384 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



the abominable traffic. The dark haired nations of 

 the south were choice in searching for fair slaves from 

 the north ; the fair preferred more swarthy, and gave 

 great prices for blacks from Africa. Constantinople 

 abounded in Sclavonic captives and children, pur- 

 chased by Jews ; the debtor and the prisoner of war 

 were sold, and Verdun was long celebrated for its 

 traffic in emasculated victims. Hence the fair, the 

 xanthous, the brown and black complexioned, are 

 mixed in every nation. 



With regard to the facilities of proceeding by land 

 from the Indus and from central Asia to the west, 

 there is in every direction the difficulty to be encoun- 

 tered, of a deficiency of water, and consequently of 

 verdure to subsist cattle. There are extensive deserts 

 of absolute sand, and the coast line along the Persian 

 Gulf seems never to have been practicable. Begin- 

 ning from the mouth of the Indus, the first route pass- 

 ing to the west, by Kurrachee, crossed the Luchee 

 Hills to Bambacia, Faura, now Puhra, traversed the 

 Gedrosian mountain chain, and leads to ancient Pa- 

 sargada (Persagarda) and Persepolis. It was by this 

 line Alexander the Great returned with his forces to 

 Persia. The second was by the Gundara Pass, 

 through the desert to Lake Aria, whence again it 

 bent southward to Persepolis; this was the route of 

 Craterus with a Macedonian corps. A third avenue 

 still leads through the Bolan Pass to the Etymander 

 or Helmund, and Lake Aria, now Zurrah, whence 

 there is a caravan route by Yezd, through the Great 



