Perhaps Monsieur Prevot Had Become "Persianized"; Perhaps The Dulcet Tones Of Madame P., Whose Voice, Incessantly Rating Her Servants, Reminded One Of Unoiled Machinery, And Commenced At Sunrise Only To Be Silenced (By Exhaustion) At Sunset, Disturbed Him At His Culinary Labours.

The fact remains that the _cuisine_ was, to any but a starving man, uneatable, the bedroom which madame was kind enough to assign to me, pitch dark and stuffy as a dog-kennel.

A long conference with General S - , an Austrian in the Persian service, decided my future movements. The general, one of the highest geographical authorities on Persia, strongly dissuaded my attempting to reach India _via_ Meshed and Afghanistan. "You will only be stopped and sent back," said he; "what is the use of losing time?" I resolved, therefore, after mature deliberation, to proceed direct to Ispahan, Shiraz, and Bushire, and from thence by steamer to Sonmiani, on the coast of Baluchistan. From the latter port I was to strike due north to Kelat and Quetta, and "that," added the general, "will bring you across eighty or a hundred miles of totally unexplored country. You will have had quite enough of it when you get to Kelat - if you ever _do_ get there," he added encouragingly.

The route now finally decided upon, preparations were made for a start as soon as possible. Portmanteaus were exchanged for a pair of light leather saddle-bags, artistically embellished with squares of bright Persian carpet let in at the side, and purchased in the bazaar for twenty-two kerans, or about seventeen shillings English money.

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