"Do not weep," said Abbas Khan. "The governor will command the people in the other villages to give you food and clothes, and will send you wheat to plant in your fields. He will surely punish the Kurds, because they have laughed at his beard, and he is a lion among men." The next day they rode across the plain to a large village. The roofs of the houses here were little above the surface of the ground. In the house where Karim spent the night the animals lived in the same room with the men, and so helped to keep it warm. He found it hard to sleep. Two lambs shut under a large basket bleated pitifully for a long time. Next some animal startled him from a doze by beginning to lick his hand. Very early in the morning the rooster in the room began to crow, and kept it up at intervals until dawn. Worst of all, he could only grumble to himself and not wring the rooster's neck, even though he was the servant of the governor. He did not dare to make trouble, because the villagers here, unlike those near the city, were not much afraid of the governor, and not at all afraid of a fight. CHAPTER XVII SHEIKH TAHAR THAT afternoon ten Kurds rode into the village. Their three leaders were gaily dressed in baggy red trousers and blue and crimson jackets. They wore broad crimson sashes, and red silk streamers floated from their turbans. All were armed with rifles and several daggers apiece, while three carried long lances as well. Abbas Khan met them at the door of the house where he was staying, and the leaders followed him inside, where they sat together on the cushions at one end, while a row of well armed Persians sat around the walls. Outside, in the yard, four Kurds stood by the horses. The Persian soldiers gathered around them, and as one Kurd could speak the Persian language a lively conversation soon began. "Our agha is very angry," said one, "and will never rest until your chief has eaten dirt before him." "Wallah!" said the Kurd, "if he wants him to eat dirt, let him catch him." "But your chief knows well that he cannot fight with the Persians," was the reply. "Because he has trapped a few sons of dogs when they were asleep does he think he can face the cannon and horsemen our agha will send against him? Wah! if he is wise he will eat a mouthful of dirt now, instead of many handfuls later. Is he stronger than was Ismail Agha?"