A PILGRIMAGE TO NEJD,

CHAPTER XII.

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Nejd horses—Their rarity—Ibn Saoud’s stud—The stables at Haïl—Some notes of individual mares—The points of a Nejd head—The tribes in the Nefûds and their horses—Meaning of the term “Nejdi”—Recipe for training

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CHAPTER XIII.

Mohammed loses his head—A ride with the Emir—The mountain fortress of Agde—Farewell to Haïl—We join the Persian Haj—Ways and manners of the pilgrims—A clergyman of Medina

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CHAPTER XIV.

We go in search of adventures—Taybetism—An hyena hunt—How to cook locusts—Hawking—The reservoirs of Zobeydeh—Tales and legends—A coup de théâtre—Mohammed composes a kasid

49

CHAPTER XV.

Muttlak Ibn Arûk and the Ketherin—Their horses—We are adopted by the tribe—The Haj again—Ambar sends round the hat—A forced march of one hundred and seventy miles—Terrible loss of camels—Nejef

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CHAPTER XVI.

The Shrines of the Shias—Bedouin honesty—Legend of the Tower of Babel—Bagdad—Our party breaks up

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OUR PERSIAN CAMPAIGN.

CHAPTER I.

New plans and new preparations—We leave Bagdad for Persia—Wild boar hunting in the Wudian—A terrible accident—We travel with a holy man—Camps of the Beni Laam—An alarm

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CHAPTER II.

We are betrayed into the hands of robbers—Ghafil and Saadun—We diplomatise—A march across “No-man’s-land”—Night terrors—We claim protection of a Persian prince

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CHAPTER III.

A prince in exile—Tea money—Rafts on the Kherka—Last words with the Beni Laam—Kerim Khan—Beautiful Persia—We arrive at Dizful

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CHAPTER IV.

Pleasures of town life—The Khani’s court—Bactiari shepherds—Shustar—Its palace, its river, and its garden—A telegraph clerk

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CHAPTER V.

Illness and misery—A Persian escort—The Shah’s Arab subjects—Ram Hormuz and its nightingales—Night marching—Deserted villages—How they collect taxes in Persia—Bebahan

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CHAPTER VI.

A last rush through the sun—We arrive at Dilam on the Persian Gulf—Politics of the Gulf—A journey “in extremis”—Bashire—The End

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APPENDICES.

Notes on the Physical Geography of Northern Arabia

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Historical Sketch of the Rise and Decline of Wahhabism in Arabia

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Memorandum on the Euphrates Valley Railway, and its Kindred Schemes of Railway Communication between The Mediterranean and the persian gulf

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Portrait of Mr. Blunt (