196 JOURNEYS IN PERSIA LETTER xxv

the Sartip of Achaz. I could buy, he said, what I could
get, but he would furnish neither supplies nor guards for
the camp. I did not wonder at this, for a traveller
carrying an official letter is apt to be palmed off on the
villagers as a guest, and is not supposed to pay for any-
thing.

I went to see the ketchuda, and assured him that I
should pay him myself for all supplies, and a night's
wages to each watchman, and the difficulty vanished.
Many of the handsome village women came to see me.
The ketchuda made me a feast in his house, and when I
bade him farewell in the morning he said solemnly, " We
are very glad you have been our guest, we have suffered
no loss or inconvenience by having you, we should like
to be protected by the great English nation." This
polite phrase is frequently used.

The Persian Kurds impress me favourably as a manly,
frank, hospitable people. The men are courteous without
being cringing, and the women are kind and jolly, and
come freely and unveiled to my tent without any ob-
trusiveness.

The ketchuda sent eight guards to my camp at night,
saying it was in a very dangerous place, and he did not
wish his village disgraced by a stranger being robbed so
near it. He added, however, that six of these men were
sent for his own satisfaction, and that I was only to pay
for the two I had ordered.

My journey, which is through a wild and little fre-
quented part of Persia, continues to be prosperous. The
climate is now delightful, though at these lower altitudes
the middle of the day is rather hot.

It was a fertile and interesting country between San-
jud and Sain Kala, where I halted for Sunday. The
road passes through the defiles of Kavrak, along with the
deep river Karachai, from the left bank of which rises pre-