[C] This, Then, Is The State Of Things Existing At Kelat, Not A Hundred Miles From The British Outposts; This The Enlightened Sovereign Who Has Been Made "Companion Of The Star Of India," An Order Which, Among His Own People, He Affects To Look Upon With The Greatest Contempt.

The few women I saw at Kelat were distinctly good looking, far more so than those further south.

Most of them have an Italian type of face, olive complexion, and large dark eyes, with sweeping lashes. But very few wore the hideous nose-rings so common at Beila and Sonmiani. Morality is at a discount in the capital, and prostitution common.

The Wazir sent me a bag of dates the morning of my departure, with a short note, written in English, begging that I would send him in return the best gold watch and rifle "that could be bought for gold" in London. The note ended jocosely, "Exchange is no robbery!" The old man seemed well _au fait_ with Central Asian affairs. On my mentioning the day before that I had intended entering India _via_ Cabul, he at once said, "Ah! I supposed Alikhanoff stopped you. He is very shy of strangers."

We left Kelat at 6 a.m. on the 12th of April. The camels and heavy baggage had been sent on four or five hours previously to Mangachar, the first station. Our caravan now consisted of only eight camels, which we found reduced to seven on arrival. Just before daylight a couple of panthers had appeared close to the caravan and caused a regular stampede, the beasts flying right and left.

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