Alishtar and the range of Sefid Kuh were pencilled with sc
clear and pure an outline that the very sight of them fillec
the mind with quietness.
Whether it was the beauties of nature, or the more im-
mediate prospect of supper, or just the fact that they were
getting used to the sight of us, the Lurs gradually began tc
setde down for conversation with a show of friendly interest
here and there. Unlike those of Qal'a Kafrash, these were
real nomads who never live in houses. They are Mumivend.
In summer they inhabit the fringe of Alishtar, in winter they
move with all their tribe to their " Garmsir," the warm valleys
round Tarhan in the south-west. They were going to start
in about a month's time, in November. The government is
trying hard to make them build houses so as to keep them in
one place, but they are unanimous in disliking the change,
and say that to winter in the north means losing a lot of their
stock: and as the government can penetrate only with an armed
force south of Alishtar or Khava, the nornad will probably
have his way for some little time yet.
I had a heap of straw put under my sleeping-sack that night
and lay beneath the tent awning with the flocks and herds
around me and Hajji by the horses close at hand.
Next morning we set off across the plain. On the far side,
the Fort of Alishtar showed in a patch of trees. It is now the
seat of law and order and the residence of the Governor of
Northern Luristan; but three years ago it would have been
impossible for a Persian policeman or indeed for any ordinary
traveller to get within miles of it. Mir Ah Khan ruled there
like a king. He held the whole of North Luristan, and
harried Nihavend on one side and Kiurramabad on the other,
so that the plainsmen dared not sleep without their city walls.
The Lurs were devoted to him: the Salsile, to which his own
tribe of the Hasanavend belong, say even now that they