Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/489

 CHAPTER XXII

AU REVOIR TO PERSIA
 * 'Tis not to say farewell, adieu — but simply au revoir.*

We were now on the last two days of our journey through northern Persia before crossing over into Transcaspia and Turkistan; and our place of encampment for the night was to be on the slope of a hill near the little village of Danah, about four hours northwest of Tus, and a few miles off the main road leading from Mashad to Kuchan and Askhabad. The tents and the kit had been sent on in advance with the baggage mules, while we followed at a good pace with our cavalcade.

Some picturesque villages were passed early on the way : Chahar Burj, with its 'four towers,' as the name implies; Kasimabad, cheery with its willow-shaded brook; and Nau- bahar, a little hamlet, whose designation of ' Youthful Spring ' seemed to us particularly appropriate at the moment, for the season was much belated for the third of June. At last we reached Gunabad, the small settlement mentioned above (p. 212), lying to the northeast of the Binalud Peak of the Nishapur Range, and recalling, by its antique name, legends connected with Isfandiar, the champion in the holy wars of Zoroastrianism against Turan.^

The region round about was filled with reminiscences of the Turkoman forays carried on as recently as a generation ago. Our own special guide Riza, the ghuldm ('boy, servant') of Major Sykes, was a living example of the hardships brought by these raids which had so often carried Persian captives away as booty for sale in the slave markets of Khiva and Bu- khara, and Riza had a graphic tale to tell of his experiences,

1 On the Binalud Peak see Yate, Khurasan, pp. 355-367,

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