throw each a stone on the heap. It is a kind of votive-cairn, where each man presents his stone as a token of gratitude for having come safely so far on the road to Tebbes. An open-walled cistern, a little farther on, is called Hauz-i-nim-farsakh.
At length we cross a broad and deep main furrow also directed eastwards. At its right bank stands a ruined caravanserai, and a new caravanserai appears a little in front of us. And when we emerge into more open ground beyond a concealing projection, we see on the right new spurs and ramifications of the dreary hills, and far away in the distance, south-south-east, we have just a glimpse of another range which is said to be situated near Naibend. But between these hills the country is open, and there runs the road to Seistan, Baluchistan, and India. With some straining of the eyes we can make a guess at the position of Tebbes ; a fine dark line is said to be its wood of date-palms. High above and far beyond this line rises the pink range Kuh-i-shuturi, with flat, . snow-covered summits and masses, and this side of Tebbes extends a desert with a surface whiter than snow.
At last we pitch our camp before Rabat-gur or the " wild asses' caravanserai," and here have descended again to an altitude of 315o feet. The caravanserai is well built of burnt bricks, mostly taken from the ruins of the older caravanserais in the neighbourhood. It was erected fourteen years ago, at the expense of a rich merchant of Yezd,
H aj i Mirza Hussein, and is said to have cost 4000 tuman. The travellers who come here in winter when it is cold
and windy and can creep d into its lee and find shelter in
its numerous rooms and niches, and those who travel in the burning days of summer and find a refuge from the heat in the cool shadow of these same niches—all ought to appreciate the liberality of Haji Mirza Hussein and pray, " Allah rest his soul ! " The custom of purchasing salvation after death by the erection of a caravanserai has its counterpart in other countries not in hotels but in hospitals ; and in any case the bequest of the testator provides great convenience and alleviation to innumerable travellers on their toilsome journeys through the desert.
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