Aliabad contained, I suppose, some fifty houses, all of which were occupied by Moslems of rather a fanatical type. It was surrounded on all sides by mountains and hills, and this gave it a rather shut-in feeling at times. After sunset, too, it was very chilly and damp, as there were so many gardens lying under water at that time, this being the usual method of irrigation. I wanted to make the acquaintance of the village women, so I let it be known that I should generally be in the garden during the morning, and should welcome all who came to see me. In this way I saw most of the women, but they were not very responsive on the whole. It was here, sitting in the garden one morning, that I tried to learn from them how to "tell the beads" according to the Moslem method, but I found it too intricate and difficult. I managed, however, to master one very simple method of trying the beads for good or ill fortune. This was as follows: holding the rosary before you in both hands, you separate a certain number of the beads; then, closing your eyes, you "tell" them, repeating the mystic words "Adam, Eve, Satan," until the last bead is reached. If this happens to be "Adam," the luck is sure to be of the best; if "Eve," the result is neutral, and the beads must be counted again; while "Satan" indicates the worst of fortune, and would absolutely prevent any one from undertaking any contemplated action. It was no uncommon sight to see the women counting their beads and mumbling to themselves, "Adam, Hava, Shaitan (Adam, Eve, Satan), Adam, Hava, Shaitan," before making up their minds as to whether they should drink their medicine or not. Or perhaps some patient has been advised an operation, and he is trying his beads to see whether the doctor's advice is to be taken or not. It is a strange thing that, when they very badly want to do a thing, they can generally make it come to "Adam," or else they keep on repeating the words till it does come to the lucky name, and then they are happy. When we had been in Aliabad some days the prince-governor of Yezd brought his "anderoon" to the same village. Of course there was no accommodation for them in the village, so they erected a town for themselves. It sprang up in one night, and looked in the morning as if a large company of soldiers had suddenly come along and fixed their camp. The ladies' quarters consisted of about twenty large tents, and were enclosed by a huge canvas wall, quite shutting them off from the outside world. The prince had his reception tents and others outside the wall, but quite near to it.