e convenience of travellers who have
not the time or the energy to climb to the higher sacred spot,--and this
Ziarat was 45 feet long also with a tomb--this time of black rounded
stones--with an upright white slab of marble. The wall of black stones
was 11/2 feet high. Below this, to the south, was a third smaller oval
Ziarat, 20 feet long, 12 feet wide, with many offerings of horns perched
on poles to the west, and a heap of fancy stones, together with some
implements such as a mortar, pestle, and cups. A fourth Ziarat, very
small, with a mud tomb on which two mill stones had been deposited, was a
little further on and had a solitary rag flying.
Near these Ziarats was an extensive Beluch burial-ground, to which
bodies were brought from very great distances for interment. There was a
large rectangular Mesjid, the first I had seen of that shape, at the
western point of the graveyard, and three smaller ones at the other
corners, and the graves were very nice and tidy, formed generally of
fragments of yellow marble, a high stone pillar at the head and one at
the foot, and little chips of marble along the upper centre of the grave.
Others more elaborate had a neat edge and centre line of black stones and
coloured end pillars, while some consisted of a pile of horizontal sticks
with an upright one at each end.
The bodies of more important people, such as chiefs, were given larger
tombs, often very gaudy and of a prismatic shape, made of myriads of bits
of crystal within a black border of stones. Occasionally a trench was dug
round the graves.
It was interesting to note that here, too, as on the Kuh-i-Kwajah, one
saw "family graves" which, although not in actual compartments like those
on the Sistan mountain, were, nevertheless, secluded from the others
within a low boundary stone wall. The prismatic graves seldom rose more
than 11/2 feet above ground, but the semi-spherical tumuli which marked
some of the more important burial places were from 31/2 to 4 feet high.
These tumuli were either of mud or of large smooth pebbles, and generally
had no pillars. One or two, however, had a pillar to the west.
To the east of the graveyard the graves which seemed of a more recent
date had sticks at each end instead of stone pillars, and these were
connected by a string to which, halfway between the sticks, hung a piece
of wood, a ribbon, or a rag. The meaning of this I could not well
ascertain, and the versions I heard were many a
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