Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/85

 green and plum-coloured, and orange tiles, crusted over with a rich, silicious glaze, and inscribed with mighty Kufic letters.' In the Citadel is to be seen, by special permission, the 'koktash,' or great stone throne of Timour Lang; and a short ride from the town, beyond the mounds of Afrasiab, leads one to the 'Tomb of Daniel.' It is a stone and plaster coffin-shaped construction,eighteen yards long, situated on a hillock, alongside of a small mosque, surrounded by trees, and overlooking the river. Around the tomb are planted long poles, surmounted by horses' tails, the standards of departed Uzbeg and Sart chieftains. Our guide would not allow any doubts to be cast upon the legend which names this spot as the last resting-place of the Prophet Daniel, and upon our remarking that the tomb was unnecessarily long, he retorted that it was well known that Daniel was a very big man.

Socially Samarcand is an exceedingly dull place. The Governor, General Yafimovitch, formerly an officer in the Chevalier Gardes of St. Petersburg, is a hipped and discontented valetudinarian, with a young wife, who does