Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/234

 ��ON THE TRACK OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

��called tlr (lit. ' sharp ') that flourished here and there on the plain.

The color of the soil, as the miles rolled by, took on a some- what greenish hue, permeating the very stones that were whirled up by the galloping horses, and indicating, by their peculiar robin*s-egg tinge, that the turquoise mines were to come later on the route near Nishapur.

A halt was made at Khatunabad, five farsakhs, or about eighteen miles, from Teheran ; and after a drive of two far-

���Map to illustrate thk Routk followed bt Alexander the Great

��sakhs more over road that was rubbly, but quick of transit for both infantry and cavalry, as Alexander had, another change of horses was made at 12.15 p.m. in Sharif abad. Here we ate our hurried luncheon of eggs while the men were harnessing up. These two stations where we had halted were as simple as the natives that lounged around them, and they had little to differ- entiate them from many others on the route through Khurasan ; and yet their proud ancestors may once have listened, ' as 'twere

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