o much
burnt or another not enough.

To the east by south-east of Warmal, about a mile and a half off, were
four semi-spherical sand mounts standing prominent against the sky-line,
and a great number of sand hills of confused formation. The several
sand-banks which I had observed in the morning on our march to this place
extended to a great length towards the east, and were a great protection
to Warmal against the periodic northerly winds of the summer. Hence the
lack here of the familiar wind-catchers and wind-protectors, found
further north, the sight of which one missed on the roof tops after
having become accustomed to Sher-i-Nasrya and adjoining villages where no
roof was without one. Here there were only one or two wind-catchers
visible on the roofs of the few two-storeyed houses of the richer folks.

[Illustration: Sher-i-Rustam. (Rustam's City.)]

[Illustration: The Stable of Rustam's Legendary Horse.]

Another characteristic of dwellings in Warmal was that over each front
door there was a neat little fowl-house, subdivided into a number of
square compartments. The place was simply swarming with chickens.

CHAPTER XXVI

Sand accumulations--A round tower--Mahommed Raza Chah--A burial
ground--Rustam's city--An ancient canal--Rustam's house--The
Persian hero's favourite room--A store room--Reception hall--The
city wall--Where Rustam's son was impaled--The stable of Rustam's
gigantic horse--More dry canals--An immense graveyard--Sand and
its ways--A probable buried city--A land-mark--Sadek's ways--A
glorious sunset--Girdi--Beluch greeting.

Warmal (altitude 2,100 feet) was left at 8 a.m. on the 12th. We skirted
extensive sand accumulations, high to the north, lower towards the south.
The under portion of these deposits had become semi-petrified up to a
height varying from 20 feet to 50 feet in proportion to the loftiness of
the hills themselves. We were travelling in a south-east direction along
these sand banks cut abruptly vertically, and when we left them and
turned due south across a flat bay in the desert there were sand-hills to
the east and west about one mile apart.

At the most northern end of the western range a round tower could be seen
on the summit of a hillock. Having crossed over the low hill range before
us we descended into a long, flat, sandy stretch with tamarisk shrubs in
abundance. In an arc of a circle from north to south there extended sand
a