348 



Journey from Herat to Simla, 



[No. 149. 



Names of 

 Stations, &c. 



Girishk, . 

 (continued.) 



s ~ 



21 



Rood-i-Hel. 

 mund, .. 

 (River,) 



E. 



R KM ARKS. 



ly difficult to a besieging force. Mahomed 

 Siddick Khan, a clever intelligent young 

 man, one of the sons of Sirdar Kohundil 

 Khan, (the eldest of the Candahar bro- 

 thers,) rules at Girishk, and is the gover- 

 nor of the frontier district. He is attempt- 

 ing to form a corps of infantry, to be drilled 

 and disciplined after the European man- 

 ner. I saw about a hundred of his re- 

 cruits, armed with sticks in lieu of mus- 

 kets, being drilled by a fellow who looked 

 very much like a runaway sepoy dressed 

 in a gay English uniform. When I passed 

 through Girishk, Mahomed Omar Khan 

 and Mahomed Osman Khan, two sons of 

 Kohundil Khan, were encamped in the 

 vicinity, with about two hundred followers, 

 on the way to join the Persian army be- 

 fore Herat. The measure was most un- 

 popular, and it was given out that after a 

 sufficient force had been collected, the 

 young chiefs would in the first instance 

 undertake a plundering expedition against 

 Furrah and Subzawaur. 



The Etymander of the ancients. Broad 

 and exceedingly rapid river not fordable 

 at this season. The distance between the 

 banks is about a thousand yards, but in 

 spring it is said to spread itself over the 

 low ground on its right bank, and some- 

 times to approach within a few hundred 

 yards of the walls of Girishk. The Hel- 

 mund takes its rise in the mountains to 

 the west of Cabool, and after a course of 

 600 miles, during which it is joined by 

 several considerable streams, the principal of 

 which are the Turnuk, the Urghundab, the 

 Shah Bund and the Khaushrood, it falls 

 into the lake of Tumah. 



There is usually a small boat at this 

 place, by which travellers cross the river 

 when the stream is not fordable ; but this 



