Farewell to the tribesmen
left the rival country and rode up the Giza Rud towards the
confines of our own tribe. We had been in danger all the
rime, he informed me: he did not mind, said he—I believe with
perfect truth—" but it was unpleasant not to have a gun.'*
Before reaching the Tang-i-Charash defile, near sunset, we
turned westward and found a small settlement of Kakavend at
a place called Tarazak on the southern slope of Chia Dozdan.
Here we were among friends again; they gathered round
Keram, and said, Bah, bah! ya Abbas! ya Husein! to the
story of his adventures and the still stranger novelty he had
been introducing into the unviolated paths of Luristan.
Keram, between one pipe of opium and another, gave himself
the airs of a showman. We sat round a fire of roots piled up
in our honour, and at last went to sleep with a pleasant feeling
of security, scarcely disturbed by the collapse of the tent in
the middle of the night when a horse pulled up some of
the pegs.
Next day was to be my last in Luristan, and I left the re-
mainder of my stores, some tea and sugar and a few biscuits,
with the headman of Tarazak. Even among a quite unfriendly
tribe it was always difficult to make them accept anything of
this sort after the night's lodging: hospitality is given free, and
it was never stinted. In spite of their bad reputation, I was
sorry to leave the tribesmen and their mountains. No doubt,
if they find a traveller on a pass, they will strip him and
not trouble to find out what happens afterwards: they have
an expressive way of sucking their forefinger and holding
it up to illustrate the complete destitution in which one is
left on these occasions: but in their tents they were mostly
agreeable and friendly, great lovers of a joke, and very good at
conversation: and it is pleasant now and then to go among
people who carry their lives lightly, who do not give too
much importance to this transitory world, and are not so
[57]