Q. Curtius tells how Alexander killed a great lion in the country
north of the Oxus towards Samarkand. [A similar story is told of Timur in
The Mulfuzat Timury, translated by Major Charles Stewart, 1830 (p. 69):
"During the march '(near Balkh)' two lions made their appearance, one of
them a male, the other a female. I (Timur) resolved to kill them myself,
and having shot them both with arrows, I considered this circumstance as a
lucky omen." - H. C.] (Burnes, II. 200; Q. R. 155; Ilch. I. 90; J.
As. IX. 217; Moorcroft, II. 430; Wood, ed. 1872, pp. 259,260; Q. C.
VII. 2.)
[1] It may be observed that the careful Elphinstone distinguishes from
this general application of Dehgan or Dehkan, the name Deggan
applied to a tribe "once spread over the north-east of Afghanistan,
but now as a separate people only in Kunar and Laghman."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
OF TAICAN, AND THE MOUNTAINS OF SALT. ALSO OF THE PROVINCE OF CASEM.
After those twelve days' journey you come to a fortified place called
TAICAN, where there is a great corn market.[NOTE 1] It is a fine place,
and the mountains that you see towards the south are all composed of salt.
People from all the countries round, to some thirty days' journey, come to
fetch this salt, which is the best in the world, and is so hard that it
can only be broken with iron picks. 'Tis in such abundance that it would
supply the whole world to the end of time. [Other mountains there grow
almonds and pistachioes, which are exceedingly cheap.][NOTE 2]
When you leave this town and ride three days further between north-east
and east, you meet with many fine tracts full of vines and other fruits,
and with a goodly number of habitations, and everything to be had very
cheap. The people are worshippers of Mahommet, and are an evil and a
murderous generation, whose great delight is in the wine shop; for they
have good wine (albeit it be boiled), and are great topers; in truth, they
are constantly getting drunk. They wear nothing on the head but a cord
some ten palms long twisted round it. They are excellent huntsmen, and
take a great deal of game; in fact they wear nothing but the skins of the
beasts they have taken in the chase, for they make of them both coats and
shoes. Indeed, all of them are acquainted with the art of dressing skins
for these purposes.[NOTE 3]
When you have ridden those three days, you find a town called CASEM,[NOTE
4] which is subject to a count. His other towns and villages are on the
hills, but through this town there flows a river of some size. There are a
great many porcupines hereabouts, and very large ones too.
