"عبر بلاد فارس على سرج ركوب جانبي" [‎١‎٤‎٣] (٣٦٠/١٧٤)

OUR STAY IN THE HILLS
MS
We were not sorry to leave the hot, stony plain on which
Rahbur stands, and return to the hills, crossing one of the
branches of the Halil Rud River, and leading our horses
up and down some such steep places that on one occasion
I remember that ' Charters' slid right down upon me
before he could recover himself. We had now reached the
little-known region of Sardu (traversed by Marco Polo in
the thirteenth century), and that night we halted on a
grassy upland near a big nomad encampment, the women
in blue cotton jackets and shirts pleated as fully as kilts,
their heads bound up in white wraps, coming out to survey
us, accompanied by children dressed in defiance of all
hygienic principles, their only garments being a scanty
jacket open in the front, and trousers fastened below the
hips. This is the usual costume of juveniles in Persia,
and as it is unchanged during the rigours of winter, must
have a good deal to do with the great mortality among
Persian children. The men were far better clad, as
they supplemented their cotton clothes with home-woven
woollen wraps in black and red and blue and red checks,
which they draped over their shoulders in the manner of
a Highland plaid.
A light breeze was blowing, which soon after our arrival
wafted a small swarm of big cockchafers over our tents.
The whiteness of the canvas evidently attracted them, for
they descended promptly and invaded us, booming about
with long, feathery feelers, and crawling over tables and
chairs, even creeping into our bedding in a most unpleasant
way. It took a good deal of trouble to get rid of them,
and our experiences with insects were not over with this
episode, for after dinner a yellow scorpion was discovered
sitting confidingly on my brother's knee, in such a position
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