. A ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan. n one of the telegraph-posts, andthe wires had done the mischief. By good luckand the aid of lucifer matches, we managed totrace our ponies to a piece of cultivated groundhard by, where we found them calmly feeding ina field of standing corn. The moon had risen by nine oclock. Beforehalf-past we were in sight of the rock on whichstands the town of Yezdi-Ghazt, towering, shadowyand indistinct, over the moonlit plain. This isunquestionably the most curious and interestingvillage between Resht and Bushire. The post-house stands at the foot. As we r
. A ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan. n one of the telegraph-posts, andthe wires had done the mischief. By good luckand the aid of lucifer matches, we managed totrace our ponies to a piece of cultivated groundhard by, where we found them calmly feeding ina field of standing corn. The moon had risen by nine oclock. Beforehalf-past we were in sight of the rock on whichstands the town of Yezdi-Ghazt, towering, shadowyand indistinct, over the moonlit plain. This isunquestionably the most curious and interestingvillage between Resht and Bushire. The post-house stands at the foot. As we rode to thelatter through the semi-darkness caused by theshadow of the huge mass of boulders and mud onwhich the town is situated, the effect was extra-ordinary. It was like a picture by Gustave Dore ;and, looking up the dark perpendicular side ofthe rock at the weird city with its white houses,queer-shaped balconies, and striped awnings,standing- out clear and distinct aorainst the starlitsky, gave one an uncomfortable, uncanny feeling, lit H ^. ISPAHAN—SHIRAZ. 15 9 hard to shake off, and heightened by the factthat, although the hour was yet early, not a lightwas visible, not a sound to be heard. It was likea city of the dead. Daylight does not improve the appearance ofYezdi-Ghazt. The city, which looks so weirdand romantic by moonlight, loses much of itsbeauty, though not its interest, when seen by thebroad light of day. The system of drainage inYezdi-Ghazt is simple, the sewage being thrownover, to fall, haphazard, on the ground immediatelybelow. I nearly had a practical illustration duringmy examination, which, however, did not lastlong-, for the side of the rock o-listened with thefilth of years, and the stench and flies were un-bearable. Early next morning I set out alone to explorethe strange place, and with much difficulty andsome apprehension—for I did not know how thenatives were disposed—ascended a steep rockypath, at the summit of which a wooden draw-bridge lea
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectirandescriptionandtr
