Continuation of the Desert.
We now commenced our march in the desert westward of the Moorghab river, and made a progress of thirty-seven miles. The tract was entirely different from the opposite side, and about the middle of the journey the desert changed into a level, hard, flat surface, which it ever afterwards preserved. The camels moved up in four strings abreast of each other, and we continued to advance in that order. The tract put me much in mind of the Run of Cutch, though there were patches of bushes, which are not to be seen in that most singular region.[4] The country was destitute of water, but there were many remains of caravansarais and cisterns that had been built by the philanthropic Abdulla Khan of Bokhara. Whirlwinds. In this neighbourhood, and more particularly while on the banks of the river, we witnessed a constant succession of whirlwinds, that raised the dust to a great height, and moved over the plain like water-spouts at sea. In India these phenomena are familiarly known by the name of devils, where they sometimes unroof a house; but I had not seen them in that country either of such size or frequency as now prevailed in the Toorkmun desert. They appeared to rise from gusts of wind, for the air itself was not disturbed but by the usual north wind that blows steadily in this desert.
The highlands of Persia.
As we halted in the morning of the 1st of September, at a ruin which bore the name of Kalournee, we descried the hills of Persian Khorasan. In the direction where they rose I had observed the atmosphere to be clouded since we reached the banks of the Moorghab, and we might have perhaps seen them sooner, though they still appeared in the haze of distance. Mirage. As we discovered these mountains at sunrise, a magnificent mirage shone in the same direction. One could trace a river, and its steep and opposite banks; but, as the sun ascended, the appearance vanished, and left the same flat and cheerless country in which we were now encamped. The high banks of the river had no existence, and the water was but vapour set in the rays of light.
Plants of the desert.
As we approached Shurukhs, we could distinguish a gradual, though almost imperceptible rise in the country. We exchanged the shrubs that I have before described, for the tamarisk and the camel’s thorn, which does not grow in the desert. The most singular of the plants which a new zone presented to us, was one called “gyk chenak” in the Toorkee language, which literally means, the deer’s cup. It grows like hemlock or assafœtida (and has as bad a smell), only that a leaf, shaped precisely like a cup, surrounds each knot or division of the plant’s stalk. In this natural bowl the rains of spring are collected, and supply the deer with water. Such is the popular belief, and such is the name. We afterwards saw a plant not unlike the deer’s cup among the hills eastward of Meshid. A gum, like tallow, exuded from it, and it shot up as an annual among the high lands.
Allamans.
We had been treading in our last marches on the very ground which had been disturbed by the hoofs of the Toorkmuns who were advancing on Persia. It was with no small delight that we at last lost our traces of the formidable band, which we could discover had branched off the high road towards Meshid. Had we encountered them, a second negotiation would have been necessary, and the demands of robbers might not have been easily satisfied. “Allamans” seldom attack a caravan, but still there are authenticated instances of their having murdered a whole party in the very road we were travelling. Men with arms in their hands, and in power, are not to be restrained. After losing all traces of this band, we came suddenly upon a small party of Allamans, seven in number, who were returning from an unsuccessful expedition. Meet an unsuccessful party. They were young men, well mounted and caparisoned, in the Toorkmun manner; a lance and a sword formed their arms; they had no bows, and but one led horse. Their party had been discomfited, and four of them had fallen into the hands of the Persians. They told us of their disasters, and asked for bread, which some of our party gave them. I wish that all their expeditions would terminate like this.
Arrival at Shurukhs.