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

have been abandoned a few generations ago. A fine perennial spring issues
between the two forts. Older, perhaps, is a small circumvallation which I was
shown on the top of the long stony ridge of Kurangī, about a mile to the east of
Tumpī. This measures some 150 yards from north to south and about half that
across. The much-decayed old walls of rough stone work had been repaired
with still coarser masonry when a tribal rising occurred some eight years before
my visit, and the old well within was then cleared. The coarse plain pottery
found both within and outside affords no clue to an approximate dating; but it
may be noted that traces of completely decayed stone structures are found over
an extensive portion of the ridge to the south.

More interesting were the remains of the large Muhammadan burial-ground,
known as Chibil-dukhtarān, the 'forty daughters', a name frequently applied in
Persia to ruined sites. Its remains occupy a terrace rising some 40 feet above
the western bank of the Gungh Kaur and situated approximately opposite to the
Sirdār's fort. The area, covered with a multitude of graves and a number of
small mounds marking completely collapsed sepulchral structures, extends for
some 450 yards from north to south and more than 180 yards across. Many of
the graves are marked by rows of carefully laid large pebbles, often also by low
headstones. Three of the larger mounds, undoubtedly formed by the debris of
sepulchral domes (gumbad), had been dug up. Within the foundation walls of a
circular structure there was disclosed a vaulted tomb chamber, 13 feet 8 inches
long and 10 feet 8 inches wide. The burnt bricks of the masonry measured
9 inches square with a thickness of 1½ inches. At its northern end was a recess for
a coffin, covered with large bricks set aslant. Here remains of a 'wooden box
containing earth' were said to have been found. Some 16 yards to the north, the
wall foundation of another domed tomb could be traced, indicating a diameter of
approximately 19 feet. A hole in the centre marked the place where a sepulchral
chamber had been dug into.

At a third tomb there survived the lowest courses of massive walls from a
rotunda having an approximate diameter of 25 feet. Here the vaulted tomb
chamber, built with rough stones set in hard plaster, was laid in an east to west
direction. This direction is certainly opposed to the universally observed Mus-
lim practice of laying the body with the head to the north and the feet to the
south, but apparently in agreement with Jewish custom. We subsequently ob-
served at least three more graves at Chihil-dukhtarān and a few at a smaller
burial-ground situated a short distance farther south across a ravine, the aline-
ment of which was either from east to west or from north-east to south-west. It
appears hence probable that these cemeteries were used also for the interment
of non-Muhammadans living at Geh—Jews, and perhaps also Christians. The