From Pole to Pole

s to

Tebbes and continue

du-kush mountains. The name means "slaughterer of Hindus," because Hindus who venture up among the mountains after the heat of India have every prospect of being frozen to death in the eternal snow. Large quantities of winter snow are melted in spring, and then rivers and streams pour through the valleys to collect on the plains of southern Afghanistan into a large river calle

are tied together into cigar-shaped bundles, and then a number of such bundles are bound together into a torpedo-like vessel several yards long. When laden this reed boat floats barely four inches above the

shed the vessel along by means of a long pole, for the lake though twelve miles broad is only five or six feet deep. A fresh breeze skimmed t

RNEY FROM TEHER

-54 and

plague; and just at the time the black angel of death was going about in search of victims. He took the peasant from the plough and the shepherd from his flock;

ases which from time to time sweep over mankind like devastating waves. Among these is the "Black Death," the plague which in the year 1350 carried off twenty-five millions of the people of Europe. Men thought that it was a d

remember a small house in the poor quarter of Bombay which I visited in 1902. The authorities had given orders that when any one

e their sad procession. The population of the small town seemed in danger of extermination, and at length the people fled in hundreds. An English doctor and his assistant wished to help them by means of serum injections, but the Mohammedan clergy, out of hatred of the Euro

ves. Those, therefore, who thought of the hy?nas and jackals, digged their own graves beforehand. Processions round the mosque of the town were instituted, with black flags an

re most important to exterminate all rats when an outbreak of plague occurs. The disease is terribly infectious. In a house where the angel of death descends and carries off a victim, all the inmates die one after another. Stupidly blin

in peace. If his wife threw a rug over him he groaned, for the lymph glands, which swell up in large tumours, are exceedingly painful. In a couple of days the microbes penetrate from the tumour into the blood and the unfortunate man dies of blood poisoning. The vermin under the man's clothes leave the body as s

luch

away to the desert tracts of Baluchistan, which still separated us from India. My ol

with large foot pads which strike the hard ground with a heavy tapping sound as they run. They carry their heads high and move more quic

of the nose and to its ends a thin cord is attached. By pulling this to one side or the other the dromedary may be turned in any direct

although much better order is maintained now that the country is under British administration, an escort is st

s (Plate VII.). The tale-teller has just finished a story, when two white-clad men with white turbans on their heads emerge from the darkness of the night. They tie up their dromedaries, humbly salute Sha

A BALUCHI

s a marked silence in the assembly, and Shah Sevar lo

he reply fr

er and shot h

es

sions packed i

cheese, and bread

populous town. If we are discovered too early the fight may be hot. We must steal thr

fire for a while and then asks, "

es

dromedaries f

es

in the light of the fire. They consider petty thieving a base occupation, but raiding and pil

, flint, steel, and tinder. Daggers are thrust into belts, and the men mount without examining the saddle-girths and bridles, for all has been carefully made ready

s been spoken during the night, but when the first seventy miles have been traversed the chief says, "We will rest a while at the Spring of White Water." On arriving at the spring they refill their water-skins

third night the dromedaries begin to breathe more heavily, and when the sun rises flecks of white froth hang from their trembling l

not even a stray raven or vulture which might warn the people in Bam of their danger. Without rest the robber band pushes on all day, as silent as the desert, the only sounds being the long-drawn breath

the saddle, and tie the end of the cord round the dromedaries' forelegs to prevent the animals from getting up and making a noise and thus spoiling the plan. All are tired out and stretch themselves on the ground. Some sleep, o

from the east, he would be obliged to make a detour in order not to rouse the dogs of the town. It is now nine o'clock and in an hour the people of Bam will be

so as to make the loads lighter

r that is left, for we may not be able to fi

weapons ready." They mount again

l quicken my pace and you must follow. You th

rizon. Now only three miles remain, and their sight, sharpened by an outdoor life, distinguishes the gardens of Bam. They dr

heard as the inhabitants are wakened; and women and wailing children escape towards the hill. The time is too short for any organised defence. There is no one to take the command. The unfortunate inhabitants run over one another like scared chickens and the riders are upon them. Shah Sevar sits erect on his dromedary and leads the assaul

aves?" roars

s answered from s

k!" The chieftain's practised eye has detected a party of armed men coming up. Three shots are heard in the darkness, and Shah Sevar falls backwards out of the saddle, while his dromedary starts and flies off into the desert. The rider's left

es and goods are captured, but the rest of the party, twelve riders with ten baggage camels, have vanished in the darkness, pursued by some inf

o see if they are pursued. They rest for the first time at the salt spring, posting a look-out on an adjacent mound. They eat and drink without losing a minute, and get ready for the rest of the ride. The captives are paralysed with fright; the young women are half choked with weeping, and a little lad in a tattered shirt

tated Khorasan in the north-east. On the eastern frontier it is the Kurds who are the robbers. In thi

rpi

tegrated by alternate heat and cold-such is the country where a few nomads wander about with their flocks, and the stranger often wonders how the animals find a living. In certain valleys, however, there i

arly up to 105-1/2° in the shade, and to ride full in the face of the sun is like thrusting one's head into a blazing furnace. When there is a wind we are all right, and the sand whirls like yellow ghosts over the heated ground. But when the air is calm the outlines of

omedaries disappear beneath them. You long for sunset, when the shadows lengthen out and the worst of the he

l, others six inches long. Some are dark-brown, others reddish, and others again straw-yellow, as in Baluchistan. The body consists of a head and thorax without joints, and a hinder part of se

