Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-04-12

tains In search of grass, Mr..
Ernest E. Schoedsack ("Shorty'').
the photographer, had been as
signed to the Baba Ahmed, the
f1ercest tribe Of all the Bakhtiari,
under the leadership of the iron
chieftain, Haidar Khan.
With this tribe they had witnessed
the extraordinary feat OF crossing
the karun River, in which the
women and children had been sent
over on RATS made of goatskins.
These shot across on the swift dag
onal current to the opposite shore.
The immense, panic-stricken herds
of cattle even swan through the
ice-cold water, driven by the men on
a species of 6oatskin waterwings.
BY MERRIAM c. COOPER.
- OR many days the tribes had
been climbing higher and
higher thru through do,,rtg gorgeous RsI
fore dawn each day we took
the trail We marched only in the
cool hours of the morning in order
to save the cattle, camping before
noon; at night sleeping in the open
under single blankets on rocky
ground.
Restful, that rocky ground. because
poisins, lost those tissues of fiabby
fat accumulated in city Bagdad and
town Shushtar. Sweet sleep thus from
sunset through the night; then be-
fore dawn the trail again, always
eastward: always higher, sktrting
cliffs, climbing mountains, over fords,
eastward, eastward, through the
steep walled snow lane. on 10 grass.
We had been marching with these
T~R I,nV Ura
it had been one of Shorty's chief
amusements at first to spread along
the route a peculiarly inelegant ex-
preston for the Bakhtiari ladies
TO use when they drove the animals.
''Ya Ali! All" a Bakhtiari woman
near us would call as she pushed the
end of a stick with great vtgor into
the side of some reluctant beast.
knock 'em for a goal" Shorty would
answer in the same rising infection
s the tribeswoman, but using Ameri-
can words.
There would come laughter from
every side, and to our surprise any
number of women, and men and boys,
too, picked up the American slang
Seeing this, Shorty and 1 with great
susto would sing by the hour, Yes.
we have no bananas" After a few
days scarcely a half hour would
pass on the trail without our coming
on some one who could sing a. snatch
of that Broadway ditty.
And SO, one evening, damned
against this overhanging cliff, we
opened up our chorus. We stopped
listened. There, in the depths of the
Persian mountains, on this trail un-
trodden by foreigners, out of the
blackness of the night, rang out
along The line several Of the voices Of
one Of the widest migratory tribes
In Persia:
Yes, we have no bananas,
We have no bananas today"
X \ x =
PAWN crept slowly down the noun
- tainside; then the sun rose. Snow
peaks clustered about US. We were
near the summit. In both directions
the trail was swarming with a con-
tinuous stream of tribespeople. On
the safest of three parallel trails
were climbing the horses and cows,
men and women. On the lower, pre-
carious and slanting, jumped the
sure-footed goats and sheep, while
the boys and girls who drove them
seemingly chung by their toenails.
Thousands of feet of straight drop
lay below.
For the thirteenth camp of the
=
Shimbar, the gathering place of the
tribes, and the tribes were indeed
gathering. Down the steep hillsides
of the Shimbar Valley at night camp
fires CLEANED almost as thickly as
the stars. Here all the tribes were
to come together; the animals were
rested for the attack on the second
mountain range; the khans settled
tribal disputes or started new ones;
horse stealing and gun stealing; the
women danced. It reminded me of
nothing so much as a division pulled
out of the first line for a breathing
spell before being showed back in for
a big push. There was laughter and
there was fighting, and spirits mount
ed high.
On our second morning here some
OF the younger men went down to the
stream that flowed with a rush
through the marsh below. AS they
flashed by on their goatskin floats,
hardening the young horses for swim
ming in the icy water, they called to
me with merry shouts. 1 Joined them,
stripped, and plunged in.
Young Amir Hosain Khan had long
challenged me, and We swan a race.
The luck was in my favor. Five of
his companions joined our second
contest once more fortune Favored
me, though l am by no standards a
fast swimmer. Only L had to bless
the glorious Rye day when D. P. Ga
fish in the water) taught me the
stroke that now enabled me to beat
far stronger swimmers than I.
Now, apparently, Haidar had been
watching this performance; so when
I emerged from the last race 1 found
him naked except for a loin- cloth.
He had come down to uphold the
honor of the tribe.
X X X
THE current swept torrent-like
l. along. We plunged in neck and neck;
neck and neck we fought through a
narrow passage, around a curve.
Then this man, my elder by many
years, out-endured me; he drew away
and left me gurgling in his wake.
AS 1 came painting out I cursed
cigars, silly days with silly books in
houses, gasoline laden air. When I'm
his age, they'll probably be pushing
me about in a wheeled chair. l was
reared in civilization; Haidar, as men
were meant to live, in the open. After