the mountain on which it stood! Then the Samarkandis saw that God had hearkened to their prayer, and that their foes lay buried in the bowels of the mountain. Confirmation is found in the fact[745] that the conformation of Chūpān Ātā is the same as that of Syrian hills, and that lethal weapons are often turned up there by the plough. A variation of the legend has it that the Syrian waif belonged to that calling, and was discovered sleeping peacefully among his flock. The hill once bore a three-storeyed observatory, built by the astronomer Ulugh Beg, which has been replaced by a shrine with faience decorations of the patron saint of shepherds. It stands at the edge of the valley of the Zarafshān, which is here crossed by a timber viaduct on the line connecting Samarkand with Andijān and Tashkent. At this point stands a much more curious piece of engineering, which dates back to the time of Tīmūr. At right angles to the new railway line a gigantic brick arch juts into the shallow spreading stream. It is 100 feet in height, and at least as broad; and traces of two similar arches are to be seen in the river-bed beyond. The intention of the designer is not by any means clear. It could hardly have been to throw a roadway over the Zarafshān, which is not navigable, and would not require a bridge more than twenty feet in height. In the opinion of _savants_, this huge work was built to serve as a regulation of the current, forcing a certain proportion of the water into a channel reserved for the exclusive use of Bokhārā, which is entirely at the mercy of Samarkand in the matter of irrigation. The administration of Samarkand offers much interesting material for study. We see in Transcaspia a system of local government imposed on the unsophisticated Turkomans. At Bokhārā we observe the rules on which the paramount Power conducts its relations to the ruler and people of a protected state. It remains to sketch the means taken by our rivals in Asia to improve a mechanism evolved in a comparatively civilised community.