National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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CHAP. XXII. p. 128. THE DESERT OF KERMAN.   29

Map of Persia.

2. Maga   .   .   .   Salt well.

3. Chashma Sufid .   .   „   ,,

   J Khudafrin   .   Sweet spring.

   4.1 Pir Moral   .   .   Salt well.

5. God Hashtaki .   .   „ „

6. Rezu   .   •   .

" These details are drawn from different authorities, but are

in excellent agreement. That the total distances are different

in the first two columns is because Fahanunch lies nearer than

Tebbes to Bahabad. Two or three discrepancies in the names

are of no importance. Burch denotes a castle or fort ; Belucha

is evidently Cha-i-beluch or the well of the Baluchi, and it is

very probable that a small fort was built some time or other at

this well which was visited by raiders from Baluchistan. Ser-i-

julge and Kheirabad may be two distinct camping grounds very

near each other. The Chasma Sufid or ` white spring ' of the

English map is evidently the same place as Sefid-ab, or ` white

water.' Its God Hashtaki is a corruption of the Persian God-i-

shah-taghi, or the ` hollow of the royal saxaul.' Khudafrin, on

the other hand, is very apocryphal. It is no doubt Khuda-aferin

or ` God be praised ! '—an ejaculation very appropriate in the

mouth of a man who comes upon a sweet spring in the midst of

the desert. If an Englishman travelled this way he might have

mistaken this ejaculation for the name of the place. But then

` Unsurveyed ' would hardly be placed just in this part of the

Bahabad Desert.

" The information I obtained about the road from Tebbes to

Bahabad was certainly very scanty, but also of great interest.

Immediately beyond Kurit the road crosses a strip of the Kevir,

2 farsakh broad, and containing a river-bed which is said to be

filled with water at the end of February. Sefid-ab is situated

among hillocks and Burch in an upland district ; to the south of

it follows Kevir barely a farsakh broad, which may be avoided

by a circuitous path. At God-i-shah-taghi, as the name implies,

saxaul grows (Haloxylon A inmodendron). The last three halting-

places before Bahabad all lie among small hills.

" This desert route runs, then, through comparatively hilly

country, crosses two small Kevir depressions, or offshoots of one

and the same Kevir, has pasturage at at least one place, and

presents no difficulties of any account. The distance in a direct

line is I I 3 miles, corresponding to 5 i Persian farsakh—the

farsakh in this district being only about 2'2 miles long against

2'9 in the great Kevir. The caravans which go through the