boars, antelopes and hares, and to jackals, wolves and foxes, wild sheep, wild goats and wild asses; and in the hills are found the three kinds of partridge known in Persia the royal partridge, the ordinary bird of that name, and the smaller kind, called teehoo. The hump- backed oxen of the country, which are small, handsome, and high-bred, are used as beasts of burden, and are guided by a halter passed through their nostrils.
This province from its situation is particularly exposed to danger and annoyance from the inroads of plundering Belooches and Bakhtiaris. The former travel immense distances across the desert, being carried by small, swift camels, on each of which two riders sit, placed back to back on a double saddle. The camels move either at an easy but rapid amble or at a trot, which pace they keep up for a surprising length of time, and if they obtain a fair start, they are not easily overtaken by horsemen. When their riders are obliged to halt and fight, they draw up the camels in the form of a ring or of a square, and, making them lie down, endeavour to keep off their enemies from passing this living rampart. A prolonged defence under these circumstances causes but little embarrassment to the Belooches, as they have all they require with them, and can, in case of necessity, provide themselves at once with food and water by slaughtering one of their camels. They are a hardy race, and so destitute in many instances of worldly substance that they do not hesitate to undertake, for the sake of plunder, a journey of thirty or forty days across the sandy desert. They are reputed to be more ferocious and more cruel than the Bakhtiari, being addicted to the custom of killing those whom
