Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/272

 144 THROUGH PLACES PASSED ON ALEXANDER'S ROUTE

marked dialect in their speech. I wondered whether the Greek interpreters, who had learned Persian, found difficulty in under- standing this local jargon, which a Persian told me was hard for him to follow.^ An architectural survival from the Parthian style of building was to be noticed in the prevalence of the barrel-vault roof in the simple houses of the townf oik, although this feature still survives also in other parts of Persia. ^ The total number of dwellings in Lasgird was quoted at five hun- dred ; 3 but as they are spread over a considerable area, they make the town look larger than it really is. The abundance of tall trees gives a pleasant impression, but the effect is spoiled by the fact that the main approach to the place is through an odoriferous graveyard.

Lasgird and its vicinity, like other parts of Khurasan, have harrowing tales to tell of the marauding Turkomans in bygone days, or of the three thousand years of warfare between Turan and Iran. When least expected these savage horsemen would dash over the mountain border and sweep down upon the Per-

1 See Spiegel, Erdnische Alter- Teheran (lithographed), 1286 a.h. = thumskunde, 1. 62-63, and compare 1869 a.d. On p. 44 he writes : ' The the references to the dialect of the city of Lasgird has many gardens and neighboring Semnan given by Geiger, nearly three hundred and fifty families, Grundr. iran. Philol. 1 . 2. 347-348, and three hundred of whom reside in the especially Khanikoff, Memoire, pp. 77- fort ; the other fifty, outside. Most of 79. See also below, p. 147. the inhabitants own property, are men

2 See article ' Architecture (Per- of business, and raise cattle ; their but- sian),' in Hastings, Encyclopcedia of ter and cheese are fine; so also are Beligion and Ethics, 1. 763, Edin- the products of their gardens and burgh, 1908. vineyards. The fort of Lasgird is

« The estimate of the number in a strongly built and is large and round, family was given to me, from several with three stories. Its door is small different sources, as five to a household and is made of a solid stone. The in Khurasan, although in older books people live in the upper stories of the I have seen ♦ eight ' given as a common fort ; below is a reservoir. Their win- reckoning. The estimate of five hun- dows open toward the desert on the dred houses for Lasgird agrees well one side and toward the inside of the with the statement made in 1866, in fort on the other.' lam indebted to the journal of Nasir ad-Din Shah, Dr. Yohannan for making me a version Siydhat-i Shah (Diary of a Jour- of the entire account of the Shah's ney to Mashad and Afghanistan), journey from Teheran to Mashad.

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