Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/303

 sand years, according to story, and we can imagine how the Persians pictured in fancy the scenes of gruesome revel when this foreign monster, from whose shoulders two devouring ser- pents grew, came to visit his * night-abode' (as the Pahlavi word shapstdn^ * harem,' really means) in their terrified dis- trict at Kumis. A still earlier date could be assigned to Damghan itself on the authority of Mustaufi, as he ascribes the origin of the town to the mythical Hoshang, the first king of Iran, supposedly 3400 b.c.^ In harmony with these fanciful tales ran the imagination of the epic poet Firdausi when he told how, in the reign of Kai Kubad (1000 B.C.), the valiant Rustam vanquished the Turanian invader Afrasiab, and forced him to retreat by the way of Damghan to the river Oxus in

The vicissitudes of the city in war have been varied through- out the ages. Armies have marched repeatedly across its track to victory or defeat, and have left in the people's memory the sound of their measured tread. From history we know that in 330 B.C. Alexander must have passed by the site of the present Damghan on his way to Tage (now Tak) and Hyrca- nia, after celebrating at Hecatorapylos his victory over the dead Darius. ^ Legend still keeps up a story of the visit of the Macedonian hosts ; for an intelligent native told me a folk-tale about how 'Iskandar (Alexander) had spent six months in Damghan with an army of 200,000 men, but in spite of that the price of provisions had never risen during

1897, or § 19 of the same work, ed. i See Mustaufi, cited by Barbier de

Blochet, Liste geographique des villes Meynard, Diet, geog, p. 223, n. 1.

de VIran, in Becueil de travaux rela- ^ See Mohl, Le Livre des rois (folio

tifs a la philologies ed. Maspero, vol. 17, ed.), 1. 470-471, Paris, 1838 ( = 1. 372,

pp. 166, 168, 173, Paris, 1895. Con- smaller ed., Paris, 1876), 'Les Turcs

suit also Modi, Aiyddgar-i Zarirdn and se retir6rent devant des Mages, et leur

Shatroihd-i Airdn, transl., pp. 69, 147, arm^e se rendit k Damghan ; de Ik ils

Bombay, 1899, and Marquart, Erdn- tourn^rent vers le Djihoun.'

Sahr, pp. 71-72. For the traditional ^ gee next note and also below, p.

date of Azh-Dahak, see Jackson, Zoro- 183.

aster s p. 180.

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