Sec. i] FROM KERMAN TO TAM-IBLIS 165
east of it. Owing to the digging operations referred to, it has been reduced to a width varying from 60 to 120 yards. Broken bricks and rubble from completely decayed structures cover the surface throughout. The frequency of glazed pottery and the total absence of unglazed painted ware clearly indicated occupation within the historical period, probably down to medieval times. Of coin finds which might have helped to determine a terminus ad quem I could not learn.
When we set up the plane-table to fix the position of the site with reference to the quarter-inch survey made of the neighbourhood by Muhammad Ayûb Khan on a previous tour, and to prepare a sketch plan of the site, I was informed by the officer in charge of the escort that under the instructions received by him no survey work of any kind was to be allowed. This obstructive order was manifestly contrary to the views expressed by the authorities at Tehran and to the attitude previously shown towards our work, both during the explorations in Balûchistan and on the Surveyor's preceding tours within the Kerman province. Representations made to this effect proved in vain, and the Naib, while refusing to produce the alleged instructions, insisted on being handed the plane-table sheet showing the preceding survey of this area. This was done under protest. No time was lost in reporting the unexpected difficulty thus raised to the British Minister at Tehran, as well as to the Director of Antiquities, with the result that by the time of our arrival at Bandar Abbas a month later the alleged instructions prohibiting survey work were disavowed and the seized plane-table sheet returned to me. But since the representative of the Department of Public Instruction, whose promised assistance might, perhaps, have obviated such objections, failed to join us, our work continued meanwhile to be hampered in this and, as it soon proved, also in another essential direction.
On November 9th we set out for the small village of Haidarabad to the southeast, whence the site of Tal-i-Iblis, or the `Devil's Mound', could be conveniently approached. After passing for about 2 miles through land cultivated from underground canals, the bed of the Lalehzar river was crossed. What little water it held was said to be derived from the discharge of irrigation channels. On the scrub-covered waste beyond, the track led past several ruined hamlets which, with the land around, had been abandoned owing to water failing from their ganâts. Almost equally distressing were conditions at the small village of Haidarabad, reached after a total march of 8 miles. Its underground canals had ceased to carry water and the few families of cultivators still clinging to their homes were dependent for water on a single well. The dying trees in the large orchard where our camp was pitched vividly recalled sights
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