Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/329

 the first stage his route is believed to have led him past Tagae,^ in other words, from the vicinity of Damghan through the modern village of Tak to the neighborhood of Chashmah-i Ali, as noted above (p. 173) ; and this was approximately the line of march taken by Antiochus the Great when making a similar campaign a century later.^ For me the site of Tagae had, therefore, a special attraction.

Accordingly the third morning was planned for a visit to Tak (Pers. Tdk^ pronounced Tawk) and its environs, and I was in the saddle, ready to start, before six o'clock.

Tak lies about six miles slightly northeast of Damghan, on« the road to Shahrud, and not far from the mountains.^ From Hecatompylos it would have been a natural halting-place for the first stage of a march in the hot weather of July, when Alexander made it in 330 B.C.* Be that as it may, the classic Tagae and the modern Tak are commonly accepted as having occupied the same position. The present road to Tak is the more northerly of two forks that lead in an easterly direction from Damghan ; the other, or southerly, road passes by Bak ; and both converge about ten miles beyond, and lead to Shah- rud. It was along the Shahrud road that Alexander appears to have sent his third column, with the baggage train, as being the easier way to Zadracarta (the modern Astrabad), near the

1 For references to Tdyai see Mar- Voyages, 9. 311 and cf. Forster, Voyage quart, Untersuchungen, 2. 44, n. 2. du Bengale, tr. Langl6s, 2. 263. Yet The identity of Tagae and Tak is gen- Houtum-Schindler, Zt. Ges. f. Erd- erally accepted without question, as kunde, 12. 217, gives 'Smiles.'

by such authorities as Tomaschek and * The very slight detour involved in

Houtum-Schindler. this route to the locality of Chash-

2 See Polybius, History, 10. 28. 7 ; mah-i Ali would be accounted for (if 10. 29. 1. not otherwise) by the fact that Alex-

8 The distance ' 1^ farsakhs' was ander's baggage-train must have fol-

given to me several times as the in- lowed the road by Tagae on its way to

terval between Tak and Damghan, Zadracarta via the site of the present

but I estimated it as nearer two far- Shahrud. As regards the shortness of

sakhs, or at least seven miles. Forster the first stage, I may note that in Per-

(in 1784) recorded it as ' about eight sia it is found practical to make the

miles,' see Forster, in Pinkerton's first stage of a march rather light, nor

�� �