After a patient hearing, and getting some plaster and simple dressing for their cuts and bruises, they went away satisfied.

So much for water as a cause of quarrel, but an instance of the other cause, woman, which had come under my notice shortly before, was more seriously characteristic.

It occurred at Shamsabad, on the border of the Aberkoh Desert, between Yezd and Shiraz.

I halted there after the long night journey across the desert, and immediately I was settled in my village quarters, the master of the house in which I lodged asked me to look at the gunshot wounds of one of his young men, and to prescribe and provide in any way I could towards healing them.

I asked if any bones were broken, saying that I could do little or nothing in such a case.