The HiMen Treasure
eastward. I gave the blue-eyed old man sixpence, and told
him to prepare more digging for our return next day, and we
joined Sa'id Ja'far and the horses and our impatient Dusan
guide at the top of the ravine.
From here we rode across country eastward over an easy but
very stony shelf of Kebir Kuh, dipping into small combes and
out again, but keeping more or less to the level of the Larti
city, at about 4,500 feet. The great wall stretched out of sight
before and behind us, as near and overwhelming as a wave
about to break on the head of an insect swimming below.
Across the open lands beneath us on our left, we could see in
its full outline the small tree-dotted range of Siah Pir, divided
by clefts into separate hills. Blue enticing distances of
Lakistan lay before us. Sa'id Ja'far, one of the pleasantest
of companions, chatted about that country and its ways.
" The women there are more cruel than our men," said he.
" Last year, while they were at war with the government,
one of them had a baby. When her husband asked to see it,
she said: * This is no time for children,' and took it by the feet
and dashed it against the rocks. Many of them use a gun
and ride like warriors with their tribes."
Sa'id Ja'far told me about Saidmarreh, which is the name of
a camp and tribe as well as of the river. It is well watered
and lies surrounded by rice-fields in a wide plain. It is more
or less a centre of government and an outpost against Lakistan,
though there are no houses other than the black nomad tents.
I asked him about the idolatrous worship of the two tribes
we were visiting, but this is a matter on which the people
feel, as Mrs. Langtry did about history in general, that bygones
had better be bygones; and probably very little is known about
it except among some of the very oldest men.
The sua sank and we were still high up on the mountain.
The Dusani guide, striding ahead, again observed that Shah
[H8]