VILLAGES. 
383 
Meshed ; to the northward, it is bounded by a continuation ojf moun¬ 
tains which overlook Teheran, and which continue unbroken in heights 
of greater or less magnitude as far as Meshed ; and to the southward 
and westward by the great salt desert or caveer that extends even to 
the confines of Yezd. 
On the 3d of August we continued our route on the same plain of 
Damgan, to Bakshabad, a village about ten miles distant by the road, 
called three fursungs, about nine miles geographic. As the deviations 
were few, we travelled over a very fine hard road that slanted towards 
the mountains, with remains here and there of villages, some of tliem 
apparently large. We passed close to the inhabited one of Beisa- 
bad, and a little beyond our stage was an excellent clay fort, flanked 
with towers, called Dowletabad. The plain is said to abound in the 
gour khur, or wild ass. 
On the 4th we verged more to the mountains, towards a collection 
of three villages, called collectively Tu Derwar, that are situated in a 
narrow gorge on the banks of a stream, to the neighbourhood of 
which they ow^e their existence and prosperity. All around this 
gorge is a most wild and unprofitable waste; the verdure of the trees 
and fields on the margin of the river highly contrasts with the 
nakedness of the over-hanging mountains. The first village in the 
gorge, remarkable for a very large tower situated in the middle of 
it, is called Sah, the second Derwar^ the third Tower. We finished 
our stage at the last, and preferred pitching tents under the shade 
of the trees, to taking up our abode in the houses, which were an¬ 
nounced as being full of a horrible bug called the sheb-gez or night- 
walker. The wounds which this insect inflicts are quite shocking, 
and more than one of our party were thrown into a fever by their 
bite, and not cured until near a month after they were bitten. The 
villagers were particularly civil to us, and acknowledged (the ac¬ 
knowledgment is very rare) that they were contented with the treat¬ 
ment of their Governor, Zulfakar Khan, who takes nothing from 
them but nohers, or servants for the army. On a former occa¬ 
sion, before His present Majesty was King, the Tuderwaries having 
