Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/297

 mouths of the giant mole-hills where the underground channels of the kandts came to the surface. These conduits, so common in Persia, lead the water from the neighboring hills, and are mentioned in this very vicinity (the ancient Hecatompylos being not far distant) by the Greek historian Polybius in the second century B.C., in connection with the war between Antiochus the Great and the Parthian king Arsaces in 212- 205 B.C. Arsaces believed that his opponent from the West would not venture to invade Parthia, especially on account of the scarcity of water which prevailed in this territory.

though there are many subterranean channels which have well- shafts sunk to them at spots in the desert unknown to persons unac- quainted with the districts. A true account of these channels has been preserved among the natives to the effect that, during the Persian ascen- dency, they granted enjoyment of the profits of the land to the inhabitants of some of the waterless districts for five generations, on condition of their bringing fresh water in; and that, there being many large streams flowing down Mount Taurus, these people at infinite toil and expense con- structed these underground channels through a long track of country, in such a way that the very people who now use the water are ignorant of the sources from which the channels were originally supplied.' ^
 * For in this tract of country there is no water appearing on the surface,

The entire aspect of the region is precisely the same today as when Polybius wrote, and there is not a single real halting- place to be found on the road for the entire seven farsakhs to Gushah, which lies hardly more than a score of miles away from the presumable site of Hecatompylos.

Gushah is a settlement of about twenty dwellings, a post- house and a sarai being the chief buildings. The high volcanic range of mountains to the north thrusts out a spur or two that nearly reach the hamlet, bringing a boon in the form of a slender stream of water that is led past the houses, and forms a border of green in this place, which is suitable only for

' A Moment's Halt — a momentary taste Of Being from the Well amid the Waste.'

I Polybius, Histories, 10. 28, tr. Shuckburgh, 2. 27, London, 1889.

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