'Report on Sistan and the Country Between It and Mashad' [‎10r] (24/118)

7
had the Amin-es-Sultan's letter read out and warned him he was taking a
risk.
The villagers said they would obey the orders of the Amir, and would
not let me pass.
I then ordered the gholam to accompany me to Sistan, and he at once
dispersed the villagers and had the necessary supplies sent on to Bandun,
miles further, at the mouth of a defile, where I was obliged to halt owing to
the rain and mud.
At Birjand I had heard that Ali Akbar Khan was at Tabas. He is
married to a daughter of the hereditary chief of Tabas, the Amad-ul-Mulk,
who is said to be a wealthy and influential prince, and he no doubt finds it a
pleasanter place to live in than Sistan.
This incident rather tended to corroborate the impression I had received
at Birjand that, in the absence of his brother, the Amir of Kaim would be
found all-powerful in Sistan.
Next morning we left Bandun in a thick Scotch mist. It had been
raining for two days, but as the country is a slightly undulating gravel plain,
the road was not in bad order up to within a few hundred yards of Barang,
the next halting-place. This name implies the edge of the hamun. There
is no village here, only some clumps of tamarisk raised a few feet above the
level of the surrounding country. On the left is the mud basin of the lake,
the water of which at this time appeared to be a mile away. The camping
ground is bounded by a curved gravel beach only 4 feet above the mud.
When the hamun is in flood, this becomes an island, and the floods
extend far away southward. To the north the limit of the hamun is clearly
defined by a low grey cliff, and to the west by high ground and clay mounds.
From here we commenced a distressing march next day through deep
mud. The sun came out, and the pestilential stench gave one an idea of
what this place must be like in summer after the floods caused by the melting
snows of Afghanistan and the spring rains of Sistan are beginning to dry.
On account of the recent rain, it was impossible to distinguish where
the water of the actual hamun ended ; but on the left of the road water and
reeds alternated. To the south is a low flat-topped hill, the celebrated Kuh-
i-Khwaja, about 400 feet high, planted on the edge of the reed-bed and
completely commanding the entrance to Sistan. The reeds, over 10 feet
high, form an almost impassable barrier to anything but an elephant.
The road is merely a clearing through the reeds, deeply furrowed with
ruts.
Twenty miles of road from Barang to near Afzalabad lie through reeds
and bare mud liable to be flooded.
Such floods do not occur every year; once in three years seems to be
about the average.
From Afzalabad we wandered over a dreary-looking waste of lumpy
ground covered with a low tamarisk scrub, and soon came in sight of Kasir-
abad. It presents quite an imposing appearance amongst the few miserably-
built villages round about, with its tidy-looking wall and regular bastions.
On arrival 1 was received outside the fort by an “ istikbal v of 10-file of
ragged infantry and a few gunners, who conducted me in great state to $
walled garden 500 yards north of the fort, where I pitched my camp.