camp and crept into
a tent where several men were sleeping. Fortunately he only set his
teeth in a felt rug. This wakened the sleepers, however, and they at
once started up and looked for weapons. The camp consisted of three
sections, and more than a hundred tethered camels. In the pitchy
darkness it was impossible to see where the jackal went, but the camels
could be heard shrieking with fear, and thus it was only too clear where
the brute was. When day broke seventy-eight bitten dromedaries were
counted. They were isolated from the others, and killed as soon as they
showed signs of sickness, while the dogs and goats which had been bitten
by the jackal were shot at once.

Twenty years ago I myself had a little adventure with jackals. I was
riding with a couple of servants and some horses to the Caspian shore
from the interior of Persia, and encamped one evening at a village in
the Elburz Mountains. The caravanserai was notorious for its vermin, so
I preferred to make myself comfortable in a garden with fruit trees and
poplars, protected by a wall five feet high and without any gates. We
had to climb over the wall in order to get in. I had a saddle for a
pillow and lay wrapped in a felt rug and a cloak. The remains of my
supper, bread, honey, and apples, stood on my two small leather trunks.
When it grew dark my men went off to the village and I rolled myself up
and went to sleep.

Two hours later I was awakened by a scratching noise at the trunks and
sat up to listen, but could hear nothing but the murmur of a small brook
close at hand. The darkness was intense, only a little starlight passing
faintly through the foliage. So I went to sleep again. A little later I
was roused once more by the same noise, and heard a tearing and tugging
at the straps. Then I jumped up and distinguished half a dozen jackals
disappearing like shadows among the poplars. There was no more sleep for
me that night. It was all I could do to keep the importunate beasts at a
distance. If I kept quiet for a minute they were up again, tearing the
leathern straps, and would not make off until I struck a box with my
riding whip. They soon became accustomed even to this and drew back only
a few steps. Then I remembered the apples, and as soon as the jackals
crept up again, I threw one of them with all my strength into the ruck,
and used them as missiles