36 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



and converted the inhabitants with fire and sword, 

 driving those who remained faithful to the ancient 

 beliefs to the remoter recesses of the hills. It 

 was again the tops of these crags that formed 

 the refuge places of the Ismailis, 1 the queer society 

 of "Assassins " that was formed by Hassan-i-Sabah, 

 called the Sheikh-ul-Jabal or " old man of the 

 mountains." On the highest summits one finds 

 the ruins of forts solidly built of burnt bricks, 

 cement-lined tanks in which to catch and store 

 rain-water, 2 and underground storehouses. Many 

 of these forts are so inaccessibly situated that it 

 is said locally that to bring up the building 

 material the very ibex of the hills were harnessed ! 

 In pre-artillery days, places such as some of these 

 must have been impregnable, and I imagine that 

 starvation was the weapon employed by Halaku, 

 grandson of the great Mongol Chenghiz, when he 

 reduced, as he is said to have done, no less than 

 seventy of these strongholds in this Kohistan of 

 Eastern Persia. 



Some of the ranges frequented by ibex are 

 absolutely devoid of water during the hot weather, 

 and it seems to be a fact that they exist, like 



1 Eemnants of these persecuted peoples still exist on sufferance 

 in different parts of Persia. 



2 The presumption Ms that when these tanks were made, the 

 rainfall was heavier than it is now. 



