Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/46

 should have the honour and profit of lodging us, and the quarrel at one moment became so violent that the gholam and I were forced to make a demonstration with our whips, in order to save the party from being torn to pieces by our would-be entertainers. Finally we decided to camp for the night in a small room burrowed out of a kind of mud platform or terrace, up which we clambered by some exceedingly defective steps; and as we curled ourselves up in our blankets for the night and listened to the wind raging pitilessly outside, we congratulated ourselves on having found, if not a comfortable, at any rate a safe and secure refuge from the storm.

On getting up the next morning, Sunday, March 16, we found it still blowing, but the violence of the wind, which was unpleasantly biting, seemed to have moderated. Our preparations took longer than usual, as our room was full of fine sand which had blown into it during the night, and had thickly powdered our clothes, saddles, blankets, &c. At eight o'clock we mounted, and proceeded in single file over a sandy and desert plain at a foot's