Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/28

 one of our tired horses on. Our destination was Lasgird, twenty-five miles distant. Our route lay east, north-east, and east, skirting the borders of the Great Desert, over a clayey and spongy soil, covered with camel thorn and scanty herbage, and utterly devoid of water. A ride of little under two hours brought us to the village of Abdullahabad, where we stopped for half an hour's refreshment in a Persian teahouse. Shortly after leaving Abdullahabad we met five Lasgird horses on their way back to Deh Namek, and knowing that the Lasgird stable would consequently be empty, we effected an exchange and continued our journey. Soon after this fresh start one of the horses fell heavily on his side, rolling over the rider's right leg, but fortunately without doing any harm. Our road presently led us through a narrow defile, passing a stream of water which is generally good, but which, much to our disappointment, on this occasion was too muddy to be drinkable. On emerging from the defile we saw at a distance of about two miles what looked like the ruins of the Colosseum at Rome, but which turned out to be part of the village of Lasgird, a number of