'DIARY OF A TOUR IN THE PERSIAN GULF AND IN TURKISH ARABIA, DECEMBER, 1906 (WITH MAP)' [‎9r] (17/106)

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Water-supply.
Shiah pilgrims.
♦
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converted into a sticky slough, of mud,
making the movements of all arms prac
tically impossible.
.
On our return to the quarantine station
we found the doctor, an Italian in Turkish
Government employ, come to see us. He
talked voluble French and proved to be
only too anxious to do all he could for us.
He galvanised the lazaretto cook—who
apparently was not so near death as he
had pretended—into life again, and declar
ed that, if we found ourselves in any way
uncomfortable, he would himself come over
with his servants to look after us. So
extreme a course, however, proved to be
unnecessary, as our chef, aided by a few
tinned things we had brought with us,
managed to do us fairly well.
We were somewhat horrified to find out
that the sole water-supply of the place was
from the river. As the bank of that noble
stream was here a black and noisome bed
of slimy mud, and as, moreover, the fifteen
hundred coolies A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory. , who were in quarantine
with us, used the river edge not only for
ablutions and the washing of rags, but for
all other purposes also, the prospect was
not a pleasing one. Fortunately, however,
we had with us a Berkfeldt filter, and by
a rigorous use of this and methodical boil
ing we eliminated most of the animal
impurities, though the resulting water was
still brackish, probably owing to tidal
causes.
In the evening I conversed with some
of the pilgrims who were in quarantine.
There were several Turis from the Kur-
ram Valley, together with men from Gil-
git and Baltistan. All were loud in their
complaints regarding the systematic ex
tortion they had undergone at the hands
of the Turkish officials. Unanimously
were they of opinion that the ‘ handobast ’
of the Sultan-i-Rum compared most in
differently with that of the Sirkar. They
seem to have imbibed an appreciation of
the conditions of life under a Muham
madan sovereign which was interesting
to hear and may be beneficial in its results.
Life in the quarantine station was fairly
monotonous. There were some hundreds
of Arabs from Bahrein interned there for
the first two days, and they and their
families afforded some interesting types of
rags and dirt. For the rest, walks over
our extensive island, where Hay managed
to shoot a few snipe, the stalking of
the innumerable dogs which made
night and day hideous around us, and
the reading of a plentiful and solid
literature we had brought with us, filled