"عبر بلاد فارس على سرج ركوب جانبي" [‎٢‎٨‎٣] (٣٦٠/٣٢٤)

THE KARUN RIVER AND AHWAZ 283
been entirely successful in obtaining the indemnity from
the Persian Governor of Shuster; the would-be murderer
of Mr. Tanfield had been sent in chains to Tehran for
justice, and the wheat embargo had not been levied that
season. I had packed all our boxes of stores, and got
our camp equipage into apple-pie order, so that, if trans
port were forthcoming, we could be off at an hour's
notice.
But no instructions came, and after some days a
telegram arrived to say that we must prepare to stay on
at Bunder Nasseri for several weeks longer. This would
not have mattered if my brother could have regained his
health ; but as the hot days dragged wearily by, both
he and our host appeared to get worse instead of better,
and Mrs. Parry and I were at our wits' end how to pro
vide food that they could eat. Ahwaz was even worse
off than Kerman in the way of supplies. There was the
usual diet of mutton and fowl; but it was varied with no
vegetables save rice and onions. Not a potato, not even
a marrow or an egg-plant, were to be procured in Ahwaz,
and as there was no fruit of any kind, it was impossible
to cater for invalids.
We had some tins of Bovril in our stores, which by no
means abounded in luxuries, and fortunately had plenty
of condensed Swiss milk, as that and eggs were both
hard to obtain; and though the Karun River flowed
only a few yards from our doors and was swarming with
fish, no money could induce the lazy Arabs to catch what
would have been most appetising food.
By the beginning of August over three weeks had
elapsed since the return of my brother and Mr. I arry from
Shuster, and it really seemed as if both of them might