CLIMATE AND HISTORY. 313 
My ancestors, whose record is in this book, came to Sistan from Persia a thousand and forty- 
three years ago (A. D. 860). At that time all the villages were around Zafhidan, where the ruins 
now are. The site of this village, Deh Abbas Khan, was under water, arid only became habitable 
ninety years ago. It is now but very little above high -^vater level, and in the phenomenal flood of 
May, 1903, it was under water for a time. 
Later I visited the niins on the mesa of Kuh-i-Khoja with Mehemet Bey of 
Afzelabad, the "arbab" or chief of the antique race of Sayids, who told me the 
same story with less detail. He added a few points which are worth recording. 
In his bo)-hood, si.xty years ago, the water about Kuh-i-Khoja was more abundant than 
now, and came from the south from the Shila instead of from the north, as it does 
to-day. The ruins of Kuh-i-Khoja are those of structures built by a king called 
Kaha-Kaha, by whose name they are still called. They belong to the same period 
as the ruins of Sabari, which are built of burned brick and lie at the bottom of 
what is now the main northwest bay of the lake. At that time, before the building 
of Zahidan, there was no water in the lake of Sistan. 
As we approached the top of Kuh-i-Khoja the "arbab" stopped me and, pointing 
to two small holes in the rock beside the path, remarked, " There was a spring here 
once, but it was closed by the Holy Man, Hazret Mehemet Ali (one of the immediate 
successors of Mohammed). He stepped on the spring and caused it to drj' up. His 
heels made these holes." When I asked if there were other springs of the same sort, 
the "arbab" replied that he knew of another on the north side of Kuh-i-Khoja, a 
second at Bendan, called Sum-i-Duldul, and a third at Malik-Siah-Kuh, in the comer 
where Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan meet. All three were closed in the same 
way by Hazret Mehemet Ali or by his horse. At Malik-Siah-Kuh, the "arbab" added, 
there was formerly a kanat or underground water channel, but now it is dry. 
From what has just been related it appears that the history of the lake of Sistan, 
as preserved in the traditions and written records of the ancient race of Sayids, 
consists of the following periods : (i) A time when water covered the area now 
occupied by the lake, the swamp, and the cultivated plain. (2) A time when the 
lake diminished in size and its shores were occupied b}- man. Meanwhile the size 
of the rivers decreased and springs dried up. At last the lake had so entirely disap- 
peared that the town of Sabari was built in one of the lowest parts of its bed, and 
Kaha-Kaha was built on what is now an island, but was then dr^• land. (3) Then 
the water returned to the lake, although the springs still continued to drj- up. The 
city of Zahidan was built. During the days of its prosperity the lake was larger 
than now, and probably received its water via the Shila. (4) Last comes the modem 
period, the last few centuries, during which the lake has shnnik to its present size 
and receives all its water-supph- via the delta of the Helnuind. 
AGREEMENT OF LEGEND, HISTORY, AND PHYSIOGRAPHY. 
The manner in which this traditional histor)- agrees with the historj' already 
inferred from physiographic e\-idence deserves careful attention. That inferred 
history may be recapitulated as follows : 
(i) During one of later fluvial epochs the upper or 25-foot beach was fonned 
and the lake probably covered the whole of the swamp and plain of Sistan and 
also the God-i-Zirrah. 
