THE OUROOMIA, OR SHAHY LAKE. 
575 
senior of the horde soon made his appearance, to bid us welcome 
and conduct us to a tent pitched for our accommodation. While 
it was preparing I sat down in our host’s, and had leisure to 
observe the usual economy of such a dwelling. I am told that a 
general plan runs through them all. Each tent is divided into 
four apartments: the first for the individuals of the family ; the 
second for the horses and servants ; the third for cows, calves, 
or other beasts ; and the fourth for domestic purposes. In the 
last the victuals are cooked, and the women pursue their dif¬ 
ferent works of industry, such as spinning, weaving carpets, &c. 
This village is called Mamian. It lies in the small district of 
Sirdooz, which boasts a town of the same name, but of such 
scanty dimensions as not to contain above forty houses. We 
travelled the preceding night about six farsangs, and halted 
here the following day till midnight. 
September 6th. (Monday.) —- The hour of starting, being that 
for the sons of the mountains as well as ourselves, we left our 
tented menzil with an additional escort of most of its Courdish 
inhabitants ; and, under as promising a sky as the night before, 
proceeded on a course north-west, which brought us in half an 
hour to the river Gaidar. We crossed its then almost dry bed ; 
and three quarters of a mile further carried us to the bank of 
the lake. The white saline girdle I had remarked at a distance, 
now sparkled in the moon-light; while the broad dark waters, 
with one long fluctuating line of the same bright reflection, 
spread to the meeting concave on our right. The shore was 
very winding, and the road no less intricate, over, in many parts, 
an apparently untrodden plain; while the uneven ground, and 
mountainous heights and hollows to our left, by their deep 
shadows and uncertain lights, presented a scene of peculiar 
