y cheeks I took the photographs here
reproduced, and then proceeded to a yet hotter small room--as suffocating
a place as one may wish to enter in one's lifetime, or after! One
received a positive scorching blow in the face as one entered it, the
heat was so great. This is the last chamber, and in a corner is a tap of
cold water with which the skin is repeatedly rinsed and made to sweat
several times until the pores are considered absolutely clean. There were
two people lying down in a semi-unconscious state, and although I was
only there a few minutes I came out quite limp and rag-like. It ruined
my watch, and only by very careful nursing I was able to save my camera
from falling to pieces. On returning to the previous hot chamber it
seemed quite cool by comparison, and when we emerged again into the open
air, thermometer about 90 deg. in the shade, one felt quite chilled.

The various trade caravanserais, of which there were over a dozen in
Kerman on either side of the main bazaar street, were quite interesting.
They were large courts with high platforms, six to ten feet high, all
round them, the centre well, enclosed by them, being tightly packed with
camels, mules and donkeys. Above on the broad platform lay all the packs
of merchandise which had arrived from Birjand and Afghanistan, from
Beluchistan or from India _via_ Bandar Abbas. The shops and store rooms
were neat and had wood-work in front, with gigantic padlocks of a
primitive make. Some, however, had neat little English padlocks.

[Illustration: The Interior of a Hammam or Bath--First Room.]

The most interesting to us, but not the most beautiful, was the Hindoo
caravanserai, where some forty British Hindoo merchants carried on their
commerce. The place looked old and untidy, and the shops overcrowded with
cheap articles of foreign make, such as are commonly to be seen in
India,--paraffin lamps, knives, enamelled ware, cotton goods, indigo,
tea, sugar and calicos being prominent in the shops. The piece goods come
mostly from Germany and Austria, the cottons from Manchester.

The Hindoos were very civil and entertained us to tea, water melon,
and a huge tray of sweets, while a crowd outside gazed at the unusual
sight of Europeans visiting the caravanserais. The merchants said that
the trade in cotton, wool, gum and dates was fairly good, and that,
taking things all round, matters went well, but they had a great many
complaints--they would not be Hindoos if