A RECENT RIDE TO HERAT. 135 



Perhaps hard marching and many long weary months 

 away from their sunny homes in India had sharpened 

 their appreciation. Excellent silk was obtainable, 

 but it came from Mashad or Bokhara. I did not 

 note one single indigenous product which could be 

 distinctly called a specialty of Herat. 



It is a mistake to suppose that Herat is in ruins. 

 I should think that there is a great part of it unin- 

 habited (it is impossible to tell from direct evidence), 

 but Herat is not built of that material of which 

 ruins are readily made ; and it might all be inhabited 

 from the look of it. Yet probably there are not 

 more than from 12,000 to 15,000 inhabitants there 

 at present. The view over the city from the walls, 

 on which we walked in the evening, is that of 

 endless rows of domed houses, like a gigantic apiary, 

 above which rises in the centre the larger dome of 

 ' the Charsoo, and the Jarnma Masjid. But all the 

 city looked in good repair ; and I have the authority 

 of Colonel Stewart, who was one of our party, for 

 saying that, with the single exception of Mashad, 

 it was a more habitable -looking city than any he 

 had seen in Persia. The most remarkable feature 

 about Herat (a feature which, all the same, it has 

 in common with most large Afghan villages and 

 towns), is the absence of open thoroughfares. The 

 way about Herat must be perfectly inscrutable to 

 any but an old inhabitant. Many of the principal 

 passages are but arched ways, burrowing under the 



