wonderful effects of deceitful mirage,
extremely common all over Persia. One sees beautiful lakes of silvery
water, with clusters of trees and islands and rocks duly reflected upside
down in their steady waters, but it is all an optical deception, caused
by the action of the heated soil on the expanding air immediately in
contact with it, which, seen from above and at a distance, is of a bluish
white tint with exactly the appearance and the mirror-like qualities of
still water.

Although in Central Persia one sees many of these effects every day, they
are sometimes so marvellous that even the most experienced would be
deceived.

The country is barren and desolate. Kasimabad has but two buildings, both
caravanserais; but Nassirabad, further on, is quite a large village, with
domed roofs and a couple of minarets. On the road is a large
caravanserai, with the usual alcoves all round its massive walls. Except
the nice avenue of trees along a refreshing brook of limpid water, there
was nothing to detain us here but the collision between one of my
pack-horses and a mule of a passing caravan, with disastrous results to
both animals' loads. But, with the assistance of one or two natives
commandeered by Sadek, the luggage scattered upon the road was replaced
high on the saddles, the fastening ropes were pulled tight by Sadek with
his teeth and hands, while I took this opportunity to sit on the roadside
to partake of my lunch--four boiled eggs, a cold roast chicken, Persian
bread, some cake, and half a water-melon, the whole washed down with a
long drink of clear water. Riding at the rate I did, the whole day and
the greater part of the night, in the hot sun and the cold winds at
night, gave one a healthy appetite.

As we got nearer Kashan city, the villages got more numerous; Aliabad and
the Yaze (mosque) and Nushabad to my left (east), with its blue tiled
roof of the mosque. But the villages were so very much alike and
uninteresting in colour and in architecture, that a description of each
would be unimportant and most tedious, so that I will only limit myself
to describing the more typical and striking ones with special features
that may interest the reader.

In the morning of October 9th I had reached the city of Kashan, seventeen
farsakhs (sixty-eight miles) from Kum, and forty-one farsakhs or 164
miles from Teheran, in two days and a half including halts.

CHAPTER XXV

Kashan--Silk manufactories--Indo-Euro