Kanchi
November 25th, 1874. Kanchi, 16 miles.
― Marched from Tulbin down the valley of Nowdeh to Kanchi, one of four hamlets
known collectively as Persian. The village lies in a glen down which flows a
sub-tributary stream. It has 150 houses and a good stretch of rice-land up and
down the valley. The revenue is paid to the Government of Astrabad through Mirza
Allah Yar Khan Sirtip, of the Astrabad Regiment, Governor of the Beluk. The
people, though living in a narrow pent-up valley abundantly watered, and
growing little but rice, are tall, robust, and healthy-looking, in every
respect a finer looking race than the inhabitants of the dry highland glens
about Nardin. They are of Turk origin, and speak that language among
themselves, though all know Persian. Their fixed revenue is only 25 kharwars =
218 maunds Indian, and valued is cash at 10 to 15 tomans, less than one-tenth
of the gross produce. They, however, complained much of illegal exactions.
Their position secures their immunity from Turkoman raids, and they know them
only by friendly intercourse. From Tulbin the valley falls very rapidly, the
mountain slopes on either hand ending abruptly in rugged precipices. The glens
and ravines seaming the hill-sides are clothed with juniper to a height of 2000
to 3000 feet, above which is a dense forest of scrub, elm, oak, and maple. The
valley is for the most part closely and carefully cultivated, the fields being
carefully terraced for irrigation, and fenced with quick-set hedges of thorn
and bramble, or with reed walls and banks. Every untilled spot is covered with
a free growth of bramble and scrub, and indication of the proximity of the
Caspian and its moisture-laden atmosphere. The rich colours of the hill-sides
add much to the attraction of the fine scenery of the valley. Long slopes of
brilliant red clay alternate with darker limestones and sandstones, and trap-rocks,
of fantastic forms and varied colours, jut out from every spur. Four miles from
Tulbin lies the large village of Chinashk, high up on the left of the valley.
The main road to Bostam lies through the valley, and beyond, through the
village of Tillaver, and over a high pass, is the plain of the Khusbeyeitak
Mountains. The Sipan Salar’s thirty guns were dragged over this, and later a
battery of the Shah’s escort. It can, however, have been no easy task, and
could hardly be attempted in the face of an active enemy.
G. C. Napier, Kazi Syud Ahmad — Extracts from a Diary
of a Tour in Khorassan, and Notes on the Eastern Alburz Tract. With Notes on
the Yomut Tribe (1876)
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