نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [ظ‎‎١‎٥‎٦] (١٨١٤/٣١٥)

166
KALAT-I-N AMKI
is ut Istagshu, some eight miles up the Kalat stream from Arghawan
Shah. This, as its waters are said to be red, I take to be an iron
spring. The natives, however, aver that it is undeniably poisonous,
and, mingling with the main stream, proves the cause of the fever,
ague, and other diseases so prevalent at Kalat in the autumn. By
others the unhealthiness of Kalat in the autumn is attributed to the
moist vapours arising from the rice fields and to the consumption of
water that has been used for irrigating the rice fields. Just outside
the Barwaza-i-Arghawan Shah rises the Karazu spring, the excellent
water of which was conveyed by Nadir in pipes to Gugumaz, four
miles off. This useful work of sanitation has long been out of repair.
It is one of the most interesting traces of Nadir’s work here.
I had expected to find the interior of Kalat more fertile and 1 more
cultivated than it is. The narrow valley, extending from Arghawan
Shah to below Gugumaz, is everywhere cultivated. The cultivation
consists of rice, wheat, lucerne, vineyards, orchards, melon, and
cucumber beds, etc. The level summits and gentler slopes of the
spurs throughout the whole interior of the fortress are cultivated as
daima, 01 rain land. Barley and wheat are produced in large quan
tities. Probably there are not less than twenty square miles of this
cultivation inside Kalat. The people also cultivate and pasture their
sheep in the valleys and mountain slopes immediately adjoining
Kalat. I was surprised to see so few flocks grazing inside the fortress,
and to find the grass as a rule so scant. Still the lucerne grown in the
valley and the wheat and barley straw of the daima supplementing
the natural grass growth of the hillsides should suffice for the support
of a large number of animals. The local products of grain, rice, etc.,
would go a long way to support a garrison of 5,000 men.
Camp Outside KalAt, July 6 , 1885
1 cannot praise too highly the kindness and hospitality that I
experienced at the hands of Sartip Abdullah Khan. I was lodged in
a spacious tent, with every convenience, in the midst of his garden.
I dined with him always, but owing to its being the Bamazan fast—
during which Mohammedans of rank spend most of the day in sleep
—I breakfasted alone. He could speak a little broken French, and
as he evidently preferred talking that language, we generally’ con
versed in it. The only thing I feel disposed to find fault with is that
his cook would insist on trying to imitate European cooking. Some
of his Peisian dishes were excellent, but his cuisiuo a VAnglaisc was
not palatable. I shall always look back with much pleasure to my
short stay in Kalat-i-Nadiri.
As a matter of course, in Kalat-i-Nadiri the relics of Nadir are
many. Firstly, there is the ingenious arrangement for conducting