An unworthy suspicion
astonished, while Husein lingered behind to explain. When
he caught up again, we were in the most solitary depth of
wood: a late golden light was slanting through. Husein
stopped my horse by seizing the bridle, and gazed up at me
with a smile which I thought most disquieting, so apt is one
to be demoralized by imagination.
" I am tired," said Husein. " I am * tinim.' "
Tinim must be a Lurish word. I had not the vaguest idea of
what it meant. He evidently expected me to do something
about it and came nearer, repeating it. He then seized my
water-bottle and drank.
Much relieved, I offered to rest for half an hour, or suggested
that he should wait behind and get a lift from Shah Riza.
" It is not necessary," said he, quite restored. " If I had
new givas, I would walk for you over the whole earth."
" You shall get newgivas at Husainabad, and I will give them
to you as a present," said I, full of remorse over my unworthy
suspicions. With this moral stimulus, Husein strode on again,
and we reached the top of the pass in time to take all necessary
bearings before the lieutenant and his police overtook us.
The Milleh Penjeh Pass divides the Bedrei from the Mishkhas,
a large and rich tribe that owns the lands of Aftab, and usually
goes by the latter name. It grows tobacco chiefly, and is
famed for its ewes, whence, with their usual etymological
fatuity, they say the name Mishkhas (mish-ewe) is derived!
The cultivated lands do not begin for two or three hours be-
yond the pass, and we still rode through woodland, now flat
and running in glades with dry beds of the Ab»i-Baliaqin to
be crossed as they descended from our right, and ran along the
foot of Kebir Kuh, westward to join the Afiab water, and
finally make their way through defiles to Iraq under the name
of Kunjan Cham. Where die woods cleared here and there
we could look ahead and see how the long ridge of Kebir