832 Itinerary from Yezd to Herat [No. 154. 



they have extended their incursions as far as Kerman, Isfahan and 

 Kochan, but with little success ; many of their company being killed. 

 As soon as one has collected sufficient plunder, he returns, and his place 

 is filled by another. To arrive at these places, they traverse the desert 

 of Kobis on the backs of camels, often making from twenty to thirty 

 pharsacs a day. The gangs are never less than thirty, and seldom amount 

 to one hundred men ; the greater part of them are under a chief called 

 Khan Dijun, who lives in the fortress of Shaknapoor, on the borders of 

 Seistan ; he it is, who sends them on these expeditions, and receives one- 

 third of their booty as his share. These ferocious fellows have a sun- 

 burnt complexion, their dress consists of a long cotton frock wound 

 round the waist, with a thong of camel's hide ; their heads enveloped 

 in turbans. They shave part of the upper lip, leaving only the end of 

 their mustachios, and allow two long locks of hair to fall on each side of 

 the face, which reach to their shoulders. When they visit these sandy 

 mountains, they halt and encamp at Shia Bactiara, or rather near the 

 source of a spring, about two pharsacs to the right of the road which 

 leads to Choutoran ; here they leave their camels, and advance upon 

 the road on foot to attack the caravans ; they lay in ambush in all 

 places, but the principal spot is in a defile near Godin Komber, to the 

 N. of the sand hills. The Beloochees hiding themselves behind the 

 heights, allow the caravans to enter the defile, when possessing them- 

 selves of both outlets, they pounce upon their prey, sword in hand ; those 

 who make the least resistance, are sure to be massacred without pity. 

 By their unheard-of cruelties, they have made themselves so much feared, 

 that twenty or thirty of them have been known to plunder a caravan 

 of two hundred persons with impunity, the great part of them armed. 

 The murders they have committed, are without number. The most 

 dreadful took place in 1823, when they put to death a hundred or more 

 pilgrims going to pay their devotions to the tombs at Mushed. There 

 is still to be seen near the third pyramid, a heap of the remains of these 

 unfortunate creatures, as a warning to other travellers. At the time 

 we passed, we saw the bodies of five persons that had recently been 

 murdered, and their assassins were encamped at Shia- Bactiara as we pass- 

 ed, but as they were few in number, they were afraid to attack our 

 caravan, which was a strong one ; we were well armed, besides having 

 an escort with us. A detachment belonging to them, six in number, re- 



