The same description was given me here as at Kerim Khan of the manner in which the subterranean canals are laid out : that trial wells are first sunk and the water filters in, and is conducted whithersoever it may be wanted. One well after another is digged in a long row, and their bottoms are connected by an underground passage with an archway partly supported by sun-dried bricks that it may not fall in. The canal is about 3 feet deep and about as much in breadth, and its construction naturally demanded much trouble and care. A stranger is astonished to see such delicate and painstaking work executed by the lax and indolent Persian folk, but necessity has no law, and if they wish to keep alive they must fight against the difficulties Nature places in their way. In this struggle for existence also their minds and their perception are developed just in the directions most necessary. They see that the soil in a certain locality is suitable for cultivation, if the ground falls slowly and steadily down to it, and if there is water in the place where the head of the canal is to be excavated. Not till they have satisfied themselves that all these conditions are fulfilled do they proceed to the construction of a new hamlet such as Chupunun.
In contrast to Alem, Chupunun is said to be independent of precipitation. If any snow falls at all this year it must come within two weeks, for after that the precipitation takes the form of rain, and in general is very unequally distributed ; some years it rains heavily and in others not at all. But whether it rains or not, the canal does not dry up, for it is a channel for subsoil water which is always present.
The natives of Chupunun are far from their nearest neighbours, for Ashin, Alem, Anarek, and Abbasabad are the nearest places. But they are not on that account by any means isolated, for roads between these places converge to Chupunun. To Anarek it is 16 farsakh through Derbendu, Moshajeri, and Dehene-i-lariyun ; to Ashin a way runs through Sergudar-dum-biasun and Hauz-i-HajiLotvi. It is reckoned 4o farsakh to Yezd through Aruzun, Hauz-i-abresham, Cha-pelenk, Hauz-i-gebra, Cha-i-khorasani,,Mesreis, and Haji-abad. And to Tebbes one travels
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