BAGH SHAH. 
361 
soon after getting disengaged from the narrow pass leading from Dema- 
wend, is a collection of four villages, Abserd, Taskeen, Ahroon, and 
Bidek, on the borders of a small stream. At two fursungs from Dema- 
wend we came to a larger village called Aineh verzoon, around which, to 
the extent of about one mile in length and half a mile in breadth, we 
remarked the cultivation of wheat, barley, and clover. This yields, 
according to the account of the Ketkhoda, from 200 to 300 kherwars 
of grain, the ground giving five maims for every one sown. The water, 
which is the cause of this produce, and indeed of the existence of the 
village, proceeds from a spring in the neighbouring mountain. Two 
miles further on is Jahboon, with cultivation of about a mile in circum¬ 
ference surrounding it; and two miles still further is the Bagh Shah, 
where we halted for the day. In all this plain of twenty miles in length 
and four in breadth, there may be about four square miles of culti¬ 
vation ; the rest is an arid, stony desert, yielding only thorns and little 
succulent herbs, over which the cattle of the Eelauts range in the fullest 
liberty. 
The Bagh Shah, or the King’s garden, consists of an enclosed piece 
of ground about five hundred paces square, (through the centre of which 
runs a broad alley of poplar-trees, with other alleys at right angles,) and 
is completely filled in its other parts by fruit trees. It only yields a 
revenue of thirty tomauns. The entry is through what is called a Ser- 
der, which consists of a pair of folding gates below, and a room above, 
with other small rooms and offices about it. Aga Mahomed Khan first 
established this as a hunting seat. The present King still keeps it up, 
but does not frequent it so much as his predecessor. Both, how¬ 
ever, are celebrated for their passion for the chase: the Khan de¬ 
lighted in running the deer with greyhounds, the Shah in hawking and 
shooting. Near the Bagh Shah is a small glen, which is the passage 
of the wild goats and mountain deer from their Kishlak'^ to their 
Yeylak f, and here it is said that Aga Mahomed Khan used to take 
his station, making a carnage which is described as very great. 
3 A 
* Hot region. 
f Cold region. 
