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

local belief that in such cases valuables might have been buried with the dead
may account for the opening of the previously mentioned tomb structures.

All over the burial-ground of Chihil-dukhtarān fragments of glazed pottery
could be picked up in plenty. Apart from fine glazed ware in shades of plain
blue and green, there were pieces showing graffito designs under a green or
yellow glaze (Geh. 58, 64, 66) closely resembling such decorated ware from
Qal'a-i-Jamshīd and Tīz. Other glazed fragments with patterns in brown over a
buff ground show a type of decoration which is represented among the medieval
pottery found by me at Āwarān and Mīrī-but in Balūchistān,¹ and which appears
to be related to Samarqand ware of the thirteenth to fourteenth century. Some
fragments of porcellanous ware, decorated in blue over white (Geh. 24, 34),
are probably of Chinese make or else Persian ware imitated from it. There were
found also pieces of good enamelled tile work, including some with blue and lustre
decoration which Mr. Hobson in Appendix A ascribes to the fourteenth century.¹ᵃ
From the evidence of all these ceramic remains it may safely be concluded that
burials continued here down to late medieval or even more recent times.

This account of old remains at Geh may be completed by brief references to a
few places visited to the south of the plateau bearing the wheat-fields and date-
palm groves of the oasis. About a quarter of a mile below the junction of the
two kaurs a terrace above the left bank of the river-bed, known as Aspimangal,
bears remains of an enclosing wall built with rubble, and within it low debris
heaps from decayed structures. The scanty pottery found supplies no clue to
approximate dating. On the opposite bank the small spur of Sohrēn-dūg, the 'red
hillock', shows similar stone heaps from decayed dwellings. Above it the crest
of the isolated hillock of Chār-tākān is crowned with the roughly built stone
walls of what obviously was a small defensive post. Here, too, no chronological
data could be obtained from the scanty potsherds.

It had been my wish to make my way to Bampūr by the most direct route
leading across the range in the north past Hichān and Sarhao. But Sultān
Āghā Ḥusain Anṣārī, the obliging commandant of our escort, apprehended
serious risks of attack, if we followed this route, from the wild Balūch nomads of
Lāshār occupying those hills. He dwelt so persistently on his responsibility in
the event of an encounter with the tribesmen, who had so far resisted all revenue
demands of the Persian authorities, that in the end I felt obliged to agree to the
move by the more devious route, leading first to Bint and thence up its river to
Fanūch, by which the flank of the Lāshār tract would be turned. It was easier
for me to accept the detour since previous information suggested that both Bint
and Fanūch had at one time been possessed of some local resources.