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

and is correctly mapped in the Survey of India Sheet No. 24. H. Hence no de-
tailed account is needed of the three marches commenced on April 15th which
carried us to Deh-bakrī. The succession of passes crossed, varying from about
5,400 to 7,700 feet in height, assured welcome relief after the intense heat of
Jīruft, but the painful blisters which exposure to the sun had caused to the lips
would not heal for some time to come. The verdure of the young wheat-fields
and of the orchards near the villages passed, together with the ample tree growth
on the hill-sides, was most refreshing for the eyes. The only old remains seen on
these marches were two ruined sarais at each foot of the Deh-bakrī pass, said to
date from Shāh 'Abbās's time and, no doubt, much appreciated by travellers when
heavy snow in the winter renders the pass troublesome to cross.¹ Much decayed
remains of a small fort, evidently of Muhammadan times, were to be seen on
a steep knoll to the west of the pass.

From the pleasant village of Deh-bakrī, ensconced among shady groves of
walnut and other fruit-trees, one march across a bare stony glacis brought us
down to the walled village of Darzīn, and the next along the wide valley to Bam.
The utter barrenness of the valley, broken only by kārēz-irrigated patches of
cultivation at two villages, and the still more desolate appearance of the hill
range overlooking it from the north, made me feel on this final march how near
Bam lies to the great desert of the Dasht-i-Lūt. At another season it would have
been an attractive task to search along its edges and in the wide arid tract of
Bam-Narmāshīr to the south-east for old sites abandoned to the desert. Both
physical causes and destructive human factors are likely to have left on that
ground interesting traces of the changes they have worked since prehistoric
times. For, just like Sīstān, its distant north-easterly neighbour, Bam and its
Narmāshīr have always been exposed to inroads, productive of ruined sites,
from Balūch and Afghāns or their ethnic precursors. But the places at which
mounds and other remains were mentioned to me by local informants were
too far away to be examined from Bam at this season.

So, during the three days' halt which arrangements for transport imposed and
which camping in a local notable's fine garden rendered pleasant, I had to con-
tent myself with visits in the immediate neighbourhood. The ruins of Fahrā-
bād, scattered about 3 miles to the south-east of the town over a waste of bare
clay and gravel, proved to be the remains of large residences of late Muham-
madan times. They were now being gradually pulled down for the sake of the
manuring earth secured from their thick mud walls. The small fort of Chihil-