ecution to the articles excavated
from the great city of Zaidan.

A great profusion of beads of amber, jasper, crystal, turquoise,
malachite, agate, had been found in Zaidan and some that we saw were
handsomely polished and cut, some were ornamented, others were made of
some composition like very hard enamel. All--even the hardest crystal
ones--had clean holes drilled through them.

The Kalantar had built himself a fine residence at Iskil, with huge rooms
and lofty domes, and here he kept these collections. His generous nature
had caused him to build a handsome guest house in front of his dwelling
in order to put up and entertain his friends, native or foreign.

It was on the steps of his guest house that the last act of a terrible
tragedy took place only a short time before we visited Iskil. About ten
years ago, in 1891, a man called Mahommed Hussein Khan, an Afghan
refugee, came to live in Bunjar, bringing with him a _sigah_ wife
(concubine), her mother and a child. Shortly after his arrival he left
his family in Bunjar and went on a pilgrimage to Meshed. No news was
received of him for a very long time, and the wife wrote to him--when her
money and patience were exhausted--that if he did not return on a certain
date or answer her letter she should consider herself divorced from him.
He replied that she might consider herself free from the date of receipt
of his letter, and requested her to send her mother in charge of his
child to Meshed.

During Mahommed Hussein's absence rumour says that Kalantar Mir-Abbas had
an intrigue with the lady, and on receipt of her husband's letter from
Meshed he forcibly removed her from Bunjar and compelled her to marry
him, Mir-Abbas, at Iskil.

Unluckily, the lady was a Suni and Kalantar Mir-Abbas was a Shia, which
made it difficult to overcome certain religious obstacles. Such a union
would anyhow be greatly resented by relations on both sides. In fact,
about a year ago, 1900, the lady's brother, a native of Girisk, near
Kandahar, enraged at his sister marrying a man who was not an Afghan, and
of a different persuasion, came to Iskil with characteristically
treacherous Afghan ways and sought service with the Kalantar, assuring
him of the great affection and devotion he entertained towards him. The
good-hearted Kalantar immediately gave him employment and treated him
most generously.

On the night of September 19th, 1901, the Kalantar had been entertaining
some friends in the D