_ 83 _ It bunts the face and the legs, and there is no other solution than to place something over them so that it does not strike the flesh directly. What preserved my life was a cloth soaked in water, which protected me against this wind, and which I always wore. This wind comes down through the Gulf from off Basra; it began at midday and ceased at sunset. Item: On 13 July, when the dues had been paid and the captain given a gift of a flask of rose-water, two sugar-loaves and two turbans, we left this place and slept in a broad plain surrounded by great mountain-ranges. We slept under close guard that night and for many more after that, firing with three muskets we had with us all night on account of the many thieves in this area. On the following day we travelled along a river of salt water which flows across this region. It is said to come from an arm of the sea which comes in at this point from the Gulf. We travelled through these mountain-ranges, going upwards at times to immense heights, sometimes descending, until nightfall when we camped on a hill among these mountain-ranges under the guard already mentioned. We continued around many bends through the same mountain-range and along the same river, in various
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