ABSTRACT
So that was the meaning of the horse-shoe which I found ! I was to be allowed to tell of my experiences during a summer in Kurdistan.
I found it in the pass, and to be quite accurate it was a mule's shoe. They say that it means luck. I thought when I found it that my luck was evident from the fact that instead of riding on a mule I had been allowed to walk along the track across the Charmaban mountains behind Pira Magrum. It was early morning. My Kurdish friends and I had plenty of time. We were returning from the small village of Sargalu, deeply secluded in its valley. Its sole link with the outside world was this mule track over the moun tain ridge. Our guides had had the sense to let us dismount and negotiate the actual pass on foot. The track was very narrow and full ofloose stones. It was best to avoid looking out over the edge of the track, and that was easier to do when you were on foot and could hug the cliff face. Riding a mule it was at once more difficult. The animal preferred the very brink; and even when you have been told that mules are extraordinarily sure on their feet
and always put their hind feet in the marks of their forefeet and similar reassuring things, nevertheless it is a little unsettling when three of the four feet are placed on stones which lie rocking on the outer edge of what you would rather not look down on.
