and blanket. At Ahuân, however, we were much disturbed during the night by a travelling dervish, who clamoured long and imperiously for admission into the station, and went away roundly abusing its inmates as 'sons of dogs' when he failed to accomplish his purpose. The night air here was very cold, there was a sharp frost, and the tops of the neighbouring hills were covered with a thin coating of freshly fallen snow.
On Monday, 10th of March, we left Ahuân shortly before half-past seven. Our route lay north-north-east by north on a good, hard, gravelly road, over a gently falling desert waste, with hills on either side. We reached the station-house of Ghûsheh, where there is no village, before half-past ten, having covered the twenty-four miles in three hours. After an hour's halt for luncheon we pushed on to Damghan, following the line of telegraph over a hot, gravelly road and stony desert, passing numerous villages, including Daulatabad, with its triple wall and ditch. We reached Damghan, twenty-three miles from Ghûsheh, very early in the afternoon, and the post-station of
