an ample turban of the Hindoo
pattern.

Children wore short coats ornamented with embroidery and shells at the
back and pretty silver buttons in front. Their little caps, too, were
embellished with shells, beads, or gold braiding.

Nearly all male natives, old and young, suffered from complaints of the
eyes, but not so the women,--probably because they spent most of the time
in the house and did not expose themselves to the glare of the sun and
salty dust, which seemed to be the principal cause of severe inflammation
of the eyes.

Bambis village was greatly dependent upon Isfahan for its provisions, and
therefore everything was very dear. Excellent vegetables, _shalga_,
_sardek_, _churconda_, and pomegranates were nevertheless grown, by means
of a most elaborate and ingenious way of irrigation, but the water was
very brackish and dirty. Felt filters were occasionally used by the
natives for purifying the drinking water.

There were a number of Sayids living at Bambis, who looked picturesque in
their handsome green turbans; they were men of a splendid physique, very
virile, simple in manner, serious and dignified, and were held in much
respect by their fellow villagers.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Charvadar--Caravan man.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Bambis--The Kashsan-Yezd high road--The Kevir
plain--Minerals--Chanoh--Sand
deposits--Sherawat--Kanats--Agdah--Stone cairns--Kiafteh--An
isolated mount--A long sand bar--A forsaken village--Picturesque
Biddeh--Handsome caravanserai at Meiboh--Rare
baths--Shamsi--Sand-hills--Hodjatabad--Fuel--A "tower of
silence"--A split camel--Thousands of borings for water--A
four-towered well.

We left Bambis at ten o'clock on Sunday evening and travelled on a flat
plain the whole night. One village (Arakan) was passed, and eventually we
entered the Teheran-Kashan-Yezd high road which we struck at Nao Gombes.
Here there were a Chappar Khana and an ancient Caravanserai--the latter
said to be of the time of Shah Abbas--but we did not stop, and continued
our journey along a broad, immense stretch of flat country consisting of
sand and gravel.

My men were fast asleep on their mules, but the animals seemed to know
their way well, as they had been on this road many times before. The
night was extremely cold. We were now at an altitude of 4,240 feet in
what is called the "Kevir," a small salt desert plain, enclosed to the
south-west of the track by the sou