er
and Mahommed Azin, the head village man of Deh-i-Husena--a man who said
he was a descendant of the Kayani family, and who professed to know
everything about everything,--Gul Khan and I gradually climbed to the
higher part of the mountain. I say "gradually" because there was a great
deal to interest and puzzle one on the way up.

This path to the summit had been formerly strongly fortified. Shortly
after entering the gorge, where we had dismounted, was a strange wall cut
in the hard, flint-like rock by a very sharp, pointed instrument. One
could still distinctly see the narrow grooves made by it. Then there were
curious heads of the same rock with side hollows that looked as if caused
by the constant friction or some horizontal wooden or stone implement. I
was much puzzled by these and could not come to a definite conclusion of
what could have been their use. Even our guide's universal knowledge ran
short; he offered no explanation beyond telling me that they had been
made by man, which I had long before discovered for myself.

A small reservoir for rain-water was found near this spot, and nearly at
the top of the hillock a ditch had been excavated near the easiest point
of access, and another ditch could be seen all round. The low land round
the mountain has most certainly been inundated at various epochs, forming
a shallow, temporary swamp, but not a permanent lake as has been asserted
by some, and from what one saw one was tempted to believe that the plain
around Kuh-i-Kwajah must have been dryer in the days of its glory than it
has been in this century.

[Illustration: Dead Houses and Ziarat on Kuh-i-Kwajah.]

[Illustration: A Family Tomb (Eight Compartments) on Kuh-i-Kwajah.]

On reaching the summit we found ourselves on an undulating plateau
covered with graves, but these graves, unlike all others which I had seen
in Persia, had not only the characteristic points of the Zaidan ones in
which the body was encased in the tomb above the level of the ground, but
were in compartments and contained whole families. The first grave we
examined was made of huge boulders and was six yards long, four yards
wide and had four sections, each occupied by a skeleton and covered over
with flat slabs of stone. Each compartment was about 11/2 feet high, 21/2
feet broad, and 6 feet long. Near this family grave was a quarry of good
stone from which stones for grinding wheat, hand-mortars, &c., had been
cut. At the foot was a rese