BRIDGE OF KANARAH. 
685 
low ground before the great terrace: they had supplied me daily 
with moss , a beverage of acidulated milk, during my labours 
there ; and the wild groups they formed, with their black tents, 
simple garbs, and pastoral occupations, made a striking contrast 
with the finely composed and deserted magnificence in their 
rear. On leaving our lodgings in the village of Kanarah, we 
took our way westward across the plain. The ground was in 
excellent cultivation wherever water was procurable, and 
kanaughts were sunk in a variety of places for that purpose. 
Considerable tracts lay in natural pasturage, which afforded 
nourishment to the numerous flocks and herds belonging to the 
various parties of Eelauts who were scattered over the whole 
plain. The number of villages we passed in our day’s march, is 
hardly credible. In some we found inhabitants, but most of 
them were entirely deserted ; yet, wherever the trace of a human 
dwelling presented itself, the evidence of past agriculture was 
also discernible in the shape of kanaughts, and the ground being 
in more luxuriant produce than in other places. These vil¬ 
lages so innumerably overspread the valley in every direction, 
they must have been erected at different periods; successions 
of them rising and falling with the prince or his race, who 
ordered their foundation: and this seems to explain why 
so little of what formed the ancient capital remains on the 
ground below the platform. At about a couple of farsangs from 
Kanarah, we reached the banks of the river, not having met even 
the smallest stream in our way, and crossed by a stone bridge 
called the Pool-Khan. It has been a fine structure of three 
arches, but that to the west has fallen into such ruin, we found 
only a sort of ledge to pass along, and that so narrow as to 
threaten our slipping off every moment. However, I had now 
