I 
OF OUROOMIA. 
593 
passed the village of Barry. We now rather receded from the 
water, striking N. 30° E. into hilly, rocky, and very uneven 
ground. In half an hour we passed through the village of Ma~ 
gettelli, wildly situated in a deep dell, under a pyramidal mass 
of naked cliffs ; its little gardens and surrounding vegetation, 
beautifully contrasting with the rugged and frowning aspect of 
its towering back-ground. Through an opening in the hills, the 
Jake was visible at about two miles distance. In half an hour we 
reached our menzil, a place called Goorchin-Kala. It lies under 
the hills, with the country sloping gradually down from before it 
to the water’s edge. In parts the ground is cultivated, in others 
left to nature ; but almost the whole terminating in a sandy 
shingle, at the distance of a mile and a half. Goorchin-kala is 
estimated at four farsangs from our last halt. A stupendous 
and perfectly insulated rock rises abruptly from the coast, im¬ 
mediately opposite our quarters. In the winter, when the waters 
are at full, it stands many hundred yards in the lake: at pre¬ 
sent its western face may be approached with ease. The village 
takes its name from this august neighbour, which, in former 
times, they say, was crowned by a very strong fortress; indeed, 
the same that protected the treasures of Haluko Khan. In after- 
ages it frequently afforded shelter to the adjacent peasantry, 
against the lawless hordes which came down upon them from the 
mountains. But since the accession of Futteh Ali Shah, the walls 
and interior places of refuge have fallen into utter neglect, and 
therefore ruin ; one evident proof of the Bayat’s present security 
from the inroads of former depredators. Before the regulations 
in that respect, enacted by the king, and so vigilantly enforced 
in this quarter by his son, scarce a village could exist without 
its adjoining strong-hold; and indeed all over the kingdom 
4 G 
VOL. II. 
