The unmapped country
Below, untidy as a sea with cross currents, lay the lower
tolls, vanishing into the western desert dust.
Except for the joyousness of height, the view had no
great beauty, for the distant oak trees give a spotty
look of smallpox to the whole, and take away the play
of light and shadow, and Kebir Kuh, alone in all this
region, has the true mountain structure. But when we
reached the round and stony backbone at 8,300 feet, we
looked out on a nobler view, over the unmapped country
whose even ridges ran like a shoal of swimming whales, all
in the same direction, through waves of woods in shadow that
sloped to the valley below. Steep clefts descended and no
habitation was visible. But Shah Riza, looking out with
eyes narrowed with excitement over his own land, said that
down in the main valley was a mill, where we could spend
the night, and reach his people (and the region of the treasure)
next day.
The tribes come every spring to pasture along this great
ridge of Kebir Kuh. It is then deep in grass; the arjine
bushes and stunted thorn and keikum trees give fuel; and
there is water a short way down the slope. They pitch their
tents and spend a month or two in the mountain air; and it
is a mistake to think that they do not know the beauty of their
landscapes and the delight of high places, for the mere mention
of the Great Mountain to any coolie in Baghdad will light
his eyes with pleasure.
Alidad was not of the mountain people, and when I
suggested lunch at the highest point, his feelings were out-
raged. A Persian guide does not look on his employer as a
human being: he, like any other registered packet, is an object
to be delivered safe at the other end: when and how, the guide
considers his own affair. Alidad was a quarrelsome man with
strong views on the proper place for women in the general