Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/320

 CHAPTER XIII EXCURSIONS FROM DAMGHAN TO FRAT AND TAK


 * And Hecatompylos, her hunderd gates.'

— Milton, Paradise Begained, 3. 287.

A STUDY of phases of native life among the villages in the environs, and the pleasure of wandering over sites of a historic past, lent additional interest to my stay at Damghan. One day was devoted to an examination of what must have been the ground occupied by the famous city of Hecatompylos ; and another was given to a visit in the locality of ancient Tagae, now represented by Tak. Both of these excursions — the former to the south, the latter northward — were made on horseback, with all the enjoyment which that exercise insures.

The start on the first outing was made at five o'clock in the morning, and the series of swift gallops over a stretch of clayey soil at dawn was a delight ; but when the horses trod fetlock- deep through drifting sand under a broiling sun at mid-day, it required some of the enthusiasm of the student to be able to forget the discomfort involved.

My goal this day was the townlet of Frat, or Farat, about twenty-five miles south of the city, for the historic Hecatompy- los is probably to be located between it and Damghan. The full discussion of this problem I shall reserve for consideration elsewhere;^ but it is appropriate here to state in advance my opinion that Hecatompylos was only a classic appellation for the chief city of the district of Komisene, or Comisene, which is still perpetuated in the name of Shahr-i Kumis, ' City of

1 The discussion will appear in a monograph to be called Caspiae Portae, or the Caspian Gates of Antiquity.

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