'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎285] (326/714)

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FROM 3IESIIED TO TEHERAN
AccoKlingly, they announced that the hour for repose had arrived
and bowed themselves out. For mv nart T do +i i t '
a capital leg of mutton for dinner. ' S ' eep 8,11 Ilacl
and T^he™ ^huf ^ m0re ( tha , U the Stage between
and teheian, hut rt serves to d m de the journey into two portions
Second 0 w 1 18 difficult to determine which is the less
RST f raCt '. Ve - f There « » curious identity between their
tinn respective^ features; for, just as the Meshed-Shahrud sec-
o thfTshahri^T I'*' 68 ^ T™' NishapUr and Seb2e ™-.
so the Shahiud-Teheran section displays Damghan and Semuan ■
and just as the only structures worthy of observation in the first
section are the minarets and towers of Sebzewar and Bostam so
n the second, we must be content with the analogous monuments
fZtT S T an - Finally ' t0 the parallel^
just as the first section terminates after threading the famous
urkoman passes, so does the second conduct us, on the penulti-
ate days journey, through the even more famous Caspian Gates
that lead into the Plain, of Veramin. Stones, sand, Lw and
' xeorable horses are the common prerogatives of both.
t was on one of the worst of these brutes that, over a track
scarcely less atrocious, I pursued my way to Deh Mullah (' the Village
IWed of the Priest') The chapa is on the outskirts of
the village, which lies a little farther in the plain, and is
emmkab e only for a huge mound of clay, once crowned by a
ortadel, whose riven and crumbling walls stand up in melancholy
The ride from Deh Mullah to Damghan is over rather better
ground but is unutterably tedious. On my right hand was the
like^a wall of f 16 Elbur2 ' ^ sheer from the plain, and,
like a wall of brass, shutting off the defiles and gorges of that
mighty range ; and behind them, again, the steamy lowlands of
. .audeian, sloping to the Caspian. On the left, or south, whereas
on most maps I see marked a salt desert, or kavir, my own notes
Wded t 0 ^ the ^ ^Vioumey, the horizon !
on that side, at an average distance of about ten miles by
o 8 T S f ^ to — ^ -osl
maps although I cannot find any trace of them upon the maior-
' 7 0 tliat 1 liave studied. The road to Damghan passed
severa vi lages, one of which, Mehmandost, was evidently a favourite
mg-p ace for travellers, as there were crowds of wayfarers and
lorsemen m the single street. About three miles from Damghan
■1
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