IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Overland to India : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
| XLV | THE ROAD TO N E H 135 |
had winded our stallions from the steppe, and evidently was
eager for a fight with them. With lowered head and
wildly rolling eyes, he made straight for the largest stallion,
led by the Seid, and made ready to throw him to the
ground with the back of his neck. But this animal was
stronger and quicker in turning, and knocked down the
stranger in a moment, intending to finish him off with his
forelegs, but the Seid prevented him. The defeated
animal had time to get up again, and then he hurriedly
took to flight with the dogs at his heels, which considered
his conduct unseemly.
At the village Meigon the Seid wished to halt, but, as
the place had nothing to offer but two sacks of straw which
we bought, we might as well stop anywhere else on the
steppe after traversing another farsakh. In the midst of
the village stands a ruined fort, and beside it a row of very
singular and original windmills. They were not working
at this time of year, but a good notion could be obtained of
their construction. In the middle of June the prevailing
wind from the north-east sets in and continues for two
months. It blows extremely regularly, and the mills are
built purposely for this direction of the wind which, curiously
enough, is different in Seistan not far off, where there is
a strong north-north-west wind. The wind, it seems, is
strongest at night. There were originally eight mills, but
only three were in use, the others having fallen to ruin.
Their walls or piers of stone and sun-dried bricks are
built so that the wind forces its way in between two of them,
and exercises its full strength on three of the eight vertical
mill pallets, while the others are on the lee side and do not
prevent or retard the rotatory movement. The pallets are
attached to a vertical revolving pole with its upper end
running in a cross-beam supported by the walls, while the
lower sets the movable stone in motion over the fixed one
beneath in the miliroom below the floor. The contrivance
is simple and ingenious, but of course can only be used in
a country where the wind blows with the regularity of a
trade-wind. The fact that there were formerly eight mills
instead of three shows that the production of grain must
have fallen off. One cannot suspect a deterioration of the
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