338 Journal kept while travelling in Seistan. [No. 112. 



number are I do not know ;" added he, "but one of them is I am con- 

 vinced & puzur, preserver from stings, or snake-stone ; now just tell me 

 what they are all worth ?" The bag on being opened, was found to 

 contain nothing but a parcel of agates, cut into different shapes, and 

 what evidently once formed the stock of some itinerant seal-cutter. 



He had been so long opening the strings of the bag, that my curiosity 

 had been warmed, and on perceiving the contents, I perhaps rather too 

 bluntly exclaimed, that they were not worth a rupee. Saleh Khan 

 seemed much disappointed, and only half-convinced ; he carefully put 

 the stones into the bag again one by one, only reserving one red one, the 

 puzur; "And this ?" said, he, holding it out (" for God's sake" whisper- 

 ed Mahomed Tuher, "say it is something curious;") but I thought 

 it wisest to speak truth, and told him, that snake-stones were now 

 found to be mere fallacies. He replied, " That is all nonsene ; that the 

 puzur cures snake bites is a well attested fact. It was found in the belly 

 of a deer, and why should it be there if it was of no use ? Besides you 

 can easily see if this is a puzur or not, for if it is the real stone it will 

 sweat on being put into the sun." A plate was actuallysent for, and the 

 agate placed in it, and exposed to the sun, and the Khan, though soon 

 doubtful of this identical stone being the puzur, believes as firmly as 

 ever in the real one. He now put into my hands a small box, which I 

 found contained the watch which had been sent to him by Mr. Macnaghten 

 three months before. " I would not open this," he said, " though they were 

 very curious up there" (pointing to the Zenana, which is on the highest 

 part of the castle,) " to see what was in it, for fear of spoiling it, and as I 

 knew you were coming". He was much pleased when he had learned 

 to open and wind it up ; the last of which he would, all I could say, do 

 every half hour, and then send the watch to me, saying it would not wind. 

 The ignorance displayed on this occasion by Shah Pussund Khan at 

 first surprized me. I had expected from his intercourse with Persians, 

 that he would have been better informed on European matters than his 

 countrymen ; but the little of our science he has picked up in his travels, 

 half-learnt and half-understood, has only served to confuse, and not to 

 improve. 



He thought (and it is a popular belief in Khorassan,) that all the 

 Russian gold money was found ready coined every Christmas-day at 

 the bottom of a well, which is previously filled with baser metal. Some- 



