50 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS AGRA 



stream flowed in a winding and crooked course, 

 but I ordered its course to be altered according 

 to a regular plan, which added greatly to the 

 beauty of the place. Lower down than these 

 villages, and about a kos or a kos and a half 

 above the level plain, on the lower skirts of the 

 hills, is a fountain, named Khwajeh-seh-yaran 

 (Khwajeh-three-friends), around which there are 

 three species of trees ; above the fountain are 

 many beautiful plane trees, which yield a pleasant 

 shade. On the two sides of the fountain, on 

 small eminences at the bottom of the hills, there 

 are a number of oak trees ; except on these two 

 spots, where there are groves of oak, there is 

 not an oak to be met with on the hills west of 

 Kabul. In front of this fountain, towards the 

 plain, there are many spots covered with the 

 flowery arghwan tree, and besides these arghwan 

 plots there are none else in the whole country. 

 It is said that these three kinds of trees were 

 bestowed on it by the power of three holy men, 

 beloved of God ; and that this is the origin of the 

 name Seyaran. I directed this fountain " (i.e. 

 spring) "to be built round with stone, and 

 formed a cistern of lime and mortar twenty feet 

 square. On the four sides of this fountain, a 



