National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Overland to India : vol.1 |
XYVI
THE VILLAGE CHUPUNUN 297
it is hard to say, but possibly it is a consequence of a
deviation of the sand by the neighbouring hill.
The temperature is 53.6° at one o'clock, and with the
sun in our faces it feels blazing hot, while the air is perfectly
still. It is a pity that the camels have had to carry their
thick winter coats all the way from Teheran, and even now
cannot get rid of them. But there is still no dependence
on the weather, and the nights are quite cold. When the
spring weather becomes really warm, the camels' wool will
soon fall off. The Persians say that the weather will be
cold for three months more, but they must consider it cold
only when compared with the great heat of summer, which
turns the desert into a blazing furnace.
We are again out on the steppe, where tamarisks are
few, and quite low dunes form a more or less continuous
expanse on both sides of the track. The ground falls a
little southwards, and we direct our course towards the
east-north-east, along the eastern extension of the Nigu
hill, with its ruddy lines. We halt a while at a place where
fuel is fine and abundant to collect two huge heaps—we
may be sure that there is a scarcity of this article at
Chupunun. We have circumnavigated a southern tip of
the great margin ; and all the way from Alem we have had
abundant opportunities of following closely the southern
boundary of the sandy desert, which I have inserted in my
map. Of its northern extension we have hitherto obtained
only approximate data, but we hope shortly to see the
locality where the sandy desert passes into the Kevir.
Here and there we pass over some small dunes or
mud-flats, and leave on the right two low hills, and then
the village Chupunun comes in sight, at the eastern ex-
tremity of a flat arena of clayey soil. Chupunun is of the
E same type as Kerim Khan and Alem. All the houses but
t two are built together in a row with a succession of mud
cupolas. The inmates come out and gaze at us with the
greatest astonishment as we pass on to the east of the
village. But their respect is soon aroused when Kerbelai
Madali tells them that we have stayed at Alem and that
we were not at all stingy, but paid the people well for all
the provisions they could spare us. So they soon come
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