84 JOURNEYS IN PERSIA LETTER mx

spoken unkindly to him, and he had no wish to live.
However, this morbid frame of mind was overcome by
firm dealing, and Aziz attended to him all night, and
salol, etc., are curing him.

He is the one grateful creature that I have seen
among these Orientals, and his gratitude is in return for
a mere trifle. "We were fording a stream one hot day,
and seeing him scooping up water with difficulty in his
hands, I took out my mug for him. Ever since he has
done anything that he can for me. He brings tasteful
little bouquets of flowers, gathers wild cherries, and shows
the tittle courtesies which spring from a kindly nature.
He said several times to Mirza, " It isn't only that the
Khanum gave me the cup, but she took trouble for
me." It may be imagined what a desert as to grateful
and kindly feeling I am living in when this trifle appears
like an oasis. Hard, cunning, unblushing greed is as
painful a characteristic of the Bakhtiaris as it is of the
Persians.

Hassan is now " down with fever" and the opium
craving, and one of the cTiarvadars with fever. The cold
winds of G-unak were too much for them. All day shots
have been heard among the near mountains'. The
Hajwands, a powerful tribe, and the Abdulwands are
fighting about a recent cutting off of a cow's tail, but the
actual cause of the feud is deeper, and dates farther
back. Aziz Khan wants us to return to Diz Arjanak,
fearing that we may become implicated, and the Agha is
calling him a coward, and telling him to ride back alone.
Bang! Bang ! The firing is now close and frequent, and
the dropping shots are varied by straggling volleys. With
the glasses I can see the tribesmen loading and firing on
the crests of the near hills. A great number are en-
gaged. One tribe has put up a stone breastwork at our
end of the valley, but the enemy is attacking the other.