'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎69] (100/582)

BY THE PASS OF THE ARCH.
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numbered, they were probably the bodies of individuals who had
been just able to pay the lowest price of admission into this sacred
ground, and would be laid there without inscriptive stones, or
other funeral monument; for it could scarcely happen, from the
way in which they were lying about, that they should not be
mixed and confounded one with another.
The presence of these dead bodies in the khan made no im
pression on the living who were there, as the mule-drivers
stretched themselves along by the side of them at night, with an
indifference that argued their being long familiarized with such
cargoes. This was a scene which I could imagine to have been
frequent enough in ancient Egypt, where all the population, who
could afford it, were embalmed in state, and others, at the charge
of the nation, their mummies being transported from place to place,
according to their peculiar temple of worship, or their favourite
place of burial.
On enquiry of some of the muleteers, who had come up from
Mendeli to this place with salt, we learnt that it was five days'
journey from hence, in nearly a southern direction, and that
there was a river flowing down by it from the northward.
Sept . 13. We quitted the khan of Kerrund at sun-rise, and
going south-east through the plain before it, we came, in half an
hour, to a well, with a deep spring of fine water, called in Koord-
ish, Ain-Chermook, or the White Fountain. We met here some
female peasants, who drew water for our horses with great readi
ness ; and as no males of their tribe were near, they laughed and
jested with great freedom. None of them were veiled, and few,
indeed, had their bodies completely covered. Among them were
some fine forms, but their features were coarse, and their com
plexions browned by the sun; though their long tresses of black
glossy hair, and brilliant eyes of the deepest jet, gave an ex
pression of great vivacity to their whole appearance. The village
in which they lived was at the foot of the southern hill, and was