Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/266

 140 THROUGH PLACES PASSED ON ALEXANDER'S ROUTE

tract around Dah Namak, and certainly as far as Lasgird. Of this fact I became positive after my second and third journey over the route,^ especially after traversing certain portions of the road by night, as Alexander did, and at the time of the new moon in June, that being the month in which he made the march. But on the occasion of my second journey the ' road ' was regarded as unsafe because of robbers, so two mounted guards were procured, who served also as guides at points where our driver was not quite sure of his way. They per- formed an additional service, because I wished to make the stage on horseback, and accordingly asked one of them to give me his horse, which he gladly did in exchange for my seat in the wagon.

The crescent moon was no longer in view, but the sky was clear, and the trail was plainly visible, for the stars were shining brightly. Polaris, from its northern station, silently signaled which way we were to turn our course toward the east, Corona Borealis hung its crystal diadem aloft as it did over the head of Alexander in token of victory, whilst barbed Sagitta still pointed ominously downward at the heart of the ill-fated Darius. And so we pushed slowly forward until night melted into the blazing flame of dawn and we found ourselves at Dah

The meaning of the name Dah Namah is ' Salt Village,' cor- responding to its Arabic title Kasr al-Milh^ *Salt Castle,' in the Oriental geographers of a millennium ago, and it well de- serves its appellation. 3 It is a wretched hamlet, like many an- other on the fringe of the great salt desert of the Kavir, and it

1 For fuller details, supplemented » The designation Kasr al-Milh is by the memoranda of other travelers found in the Arab-Persian geographers likewise, see my promised monograph Ibn Kustah (p. 169), Ibn Khurdadh- on the Caspian Gates. bah (p. 22), Kudamah (p. 201), Ista^

2 The time occupied in each journey khri (p. 201), Mukaddasi (p. 371), between Teheran and Dah Namak was and Mustaufi (p. 129) — all edited by less than twenty-four hours, without De Goeje, Bihl. Geog. Arab. ; see Le any extended stops. Strange, Eastern Caliphate, p. 367.

�� �