Gerome was in great request on these occasions, and, under the influence of some fiery raki, of which he seemed to have an unlimited stock, would have trolled out "Matoushka Volga" and weird Cossack ditties till the stars were paling, if not suppressed.

As it was, one got little enough rest, what with the heat and flies at midday, and, at the halt about 8 a.m., the shouting, hammering of tent-pegs, and braying of camels that went on till the sun was high in the heavens.
There is a so-called town or village, Jhow (situated about twenty miles east of Noundra), in a sparsely cultivated plain of the same name.

Barley and wheat are grown by means of irrigation from the Jhow river, which in the wet season is of considerable size.

I had expected to find, at Jhow, some semblance of a town or village, as the Wazir of Beila had told me that the place contained a population of four or five hundred, and it is plainly marked on all Government maps.

But I had yet to learn that a Baluch "town," or even village, of forty or fifty inhabitants often extends over a tract of country many miles in extent.