ed particularly attractive to me, with its huge trays of
delicious grapes. They were most refreshing to eat in the terrific heat
of the day. One peculiarity of the place is that most doorways of houses
are sunk--generally from one to three feet--below the level of the
street.

Between the caravanserai and the city is a sunken well with flat roof and
four ventilating shafts to keep the water cool. Further away, are seven
more buildings--probably dead-houses--and a garden. The little range
north of the city is quite low, and has in front of it a pyramidal
dune--a similar deposit to those we have already noticed to the
north-west in the morning on our march to this place, but much higher.

South of the town many trees and verdant gardens are visible, and to the
West the immense stretch of flat--some sixty miles of it that we had
travelled over from Isfahan.

For want of a better amusement I sat on the roof to watch the sunset,
while Sadek cooked my dinner. The nearer hills, of a bright cobalt blue,
faded into a light grey in the distance, the sky shone in a warm cadmium
yellow, and beneath stretched the plain, of a dark-brown bluish colour,
uninterrupted for miles and miles, were it not for one or two
tumbled-down huts in the immediate foreground, and a long, snake-like
track winding its way across the expanse until it lost itself in the dim
distance.

Directly below, in the courtyard of the caravanserai, four camels
squatted round a cloth on which was served straw mixed with cotton
seeds, that gave flavour to their meal. The camels slowly ground their
food, moving their lower jaws sideways from right to left, instead of up
and down as is usual in most other animals; and some of the caravan men
placidly smoked their kalians, while others packed up their bundles to
make ready for their departure as soon as the moon should rise. In
another corner of the courtyard my own caravan man groomed the mules, and
around a big flame a little further off a crowd of admiring natives gazed
open-mouthed at Sadek boiling a chicken and vegetables for my special
benefit.

We were to make a night march, as the heat of the day was too great to
travel in. At three in the morning, yawning and stretching our limbs when
we were roused by the charvadar,[5] we got on the mules and made our
departure. The cold was intense, and the wind blowing with all its might
from the west. Six miles off we passed Kamalbek, then six miles further
the large v