'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎233] (270/360)

WITH PERSO-BALUCH BOUNDARY COMMISSION 233
remarkable for their bad teeth, such a contrast to the
gleaming, pearly rows usually possessed by Orientals.
They wore the usual long black or white garments em
broidered in yellow or red cotton, and had red or black
shawls over their heads, many of them having nose-rings,
usually big turquoises set in metal. All the women and
children, save the poorest, were lavishly ornamented with
bead bracelets, necklaces and earrings, mostly of blue glass,
as this colour is considered to avert the evil eye.
It was in this valley that one of our great excitements
took place. The doctor was taking a stroll in the hills
close to the camp about sunset when a grey bear, about the
size of a small donkey, came from its haunts to have its
evening drink in the stream running through the valley.
Directly it saw the European it made towards him, and
the latter, being armed only with a hunting-crop, judged
discretion the better part of valour, and returned in haste
to camp for his rifle.
The other officers joined in the chase which ensued, but
the bears (for this one turned out to have a mate) had
got too good a start, and the pursuers only got glimpses
of them making off at a clumsy gallop which covered the
ground very quickly.
We did not lack for snakes in Baluchistan, two or three
being discovered on each camping ground and speedily
despatched, one being found in Colonel Holdich's tent.
For aught we knew these long slim creatures with speckled
backs and white bellies might have been perfectly harmless,
but naturally we could not be sure.
I remember one afternoon how, when writing in my tent,
I looked up by chance and saw a long snake glide in under
the curtain right up to me. I seized my riding-whip to