KHATUNABAD. 
297 
this part of the country is in the hands of one of the sons of Ahmed 
Khan of Maragha; and on reaching a village about four miles from 
our stage his deputy met the Ambassador, ^nd informed us, that at a 
fursung from our road, from Seraskend onwards, are to be seen the 
ruins of a castle attributed to Zohak, (the 5th king of the Peishdadian 
dynasty, according to Persian history), but so high upon a perpendicular 
rock, that the difficulties of getting at it, which he described, deterred 
us from attempting to explore it. 
We next pitched our tents at Khatunabad, distant four fursungs from 
the preceding stage. After riding four miles, we passed the village of 
Gulijeh, and then a knot of two or three more villages together, called 
Ali abad. We traversed a country similar to that of the preceding day, 
of rich soil and undulating hills, cultivated to their summits, and saw 
Sahand in a new point of view, looking immense through the haze of 
the morning. Khatunabad was formerly a well-peopled village, but a 
murder having lately been committed by one of its inhabitants, Abbas 
Mirza levied such heavy fines upon the whole of its inhabitants as to 
cause them to emigrate. On this day’s march we entered the district of 
Germerood, which is separated to the northward and eastward from 
that of Serab by a long hill, which the peasants in their Turkish 
dialect called Buz Goush, but in good Persian is Booz Koh, the Hill 
of Wild Goats. 
On the 4th November, we arose with a thick fog, and travelled to 
Bolagh, over a region which looked like a bleak northern highland. 
I have mentioned mists before, and in this part of Persia, they are com¬ 
mon to the heights of mountains, though they seldom extend to the 
plain. The Greeks in their retreat over the Carduchian mountains, were 
screened by a mist from the enemy*, and the one we here experienced 
was similar in density, for objects were scarcely discernable at thirty 
yards. But at noon the sun made a powerful effect, and at length, 
as if by magic, the vapour cleared away and opened to our view a 
vast extent of mountains, intersected by immense ravines and deep 
* Anab. lib. iv. 
Q Q 
