all round us, and
our horses sinking quite deep into it, we managed to drag men, horses,
and loads into Kafter-han (Kebuter-han)--altitude 5,680 feet--at 8.30 in
the morning, where we were glad to get relays of fresh steeds. We had
gone about twenty-eight miles from the last station.

A few mud huts, an ice store-house, a flour mill, a high building, said
to have been an arsenal, the usual caravanserai, and a dingy Chappar
khana were all, quite all one could rest one's eye upon at Kafter-han.
There was some cultivation, but nothing very luxuriant. The few
inhabitants were quite interested in the sudden appearance of a
_ferenghi_ (a foreigner). The women, who were not veiled here, were quite
good-looking, one girl particularly, whose photograph I snatched before
she had time to run away to hide herself--the usual effect of a camera on
Persian women, quite the reverse to its effects on the European fair sex.

We left almost directly on better animals, and proceeded south-east
having lofty rugged hills to the north-east, east, and south of us, with
the usual high sand accumulations upon their sides. To the south-east we
could just discern the distant mountains near Kerman. The track itself,
on the sandy embankment at the foot of the hillside to the south-west, is
rather high up and tortuous, owing to a very long salt marsh which fills
the lower portion of the valley during the rainy weather and makes
progress in a straight line impossible. But now, owing to the absolute
absence of rain for months and months, the marsh was perfectly dry and
formed a flat white plastered stretch of clay, sand and salt, as smooth
as a billiard-table, and not unlike an immense floor prepared for
tennis-courts. The dried salt mud was extremely hard, our horses' hoofs
leaving scarcely a mark on it. I reckoned the breadth of this flat, white
expanse at one and a half miles, and its length a little over eleven
miles. Two high peaks stood in front of us to the south-east, the Kuh
Djupahr, forming part of a long range extending in a south-east
direction.

At a distance of four farsakhs (about thirteen miles), and directly on
the other side of the dried-up salt stretch, we came to another Chappar
khana, at the village of Robat. There were a good many women about in
front of the huge caravanserai, and they looked very ridiculous in the
tiny short skirts like those of ballet girls, and not particularly clean,
over tight trousers quite adhering to the