'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.' [‎72] (103/582)

72
FROM SERPOOL, ACROSS MOUNT ZAGROS,
by lofty hills with ragged summits on the one side, and by
gentler and more rounded ones on the other.
It was studded with villages in every direction, not less than
twenty of which presented themselves successively to our view;
some on little eminences in the plain itself, and others peeping
out from nooks and valleys in the sides of the hills, which opened
but for a moment on our sight, and then closed again as we passed
along. These villages were formed of well-built houses, many of
them containing apparently two hundred separate dwellings; and
besides these was a still greater number of grass and reed huts
scattered in clusters over the face of the plain. The soil was
watered by a clear stream, at the source of which we drank. It
issued from the foot of the hill, from the brow of which the
view first opened on us, and only a few paces to the left of our
road. It is called the " Water of Mahee-Dusht," and is said to
lose itself in that plain, extending its fertilizing influence no
further.
The land was divided into apparently equal portions of arable
and pasture; the corn grown on it is praised for its excellence, and
the virtues of its grass are particularly celebrated. The popular
opinion is, that even barren animals brought from other parts will
there become fruitful; and it is said that every species of cattle
bred on this plain, and continuing constantly to graze there, will
bring forth its young, invariably, every year, from whence its ex
pressive name. Others, however, give this epithet a different
interpretation, and say that it signifies " the yearly-purchase-giv-
ing-plain, meaning, that whosoever may buy a portion of the soil
there, or place animals of any given worth to graze upon it, will
every year reap the amount of his purchase in actual profit on
them ; or in other words, make a profit of cent, per cent, per
annum. A long dispute was maintained on this subject, even in
our small party, which was at last amicably terminated by the
general admission that such a name was chiefly meant to indicate