"عبر بلاد فارس على سرج ركوب جانبي" [‎٢‎٢‎٢] (٣٦٠/٢٥٧)

beyond the shady groves of palms, lay a region of swamp
and river with jungles of rushes and tangled yellow grass.
Here we began to splash in and out of pools and shallow
streams, now nearly knee-deep in mud and water, and
now crunching the crisp, bitter salt, resembling hoar
frost as it encrusted the stalks and leaves of the low scrub.
Tortoise-shell butterflies were flitting about in great
abundance, beautiful humped cattle were slowly chewing
the cud, and swallows skimmed over the water in profusion,
looking to my unpractised eye so much like the snipe we
were in quest of that I should most certainly have loosed
off a gun at them if I had been permitted to try my hand
at this sport.
When we returned to camp the Baluchi band of the
village came to enchant our ears. It was a case of
multum in parvo, being composed of but two men, who
managed, however, to produce noise enough to half deafen
us. One man beat a drum with much vigour, and the
other performed on a long tube with a bag at its end,
bringing piercing yells, screeches, and shrieks out of his
insignificant-looking instrument. As the Persian Commis
sioner and his suite arrived about this time, the parti-coloured
band of the Assad-i-Dowleh began to discourse sweet music,
quite ignoring the rival band only a hundred yards off;
and when this latter redoubled its exertions the strain on
sensitive ears may be imagined rather than described.
Before we left Suran a fine-looking Baluch came to
visit my brother. His snowy turban and full trousers
were set off by a tunic of brilliantly striped silk—a veritable
Joseph s coat—and attended by two or three servants he
rode up on a horse, which is a sign of unusual wealth in
this country.
222 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE