Sefid-Ab Is Situated Among Hillocks And Burch In An Upland
District; To The South Of It Follows Kevir Barely A Farsakh Broad, Which
May Be Avoided By A Circuitous Path.
At God-i-shah-taghi, as the name
implies, saxaul grows (Haloxylon Ammodendron).
The last three
halting-places before Bahabad all lie among small hills.
"This desert route runs, then, through comparatively hilly country,
crosses two small Kevir depressions, or offshoots of one and the same
Kevir, has pasturage at at least one place, and presents no difficulties
of any account. The distance in a direct line is 113 miles, corresponding
to 51 Persian farsakh - the farsakh in this district being only about 2.2
miles long against 2.9 in the great Kevir. The caravans which go through
the Bahabad desert usually make the journey in ten days, one at least of
which is a rest day, so that they cover little more than 12 miles a day.
If water more or less salt were not to be found at all the eight
camping-grounds, the caravans would not be able to make such short marches.
It is also quite possible that sweet water is to be found in one place;
where saxaul grows driftsand usually occurs, and wells digged in sand are
usually sweet.
"During my stay in Tebbes a caravan of about 300 camels, as I have
mentioned before, arrived from Sebsevar. They were laden with naft
(petroleum), and remained waiting till the first belt of Kevir was dried
after the last rain. As soon as this happened the caravan would take the
road described above to Bahabad, and thence to Yezd. And this caravan
route, Sebsevar, Turshiz, Bajistan, Tun, Tebbes, Bahabad, and Yezd, is
considered less risky than the somewhat shorter way through the great
Kevir. I myself crossed a part of the Bahabad desert where we did not once
follow any of the roads used by caravans, and I found this country by no
means one of the worst in Eastern Persia.
"In the above exposition I believe that I have demonstrated that it is
extremely probable that Marco Polo travelled, not through Naibend to Tun,
but through Bahabad to Tebbes, and thence to Tun and Kain. His own
description accords in all respects with the present aspect and
peculiarities of the desert route in question. And the time of eight days
he assigns to the journey between Kuh-benan and Tonocain renders it also
probable that he came to the last-named province at Tebbes, even if he
travelled somewhat faster than caravans are wont to do at the present day.
It signifies little that he does not mention the name Tebbes; he gives
only the name of the province, adding that it contains a great many towns
and villages. One of these was Tebbes."
XXII., p. 126.
TUTIA.
"It seems that the word is 'the Arabicized word dudha, being Persian for
"smokes."' There can be little doubt that we have direct confirmation of
this in the Chinese words t'ou-t'ieh (still, I think, in use) and
t'ou-shik, meaning 'tou-iron' and 't'ou-ore.' The character T'ou
[Chinese] does not appear in the old dictionaries; its first appearance is
in the History of the Toba (Tungusic) Dynasty of North China.
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