92 ALONG THE HIGHWAY TO THE SHAH'S CAPITAL
let in the day, and the sun burst in splendor over the mountains of Alburz, flooding the valleys with gold, and silvering the broad stream of the Safid Rud, as it rolled in winding current toward the Caspian.
A few hours more, and we were far on our way, amid the olive trees of Rudbar. A troop of camels, I remember, had got into hopeless confusion at a bend in the road. If there is any- thing that can be unruly and exasperating it is the camel —
- the Gawd-forsaken oont ! — the hairy scary oont ! ' — who
- blocked the 'ole division from the rear-guard to the front.' ^
The caravan-leader and his fellows were making frantic efforts to bring the train of ungainly beasts into order again. Shouts, cries, yells, whacks, kicks, punches, and strange language, understanded of camels, filled the air. Shutrhd padar-i man dar dvurdand ; shutrhd padar-i man suzdndand! — yelled the leader in furious rage. ' What is that ? ' I asked, for I did not catch all the words that came with a volubility that could be produced only by a congestion of oaths. * Those camels have dug up his dead father and are burning him ! ' replied the guide. As ' son of a burned father ' is one of the worst curses in Persian, it was not difficult to imagine from what sulfurous place these particular camels were supposed to have gotten their brimstone. To say the least, there is a pigturesqueness in Persian profanity.
The noble scenery as we climbed slowly skyward over the rocky heights of the Kharzan Pass^ made us forget the dizzy altitude and the precipitous mass of rocks over whose ledge many a pack-animal with its driver has fallen to destruction. As the journey proceeded, halt after halt was made for change of horses at the different stations, one much like the other, with lazy idlers, beggars, dogs, and chickens, all equally in evidence as we drew up at the mud hut adjoining the stables. The most comfortable, or rather least uncomfortable, post-house on the first half of the journey is the well built ehdpdr-Jchdnah of 1 Cf. Kipling, Barrack Boom Ballads. ^ See Jackson, Persia^ pp. 444-445.
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