A TERRIBLE DEATH. Ill 



aqueduct, " and of troughs and stone pipes by which 

 water was brought into the palace and city from a 

 distance of fifteen miles, are still traceable among the 

 desolations." ^ This was said to have been one of the 

 works of Ferhad for Shirin. Excavation might be well 

 repaid here, for I heard of a native having dug up a 

 small gold statue ten or twelve years ago. It is per- 

 haps needless to add that local officialdom found it 

 incumbent on it to take charge of the said golden 

 statuette ! 



Beyond these relics of the past I found another 

 monument of an entirely different description and of 

 quite recent construction, having been erected, in fact, 

 only a few weeks before. This consists of a small oval- 

 shaped building of brick and plaster, which is of no 

 particular attraction of itself, and might even pass 

 unnoticed by a casual observer. There is, however, a 

 tale attached, a tale which w^as related to me in grue- 

 some detail, which lost nothing in the telling by an 

 eye-witness of the scene. For the odd oval -shaped 

 building, which assumed a ghastly significance as the 

 horrid details were poured forth, was nothing less than 

 a cruel shroud wound slowly round a living criminal, 

 while death still held aloof, mocking his victim with the 

 unspeakable horror of his slow approach. Incredible 

 though it may seem, the appalling custom of walling a 

 man up alive is still practised in the twentieth century ! 

 The victim — he had stolen a bale of cotton — was strong, 

 his struggles were fierce, the operation long-drawn-out, 

 and the appreciation of the crowded onlookers great in 

 proportion. The builders found their task no easy one, 

 even though their victim was bound, and the order was 

 finally given to reduce his power of resistance. The 



1 I quote Mrs Bishop here, because I did not observe the " troughs and 

 stone pipes" myself. See her 'Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan.' 



