THE YALE OF HEROES. 
13 
could bestow. We had reached the encampment at half-past 
eleven at night, having marched that evening about three far- 
sangs. Our invalids were much tired ; and when we lay down to 
rest, most of us felt the air exceedingly cold, when compared with 
the climate we had recently quitted. At Iman Zada the thermo¬ 
meter, in the shade, usually stood at 86° ; and in the morning, 
just before sun-rise, we now found it from 64° to 68°. 
The vale of Oujon is ranked amongst the most fertile in Persia, 
for natural richness of pasture; and is additionally renowned, 
under the name of the Vale of Heroes, from having been the 
favourite haunt of Baharam the Fifth, surnamed the Gour, and 
his princely train, in hunting the wild ass. The whole valley 
abounds in springs, some hid under marshy ground, and others 
open, in the shapes of pools or streams ; but it is supposed all 
their sources communicate at a great depth. In the course of 
one of his excursions, near the western extremity of the plain, 
the king suddenly disappeared, leaving his astonished retinue in 
the wildest consternation. In the heat of pursuit, Baharam, who 
was much a-head of his followers, had dashed into a deep still 
pool of water, covered with green weeds, and, together with his 
horse, was instantly swallowed up. But what remains a wonder, 
until this day, though immediate search was made for his body, 
not the smallest trace of either himself or the animal that 
perished with him, was ever to be found. Sir John Malcolm, in 
mentioning this circumstance, corroborates its probability, by 
recounting the melancholy catastrophe of a European in his own 
escort, who, although warned not to approach it too near, disap¬ 
peared at the very spot pointed out as that fatal to the king. 
The histories of this beloved monarch of the Persians, whose 
fame, they declare, is to “ flourish with the roses of paradise, 
