A RECENT PJDE TO HERAT. 125 



State garden about a mile from the city walls ; there 

 we were to be received as the Amir's guests, and 

 there we should find everything ready for us. The 

 crisis was passed. From that moment we experienced 

 nothing but frank courtesy and royal hospitality. 

 Xeed I say with what alacrity we left our half- 

 finished breakfast among the tombstones, and turned 

 our faces to the point where the heads of the min- 

 arets above the plain showed us the first sign of that 

 city we had come so far to see. 



It was not far from the village to the garden on 

 the east side of the city ; but it took us along the 

 rising ground to the north, within full view of the 

 fortress, and the interest of it has left an ineffaceable 

 memory. Past the tomb of Haji Baba, with its en- 

 closure of stiff Scotch fir-trees, reminding me of some 

 small bit of the outskirts of Florence ; past a Masjid, 

 with its blue-tiled dome, and the straight road from 

 it to the north face of the fort (the only straight road 

 in Herat) ; past the Masalla, whose minarets had 

 been our landmark for two days previous ; and be- 

 hind all the solid-looking walls of Herat itself (they 

 are solid for that matter), crowned by the old citadel, 

 and telling the tale on their faces of many a struggle 

 with the invader. After this panorama came the in- 

 evitable dive down off the high ground into the nar- 

 row ways of a high-walled village on the outskirts. 



The chief feature of these villages is their extra- 

 ordinary complexity. Every village is a labyrinth of 