, on walls, and as they like warmth they often ent

k or defence. When he meets with a desirable victim, such as a large spider, he darts quickly forward, seizes it with his claws, which are like those of crabs, raises it above his hea

day, but are light-coloured and soft. They crawl about their mother's back and legs and do not

dying in great agony twelve hours after being stung. Others get cramp, fever, and pains before

servants, and they told me that it was difficult to find out where the scorpion had stung them, for their bodies sweated and burned equally intensely all over. In Eastern Turkestan it

In

ave of my Baluchi servants, stepped into a train, and was carried past the garrison town of Quetta south-eastwards to the Indus. Here we find that one branch of the railway follows the river closely on its we

IA, SHOWING RIVERS

white, as in European carriage windows, but dark blue or green, otherwise the reflexion of the sunlight from the ground would be too dazzling. On either side two windows have, instead of glass, a lattice of root fibres which are kept wet automatically night and day.

re flow the three large rivers of India, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Bramaputra. The last mentioned waters the plains of Assam at the eastern angle of the triangle. On the banks of the Ganges stands a swarm

Tibet, and the Himalayas are set like an immense jewel between the glistening silver threads of the two rivers. On the west the Indus cuts through a va

st of them is called the Sutlej, and the lowlands through which it flows are called the Punjab, a Persian word signifying "five waters." Th

built ships and reached Pattala, where the arms of the delta diverge. He found the town deserted, for the inhabitants had fled inland, so he sent light

his sword he had severed the Gordian knot, a token of supremacy over Asia? At Issus, on the rectangular bay facing Cyprus, he had inflicted a crushing defeat on the great King of Persia, Darius Codomannus, who with the united forces of his kingdom had come to meet him. At Damascus he captured all the Persian war funds, and afterwards took the famous commerc

s lords and "shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty." Then he advanced to Persepolis and set on fire the palace of the Great King to show that the old empire had passed away. Pursuing Darius through Ispahan and Hamadan, he afterwards turned

in conjunction with the native princes and satraps.[10] The great empire must be knit together into a solid unity, and Babylon was to be its capital. Only in the wes

sels of the period the enterprise was a most dangerous one, as absolutely nothing was known about the coast to be followed. But it was necessary, for Alexander wished to secure for himself the command of the sea route between the mouths of the Euphrates and Indus, so as to connect the western and eastern parts of his kingdom. It was to supply the fleet with provisions and water that he chose for himself the dangerous desert route along the coast.

ocean. Accordingly he sailed down the western arm of the Indus with the swiftest vessels of the fleet-thirty-oared boats, and small triremes, or vessels whereon the 150 naked oarsmen sat

continued his voyage. The river became wider and wider, and the fresh salt breeze from the ocean became ever more perceptible; but the wind increased, for the south-west monsoon was at its height. The grey turbid water rose in higher billows and made rowing difficult, for the oars either did not touch the water or dipped too deeply into it. It was the flood tide running up from the sea which impeded their progress, but the ebb and flow of the

hanges the colour of the river water. The collision of the Indus current with the rising tide fills the fairway with whirlpools and eddies, which are exceedingly da

t an island where shelter could be obtained by the shore and where fresh water was abundant. From here the foaming, roaring

The trial proved successful, and another island was found, begirt on all sides by open sea. The ships then returned in the dusk to the larger isla

remes, he offered sacrifices to Poseidon, the god of the sea, to the Nereids, and to the silver-footed sea-goddess Thetis, the mother of Achilles, father of his race. And he besought the favour of all the gods in

aign spread Greek enlightenment over all western Asia, and his eventful life d

ir an

alf hour, for as long as the pair are on the way they go at full speed. The road was excellent, and we left the hot suffocating steam of India below us as we ascended along the bank of the Jhelum River. Sometimes we das

INAGAR AND THE

I.). The houses on their banks rise up directly from the water, and long, narrow, graceful boats pass to and

d with ivory, mother-of-pearl, and ebony; beautifully chased weapons; tankards, bowls, and vases of beaten silver with panthers and elephants on the sides, chasing one another through the jungle.

f these valleys toiled our caravan of thirty-six mules and a hundred horses, and after a journey of some 250 miles to the eastward we ar

ove the town is crowned by the old royal castle. Leh, as well as the whole of the district of Ladak, is s

TNO

inally a governor of a p