LETTER xxn A FIERY DAY 141

aide-de-camp, attended by a cavalry escort, called, and
with much courtesy offered me the fialaJckana, arranged, he
said, in European fashion. The Governor was absent, but
this officer said that it would be his wish to offer me
hospitality. As I felt quite unable to move he sent a skin
of good water, some fruit, and a guard of four soldiers.

It was only 11 A.M. when the tents were pitched, and

the long day which followed was barely endurable. The

mercury reached 124° inside my tent. The servants lay

in a dry ditch under a tree in the Governor's garden.

Boy several times came into the shade of my verandah.

The black flies swarmed over everything, and at sunset

covered the whole roof of the tent so thickly that no part

of it could be seen. The sun, a white scintillating ball,

blazed from a steely sky, over which no cloud ever passed.

The heated atmosphere quivered over the burning earth.

I was at last ill of fever, and my recipe for fighting the

heat by ceaseless oSeupation failed. It was a miserable

day, and at one time a scorching wind, which seemed hot

enough to singe one's hair, added to the discomfort. " As

the hireling earnestly desireth the shadow," so I longed

for evening, but truly the hours of that day wdre " long

drawn out." The silence was singular. , Even the

buzzing of a blue-bottle fly would have been cheerful

The sun, reddening the atmosphere as he sank, disappeared

in a fiery haze, and then the world of Daulatabad awoke.

Parties of Persian gentlemen on fiery horses passed by,

dervishes honoured me by asking alms, the Governor's

major-domo called to offer sundry kindnesses, and great

flocks of sheep and goats, indicated by long lines of dust

clouds/moved citywards from the hills. Sand-flies in

legions now beset me, and the earth, which had been

imbibing heat all day, radiated it far into the morning.

I moved my bed outside the tent and gave orders for an

early start, but the charvadar who was in the city over-