incipal thoroughfare. Curiously enough,
however, this city appeared not to have had a wall round it like most
other cities one sees in Persia. It is possible that the inhabitants
relied on taking refuge in the strength and safety of the forts above,
but more probable seems the theory that Farmidan was a mere settlement, a
place of refuge of the Zoroastrians who had survived the terrible
slaughter by Agha Muhammed Khan.

It may be remembered that when the Afghan determined to regain his throne
or die, he came over the Persian frontier from Kandahar. He crossed the
Salt Desert from Sistan, losing thousands of men, horses and camels on
the way, and with a large army still under his command, eventually
occupied Kerman.

Kerman was in those days a most flourishing commercial centre, with
bazaars renowned for their beauty and wealth, and its forts were well
manned and considered impregnable. So unexpected, however, was the
appearance of such a large army that the inhabitants made no resistance
and readily bowed to the sovereignty of Agha Muhammed. They were brutally
treated by the oppressors. Luft-Ali-Khan hastened from the coast to the
relief of the city, and fiercely attacked and defeated the Afghan
invader, who was compelled to retreat to Kandahar; but Kerman city,
which had undergone terrible oppression from the entry of the Afghans,
fared no better at the hands of the Persians. The Zoroastrians of Kerman
particularly were massacred wholesale or compelled to adopt the
Mahommedan religion.

It is not unlikely--although I assume no responsibility for the
statement--that at that time the Zoroastrians, who were still numerous in
Kerman, driven from their homes by the invading Afghan and Persian
armies, settled a few miles from the city, unable to proceed further
afield owing to the desolate nature of the country all round. With no
animals, no means of subsistence, it would have been impossible for them
with their families to go much further _en masse_ in a country where food
and even water are not easily obtainable. The name of the
town--Farmidan--also would point to the conclusion that it had been
inhabited by Fars, and the age attributed to the city by the natives
corresponds roughly with the epoch of the Afghan invasion.

To the north of Kerman city we have another similar settlement, now
deserted, Mahala-Giabr (a corruption of Guebre), of which there is little
doubt that it was inhabited by Zoroastrians. One of the re