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



man, of about eighty, and his whole life has been a series of adven- 

 tures. He was very funny and amusing : " There, bring the Sahib a 

 kullion. I suppose you smoke well. In my younger days not one of us 



smoked, but those Persians have infected us ; very well, and how 



is my friend the vuzeer ? May his house be blasted ! Look at my feet, 

 this is his doing." He held up his feet, of which all the toes had grown 

 as it were into one. A very few years ago, Yar Mahomed Khan wrote 

 to him addressing him as his father, as the whole hope of the Douranees, 

 and sending him a Koran in pledge of his sincerity, and pressed him to 

 come to Herat, where he should be treated with every distinction. 

 The old Khan trusted him and went; he was seized and brought before 

 Jorraine, where they beat the soles of his feet to a jelly with sticks, to 

 make him write to his son to give up the fort. 



I spent a very agreeable day, and returned in the afternoon to Laush. 

 Jorraine is still a virgin fort, and could always, if well defended, keep 

 out any Asiatic force. The walls, which may be about 200 yards in 

 length, are very thick and high. The balls of the Heratees made hardly 

 any impression on them. It has but one gateway, which is on the 

 north face, and would be difficult to be forced. The base of the fort 

 is elevated above the surrounding plain. Its weakest point is, that it 

 is surrounded on all sides by buildings, so that it can be securely 

 approached. The few measurements we were able to get by stealth, are 

 mentioned in the Military Memoir. There is a dry ditch, but it is now 

 half filled up. It was, when we were there, the most populous place I 

 had seen since Candahar. All the Furrahees were settled round the 

 walls in huts or black tents ; their flocks were feeding in the plain ; 

 their cows had been sent off to the Humoon. There was hardly a yard 

 of ground within the fort not covered with buildings. I do not 

 exactly understand the relative situation of the governor of this fort 

 and of Shah Pussund Khan. The latter is the real head ; but he seems 

 to interfere little with the affairs of the fort, and when Goolzar Khan 

 dies, it is an understood thing that his son is to succeed to the lands 

 immediately belonging to the fort, which yields only some 80 khur- 

 wars. Shah Pussund has three parts and Goolzar two. 





