By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



I. Black Partridges. 



. " And thou hast trod the sands of Seistan, 

 And seen the river of Helmand, and the lake 

 Of Zirrah." 



ARNOLD, " Sohrab and Rustam." 



SEISTAN, land of burning heats and withering cold, 

 of rushing pitiless winds, of pestilence, of biting 

 insects and reptiles, of dreary sands and sun- 

 baked plains, of buried and forgotten cities, of 

 fens and swamps and one great lonely lake, it 

 is here that the Helmand, after many wanderings 

 in Afghanistan, spreads into a delta, and finally 

 comes to a miserable end amid mud flats and reed 

 beds, sand-dunes and grotesquely carved yellow 

 cliffs. 



The Hamun, as the lake is called, varies in size 

 according to the season and the supply of water. 

 In some months, after the melting of the snows 

 in the distant highlands of the Hazara, the river 



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