"عبر بلاد فارس على سرج ركوب جانبي" [‎١‎٠‎٦] (٣٦٠/١٣٧)

106 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
at dusk, coming round the city walls, to get the same
answer from their deceivers!
At night, sitting on the terraces in the moonlight, we
could almost give credence to this tale, as we heard the
doleful howls of the packs of jackals, calling one another to
their meeting-place. One used to sing a sort of scale at
irregular intervals, rising higher and higher until he reached
a note beyond which his voice would not go. Again and
again he would try to manage this note, invariably ' break
ing' on it in the most comical way, until answered by the
yelps of his friends, and off the whole pack would go in a
great hurry, their cries, as they receded, sounding exactly
like weeping children, till in the distance the notes became
wails of despair.
I had many nocturnal visits from jackals, owing to the
carelessness of our guard, who seldom could manage to
close all three approaches to our terraces. The first time
I was startled, when I was awakened by something prowl
ing round my room, making a loud breathing noise, and
in the moonlight saw the rough coat and bushy tail of
a jackal. However, I soon got used to such harmless,
visitors, which disappeared like phantoms at the least
sound, and never returned during that night at least.
The Persians have various proverbs about these animals,
one of which is: " The jackal dipped himself in blue dye
and thought he was the peacock " ; and another says, " Only
a Mazanderan dog can catch a Mazanderan jackal," the
equivalent of our " Set a thief," etc.
The sandflies were a great pest, causing an intense
irritation on arms, wrists, and ankles. These tiny insects
are almost invisible, consisting of a pair of minute shadowy
wings, and no body to speak of, while, alas, no ordinary