Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/458

 274 MASHAD, THE HOLT CITY OF PERSIA

the southern side of the great compound.^ Nor must mention fail to be made of a portico that leads into the section of the Lower Khiaban which is enclosed within the precinct and near the New Court; for on its top is the Nahdra Khdnah^ or ' Music House,' from whose balconied height the kettle-drum and trumpet sound forth the arrival and departure of the sun with as discordant a noise as the wild fanfare which hailed the king's triumphant pledge in Hamlet. ^

The whole available space around the shrine is one huge graveyard, every unoccupied foot of the sacred ground being devoted to the interment of the dead. This adds a rich source of income to the sanctuary in addition to all the other channels of revenue. High prices are paid for the cherished privilege of being buried somewhere near the dust of the saint ; and corpse- caravans accordingly make a regular business of transporting bodies — sometimes from a great distance — to be interred in the hallowed soil. Not less busy are the grave-diggers and stone-cutters, whose services are constantly in demand ; for no sooner has an old grave caved in or its flat stone slab become worn out, than a new tenant is assigned the place and a fresh inscription is carved. O 'Donovan gave a graphic, though nauseating, account of his experiences, one hot summer day in 1880, when visiting this teeming field of the dead.^ Only the healthful climate of Mashad, for its water in general is poor, prevents the city from being decimated by plagues.

If we leave out of account the buildings within the precinct of the shrine, there is not a single edifice in Mashad that is

1 For a photograph of the New ber of other cities in Persia, and is Court see Yate, p. 342 ; and for a supposed to be a survival of ancient comment on it as inferior to the other Persian sun-worship, though I am in- courts compare Sykes, JBAS. 1910, clined to believe (as stated in Persia^ p. 1145. Yate, pp. 345-346, adds a Past and Present, pp. 104, 267) that list of books found in the library of it has nothing more to do with the the shrine. antique faith than has a sunset gun or

2 This custom of saluting the rising a curfew bell.

and the setting sun prevails in a num- * O' Donovan, Merv Oasis, 1. 490.

�� �