"عبر بلاد فارس على سرج ركوب جانبي" [‎١‎٣‎٠] (٣٦٠/١٦١)

4
THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
When we left Ismailabad next day we found a large
crowd of Parsee women assembled to speed us on our
way, and to avert the evil eye from our path. Their
manner of compassing this latter was somewhat novel to
me. On a large brass tray a mirror and some burning
scented herb had been placed, and as we were about to
mount, one of the women advanced and held a tray
towards us, thus securing us from all danger on our
journey.
We were now over a thousand feet higher than Kerman,
and felt our spirits rise at having left the heat behind us;
but when we reached the small courtyard where we were
to pass the night, I was surprised not to see ' Di,' who had
preceded us with the caravan, rushing out to greet me,
and on hurrying inside to discover what could be the
matter I found her lying strangely stiff and still in a
corner, and the sad truth flashed upon me that she must
be dead, all our efforts to revive her being in vain. The
servants declared that she had been carried the whole way,
and had been fed, but that directly on arrival she lay
down, apparently very tired, and, to their surprise, died.
I felt bitterly that if we had reached our destination even
half an hour earlier my poor dog's life might have been
saved. We fancied that she might have been stung by
a snake, but whatever it was, I lost a most faithful and
loving companion, and it took me many a long day to get
over her death.
We had now left the fine Jupar Range behind us, and
were making our way towards the snowy Lalazar
Mountains, while to our left the pyramid of Kuh-i-Hazar
was the great feature of the landscape, as it sprang up to
the imposing height of 14,000 feet. We had exchanged