s room--a very modest chamber, whitewashed, and with humble
carpets on the floor. A huge wood fire was burning in the chimney, and
the furniture consisted of a table and six chairs, three folding ones and
three Vienna cane ones, arranged symmetrically on either side of the
table.

[Illustration: Major R. E. Benn, British Consul for Sistan, and his
Escort of 7th Bombay Lancers.]

The Amir sat on a folding chair on one side of the table, and the Consul,
Ghul Khan and myself in a row on the opposite side. We were most
cordially received by Hashmat-ul-Mulk, the Amir, who--this being Ramzam
or fasting time--showed ample evidence of mis-spent nights. He had all
the semblance of a person addicted to opium smoking. His Excellency was
unshaven and unwashed, and seemed somewhat dazed, as if still under the
effects of opium. His discoloured eyes stared vaguely, now at the Consul,
now at Ghul Khan, now at me, and he occasionally muttered some compliment
or other at which we all bowed.

Presently, however, his conversation became most interesting, when,
having gone through all these tedious preliminary formalities, he began
to describe to me the many ruined cities of Sistan. He told me how at one
time, centuries and centuries gone by, Sistan was the centre of the
world, and that a city existed some twenty miles off, named Zaidan, the
length of which was uninterrupted for some eighty or ninety miles.

"The remains of this city," he said, "are still to be seen, and if you do
not believe my words you can go and see for yourself. In fact," added the
Amir, "you should not leave Sistan without going to inspect the ruins.
The city had flat roofs in a continuous line, the houses being built on
both sides of a main road. A goat or a sheep could practically have gone
along the whole length of the city," went on the Amir, to enforce proof
of the continuity of buildings of Zaidan. "But the city had no great
breadth. It was long and narrow, the dwellings being along the course of
an arm of the Halmund river, which in those days, before its course was
shifted by moving sands, flowed there. The ruined city lies partly in
Afghan, partly in Sistan territory. In many parts it is covered
altogether by sand, but, by digging, houses, and in them jewellery and
implements, are to be found all along."

I promised the Amir that I would go and visit Zaidan city the very next
day.

When we had once begun talking, the Amir spoke most interestingly, and I