A ronni£bt in M.w. Lunstan
absence of the Khan, his wife ruled the house. She was a
lovely woman with a very narrow long face and arched
eyehrows—a beauty fierce and strange, but with the most
roguish smile imaginable. Her dark hair, with gleams of
henna in it, was curled in two long ringlets on each shoulder
and crowned with an immense sarband or turban of coloured
silks aslant over one eye, which gave an absurd mixture of
rakishness and dignity to her appearance. She wore an old
red velvet coat full at the waist, with tinsel edges, over a
loose cotton gown of yellow printed flowers: and she walked
like a queen. She ruled her household also like a queen,
with none of the submissiveness of Persian women in general.
She seated me beside her, tried my hat and examined as
much of my clothing as she could get at, embraced me, told
me that I was her sister, and allowed me to hold the baby in
my arms. Cousins, uncles, brothers, and brothers-in-law
meanwhile sat in a half-circle on the opposite side of the
hearth, waiting for these female amenities to end. They
had furtive, long faces, with eyes rather near together, but
strong, big-boned and healthy. They thought nothing of
the people of the plain. " We smoke no opium here," said
they, glancing at my guide, who was just lifting a piece of
lighted charcoal to his second pipe. Hajji too, who cannot
conceal that he thinks a Persian town the only synonym for
civilization, was being left in the cold as an alien. But I
am a hill woman myself, and I travelled in Luristan for
pleasure: they accepted me kindly.
When evening came, and the last mouthfuls of rice had
been scooped off the round tray before us, they brought an
enormous camp bed for me to sleep in, looted from the
Russians. My host and his beautiful wife arranged them-
selves under a quilt in a corner of the room; and four brothers
or cousins disposed themselves at my feet. As a last after-