rchy.")

Major P. Molesworth Sykes, _Recent Journeys in Persia_ (_Geog. Journal_,
X. 1897, p. 589), says: "Upon arrival in Rudbar, we turned north wards
and left the Farman Farma, in order to explore the site of Marco Polo's
'Camadi.'... We came upon a huge area littered with yellow bricks eight
inches square, while not even a broken wall is left to mark the site of
what was formerly a great city, under the name of the Sher-i-Jiruft."--H.
C.] The actual distance from Bamm to the City of Dakianus is, by Abbott's
Journal, about 66 miles.

The name of REOBARLES, which Marco applies to the plain intermediate
between the two descents, has given rise to many conjectures. Marsden
pointed to _Rudbar_, a name frequently applied in Persia to a district on
a river, or intersected by streams--a suggestion all the happier that he
was not aware of the fact that there is a district of RUDBAR exactly in
the required position. The last syllable still requires explanation.
I ventured formerly to suggest that it was the Arabic _Lass_, or, as Marco
would certainly have written it, _Les_, a robber. Reobarles would then be
RUDBAR-I-LASS, "Robber's River District." The appropriateness of the name
Marco has amply illustrated; and it appeared to me to survive in that of
one of the rivers of the plain, which is mentioned by both Abbott and
Smith under the title of _Rudkhanah-i-Duzdi_, or Robbery River, a name
also applied to a village and old fort on the banks of the stream. This
etymology was, however, condemned as an inadmissible combination of
Persian and Arabic by two very high authorities both as travellers and
scholars--Sir H. Rawlinson and Mr. Khanikoff. The _Les_, therefore, has
still to be explained.[1]

[Major Sykes (_Geog. Journal_, 1902, p. 130) heard of robbers, some five
miles from Minab, and he adds: "However, nothing happened, and after
crossing the Gardan-i-Pichal, we camped at Birinti, which is situated just
above the junction of Rudkhana Duzdi, or 'River of Theft,' and forms part
of the district of Rudan, in Fars."

"The Jiruft and Rudbar plains belong to the germsir (hot region), dates,
pistachios, and konars (apples of Paradise) abound in them. Reobarles is
Rudbar or Ruedbaris." (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. 1881, p. 495.)--H. C.]

We have referred to Marco's expressions regarding the great cold
experienced on the pass which formed the first descent; and it is worthy
of note that the title of "The Cold Mountains" is applied