ملاحظات أُعدت كمرجع خلال جولة كرزون في الخليج الفارسي، وأوراق أخرى عن بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي [و‎‎١‎٨‎٨] (٦٧٨/٣٧٥)

30
tu
Geo.—Sykes—Second Revise.
On an adjacent cliff were the ruins of a fine old stone fort, hut
there were no traditions except that Aza Mahan, the founder of Mahan,
or Mahun, had built a village in the district, which had sent a levy of
seven warriors mounted on bulls to aid Yezdijird, the last monarch
of the house of Sassau. Close by were other tombs, in which the
corpses had not quite become dust, and which contained jars of a
different shape and fragments of iron, probably arrow-heads, so that
Khinaman is rich indeed in antiquities.
In November the drum of departure was again beaten, and by the
end of the month Jiruft was reached, which I thoroughly explored
while waiting for Lieut. Crookshank, r.e. I discovered several other
ruined cities besides Marco Polo’s Camadi, all of which had apparently
been destroyed by floods. In fact, so dense had the population been
that for miles a line of towns and villages had existed which almost
touched one another.
At Bagh-i-Babu, a few miles south of Camadi, an alabaster vase was
dug up that is considered by the British Museum to be an ungent vase of
Greek manufacture dating from the fourth century b.c. This discovery
is, I would urge, of the greatest importance, as Edrisi mentions the city
of Hormuz-ul-Malik—it was a ruin in his day—as having been the
capital of the province before Svijan, so here at last we may locate the
“ Karmana Omnium mater ” of Ammianus Marcellinus, and it was surely
here that Alexander the Great was resting when he received the welcome
visit of way-worn Nearchos.
When joined by Lieut. Crookshank, we slowly marched towards
Gulashkird,* which was certainly on Marco’s route, and then swung
west to explore another Kuh-i-Shah, which has the same legends as
its namesake near Kerman. At Dolatabad, in Urzu, the objects of my
tour having been accomplished, I sent back my Persian secretary to
Kerman, and marched rapidly down to Bandar Abbas. A good deal of
rain had fallen, and there was doubt as to whether the famous or
infamous defile known as Tang-i-Zindan, or “Prison Defile,” would not
be closed. For some 20 miles the track runs up and down river-beds,
and many caravans have been swept away by irresistible floods.
Fortune, however, smiled on us, as we were in the tang a day after
a spate, and safely emerged on to the plain, quaintly termed Formosa
by Marco Polo. The contrast between the population of this coast
strip and that of the highlands was most noticeable, and the surveyor
said that, but for the palm groves, everything reminded him of the
Panjab, from the creaking water-wheels to the dress or undress of
the peasantry.
At Bandar Abbas I stayed with Captain Hunt, who had been
commissioned to found a vice consulate, and two days later I started
for South Africa. At Karachi a coolie ship was just starting for
Mombasa, and by great good fortune I caught a Mauritius steamer
at the lovely Seychelles, where I enjoyed the hospitality of Mr.
Harold Baty. At Mauritius Mr. Ireland entertained me, and early
in March I finally reached South Africa. There I twice crossed the
Karroo f and imagined myself back in Persia, while the ruins in
Rhodesia struck me as akiil to the gorbasta of Baluchistan, which,
indeed, is not at all impossible.
To conclude, until wounded I had the great honour of serving in
command of Welsh Yeomanry under Lord Methuen, who is as much
admired by his division as he is feared by the stubborn Boers.
* Edrisi gives Kanat-ul-Sham, Maun, and Walasgird as the three stages. Maun
is Moghun, and Walasgird is Gulashkird.
t Rudyard Kipling’s lines apply to Persia just as well as to the Karro. They run:
“ Royal /