'Report on Sistan and the Country Between It and Mashad' [‎14r] (32/118)

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He also gave me a curious assortment of small presents, consisting of
sweetmeats, sherbet, saffron, pieces of cloth, and a Kain carpet.
During my ride back to camp I had to pass the whole length of the
caravan. At the head rode Ali Akbar Khan, and immediately behind him a
small party of mounted sowars. Then came some of his led horses. Then a
lady of the harem followed in a green palanquin with discreetly-coloured glass
windows. After her came several women in mule panniers, and then a closed
carriage drawn by a pair of cream-coloured horses. This was probably his
principal wife, the daughter of the Amad-ul-Mulk. Then followed a long
string of baggage animals.
Next morning I left Khur, travelling north-east to Kain. From there
I went along the east of the Ahingeran range to Sharaks, then down to
Tabas in Sunikhana, and gradually back to Mashad by way of Hashtadan,
where I noticed they had already begun to demolish the pillars recently erected
by General McLean.
I arrived at Mashad on the 18th of March.
CHAPTER HI.
A POLITICAL SURVEY.
Sistan is bounded on the north and north-east by a dense and marshy
Description of the country. thicket °f reeds gradually merging into the
hamun, except along the road to Lash Juwain,
and the strip on either side of it, which is generally dry.
The eastern boundary is formed by the main and most easterly arm of
the Heimund, which at the Sistan bund flows in a single bed, but spreads out
a little lower down into a network of smaller channels meandering through
a low swamp covered with thick tamarisk jungle, 10 or 12 feet high, and as
impenetrable as the Naizar. What is called the main stream is only 45 feet
wide, but is a trifle deeper than the other branches, which vary from 30 to 60
yards in breadth, and are from three to four feet deep in winter at the fords.
To the south the line drawn from the Sistan bund in the river to the
Malik Siah Kuh cuts off from Sistan a tract of about 2,000 square miles,
partly desert plateau, and partly a rich alluvial plain some 400 feet below it
which was formerly watered by the Tarakun canal.
To the west Sistan is oounded by the Palang Kuh, a rugged and water
less range of about 6,000 feet in altitude, at the base of which stretches a
gently sloping gravel plain for about 16 miles down to the flat clay.
To the north-west the limit is undefined where there are no habitations,
but along the main road Zainulabad is the frontier village.
The award of the Arbitration Committee is now practically adhered to;
Persia owns no villages to the east of the Heimund.
Tarakun is deserted by both Afghans and Persians. Possibly shet>-
herds taxed by Persia wander there, but the Afghans do not concern them
selves about this district. The north-eastern portion, the southern edge of the
Naizar in the direction of Lash Juwain, appears to be the only place where