From Kuh-benan to Tebbes the distance is 150 miles, or fully
18 miles a day for eight days. From Kuh-benan via Naibend to Tun, the
distance is, on the other hand, 205 miles, or more than 25 miles a day. In
either case we can perceive from the forced marches that after leaving
Kuh-benan he came out into a country where the distances between the wells
became much greater.
"If he travelled by the eastern route he must have made much longer day's
journeys than on the western. On the eastern route the distances between
the wells were greater. Major Sykes has himself travelled this way, and
from his detailed description we get the impression that it presented
particular difficulties. With a horse it is no great feat to ride 25 miles
a day for eight days, but it cannot be done with camels. That I rode
42-1/2 miles a day between Hauz-i-Haji-Ramazan and Sadfe was because of the
danger from rain in the Kevir, and to continue such a forced march for more
than two days is scarcely conceivable. Undoubtedly Marco Polo used camels
on his long journeys in Eastern Persia, and even if he had been able to
cover 205 miles in eight days, he would not be obliged to do so, for on the
main road through Naibend and Duhuk to Tun there are abundant opportunities
of procuring water. Had he travelled through Naibend, he would in any case
have had no need to hurry on so fast. He would probably keep to the same
pace as on the way from Kerman to Kuh-benan, and this length he
accomplished in seven days. Why should he have made the journey from
Kuh-benan to Tun, which is exactly double as far, in only eight days
instead of fourteen, when there was no necessity? And that he actually
travelled between Kuh-benan and Tunocain in eight days is evident, because
he mentions this number twice.
"He also says explicitly that during these eight days neither fruits nor
trees are to be seen, and that you have to carry both food and water. This
description is not true of the Naibend route, for in Naibend there are
excellent water, fine dates, and other fruits. Then there is Duhuk, which,
according to Sykes, is a very important village with an old fort and about
200 houses. After leaving Duhuk for the south, Sykes says: 'We continued
our journey, and were delighted to hear that at the next stage, too, there
was a village, proving that this section of the Lut is really quite
thickly populated.' [Ten Thousand Miles in Persia, p. 35.] This does not
agree at all with Marco Polo's description.
"I therefore consider it more probable that Marco Polo, as Sir Henry Yule
supposes, travelled either direct to Tebbes, or perhaps made a trifling
detour to the west, through the moderate-sized village Bahabad, for from
this village a direct caravan road runs to Tebbes, entirely through
desert. Marco Polo would then travel 150 miles in eight days compared with
103 miles in seven days between Kerman and Kuh-benan. He therefore
increased his speed by only 4 miles a day, and that is all necessary on
the route in question.
"Bahabad lies at a distance of 36 miles from Kubenan - all in a straight
line. And not till beyond Bahabad does the real desert begin.
"To show that a caravan road actually connects Tebbes with Bahabad, I have
inserted in the first and second columns of the following table the data I
obtained in Tebbes and Fahanunch, and in the third the names marked on the
'Map of Persia (in six sheets) compiled in the Simla Drawing Office of the
Survey of India, 1897.'
From Tebbes to Bahabad | From Fahanunch to Bahabad
1. Kurit . . . . . . . 4 | 2. Moghu . . . . . . . . 4-1/2
2. Moghu . . . . . . . 9 | 3. Sefid-ab . . . . . . 6
3. Sefid-ab . . . . . 6 | 4. Belucha . . . . . . . 5
4. Burch . . . . . . . 5 | 5. God-i-shah-taghi . . 6
5. God . . . . . . . . 5 | 6. Rizab . . . . . . . . 5
6. Rizab . . . . . . . 6 | 7.{Teng-i-Tebbes . . . . 4-1/2
7. Pudenum . . . . . . 8 | {Pudenun . . . . . . . 4-1/2
8. Ser-i-julge . . . . 4 | 8. Kheirabad . . . . . . 4
9. Bahabad . . . . . . 4 | 9. Bahabad . . . . . . . 4
- | -
Farsakh . . . . . 51 | Farsakh . . . . . . 43-1/2
Map of Persia.
2. Maga . . . . . . . Salt well.
3. Chashma Sufid . . " "
4.{Khudafrin . . . . Sweet spring.
{Pir Moral . . . . Salt well.
5. God Hashtaki . . . " "
6. Rezu . . . . . . . " "
"These details are drawn from different authorities, but are in excellent
agreement. That the total distances are different in the first two columns
is because Fahanunch lies nearer than Tebbes to Bahabad. Two or three
discrepancies in the names are of no importance. Burch denotes a castle or
fort; Belucha is evidently Cha-i-beluch or the well of the Baluchi, and it
is very probable that a small fort was built some time or other at this
well which was visited by raiders from Baluchistan. Ser-i-julge and
Kheirabad may be two distinct camping grounds very near each other. The
Chasma Sufid or 'white spring' of the English map is evidently the same
place as Sefid-ab, or 'white water.' Its God Hashtaki is a corruption of
the Persian God-i-shah-taghi, or the 'hollow of the royal saxaul.'
Khudafrin, on the other hand, is very apocryphal. It is no doubt
Khuda-aferin or 'God be praised!' - an ejaculation very appropriate in the
mouth of a man who comes upon a sweet spring in the midst of the desert. If
an Englishman travelled this way he might have mistaken this ejaculation
for the name of the place. But then 'Unsurveyed' would hardly be placed
just in this part of the Bahabad Desert.
"The information I obtained about the road from Tebbes to Bahabad was
certainly very scanty, but also of great interest.
