374 
KOOM, OR KOM. 
and straggling stunted trees, which sufficiently showed the tem¬ 
per of the soil; but at the termination of a couple of farsangs, 
we lost even this scanty and scathed appearance of vegetation ; 
and entered a succession of close, stifling ravines, between a low 
cluster of sand-hills. These winding paths led us out into a 
more open tract, within two or three miles of Koom, where the 
face of nature began to wear a less rigid aspect; grass grew in 
many places, and spaces of cultivation, with trees here and 
there, happily varied the painful glare of the unshaded sands. 
In our immediate approach to the city, we passed over a 
bridge of ten arches, which crosses the Hakah Ferak river close 
to the town. This stream takes its rise amongst the mountains 
to the south-east, called the Khoula Khaja. This range forms a 
sterile back-ground to the city, presenting piles of rocks and 
broken ridges of earth, deeply marked with salt and sulphur. 
The country to the east is one unvaried line of desert, stretch¬ 
ing for hundreds of miles, to the utmost verge of Khorasan. 
At about seven or eight farsangs distance, north-west of the 
city, the well-known insulated mountain, called Gaitan Guelmas , 
rears its immense rounded head. The name means, “ Go ! you 
return not.” This mountain is the Kou Talesme, mentioned by 
Chardin ; but its present appellation might very well suit a nu¬ 
merous description of travellers, who journey to Koom; and if 
any of them are brought that way, they literally “ go, and return 
notthe most frequent caravans to this holy city, bearing with 
them trains of the dead ; who were anxious, while alive, to 
make their last bed in this sacred ground. 
We entered the city of Koom, or Kom, about eleven o’clock 
in the day; and, notwithstanding all I had heard of its religious 
magnificence, I thought it one of the most desolate-looking 
