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X. By the Way. 



: . . . the cock had crown, and light 

 Began to clothe each Asiatic hill, 

 And the mosque crescent struggled into sight 

 Of the long caravan, which in the chill 

 Of dewy morn wound slowly round each height." 



ARNOLD. 



KOSE-GARDENS do exist in Persia, also bulbuls. A 

 Persian, away from his own country, would pro- 

 bably describe the whole land as a "Garden of 

 Iram," the rivers as " Kausar," the springs as 

 " Salsabil " ; but the impression left on a traveller's 

 mind is of another kind. Boundless plains, with 

 horizons gently sloping like tilted seas, ranges of 

 arid hills standing out like islands in an ocean, 

 towns and villages mere oases in a vast waterless 

 and treeless desert. As you journey over one of 

 these plains, the blue line of distant hills rises 

 higher, you notice dark spots of green under the 

 barren slopes. It is a village. As you approach 

 through an enceinte of walled-in fields, a cluster 

 of domed roofs looks like the comb of some 

 formidable insect. A dilapidated mud fort, a 



