'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎120] (155/714)

■Hk
PERSIA
at Aslikabad, and of whom it was impossible to say whether lie
was more willing or more stolid.
I will give my diary for the ensuing week according to each
day's march, as the information may conceivably be useful to a
later traveller following the same line.
October 15.—Starting at 7 a.m ., we reached Radkan (seven
miles), a largish village of 400 to 500 houses and superb
Tower of orchards, inhabited by Kaiwanlu Kurds, at 8.30. Away
Radkan I could discern Saidan (or Saidabad), a
villaere on the road to Meshed : and the curious tower, or Mil-i-
D 'J
Radkan, one of those lofty circular structures, evidently dating
from the times that succeeded the Arab conquest of Persia, but
whose exact purpose has never clearly been ascertained. Its ex
terior consists of fluted brick columns, round the summit of which,
beneath the conical roof, ran a gigantic Kufic inscription in blue
tiles. The interior originally contained three storeys, which have
fallen in and disappeared. O'Donovan, who carefully examined
the structure, 1 says it could neither have been a dwelling nor a
tomb. Why not the latter lu j does not state; and good authorities
have regarded it as the mausoleum of one of the Tartar rulers of
Khorasan, although the theory that it was designed as a watch-
tower is also worthy of consideration. Colonel Stewart conjectures
that it was intended for a hunting-tower. 2 It is a curious fact
that a somewhat similar tower is to be seen near another village,
also bearing the name of Radkan, on the road between Astrabad
and Gez ; from which we may infer that the name, which is neither
modern Persian nor Turkish, contains some reference to the object
of the building.
1 The Merv Oasis, vol. ii. pp. 22-24.
2 Proceedings of the ILG.S. (New Series), vol. iii. (1881). Colonel Stewart
also says of Radkan : ' A splendid breed of camels is met with in this district.
The Khorasan camel is celebrated for its size and strength. It has very long hair,
and bears cold and exposure far better than the ordinary Arab or Persian camel.
The best animals are a cross between the Bactrian, or two-humped, and the Arab,
or one-humped, camel. The first cross is by far the best. The load of an ordinary
Persian camel is generally 320 lbs., of an Indian camel 400 lbs., but one of the
Khorasan breed will carry 600 and even 700 lbs.' It is worth while in this context
to repeat the correction of the never sufficiently corrected error that the camel
is an animal with one hump and the dromedary with two. A dromedary is merely,
as the Greek derivation of the name implies, a fleet riding-camel, Irrespective of
hump. I think it was Palgrave who said that it stands in the same ratio to other
camels as a Rotten Row hack does to a country nag.