When we say, besides, that the interest of money at Herat is twenty per cent., we may form an idea of what the selling price must be to remunerate the merchant for his trouble! {269} CHAPTER XIV. HERAT. HERAT ITS RUINOUS STATE BAZAAR AUTHOR'S DESTITUTE CONDITION THE SERDAR MEHEMMED YAKOUB KHAN PARADE OF AFGHAN TROOPS INTERVIEW WITH SERDAR CONDUCT OF AFGHANS ON STORMING HERAT NAZIR NAIM THE VIZIR EMBARRASSED STATE OF REVENUE MAJOR TODD MOSALLA, AND TOMB OF SULTAN HUSEIN MIRZA TOMB OF KHODJA ABDULLAH ANSAEI, AND OF DOST MOHAMMED KHAN. [Greek text] ---Isidori Characeni, _Mansiones Parthicae, 17, apud Müller. Geograph. Gr. minores_. [Herat; Its Ruinous State] The traveller approaching from the north will certainly be surprised when, on turning round the mountain Khodja Abdullah Ansari, he sees lying before him the beautiful immense plain called Djölghei Herat, with its numerous canals and scattered groups of villages. Although trees, the principal ornament of every landscape, are here entirely wanting, he cannot but be convinced that he has reached the bounds of Turkestan, and with it of Central Asia, properly so called; for of this Herat is rightly named the gate, or key. Without going so far as the Orientals, in styling it 'Djennetsifat' (like Paradise), we cannot, nevertheless, deny to the surrounding country the character of loveliness and of fertility. Its natural advantages, {270} united with its political importance, have unhappily made it an apple of discord to adjoining nations, and when we consider the wars that have here been carried on, and the frequent sieges that the city has had to support, it is astonishing to us how rapidly the wounds inflicted seem to have scarred over. Only two months before we arrived, hordes of wild Afghans had here housed themselves, scattering desolation and devastation in every direction, and yet, even now, fields and vineyards looked flourishing, and the meadows were covered with high grass mixed with flowers. Like all cities in the East, it has both ancient and modern ruins; and here, as everywhere else, we must pronounce the former the more beautiful and the nobler. The remains of the monuments on the Mosalla (place of prayer), remind us of the ruins of the ancient city of Timour; the round towers lying scattered singly about look like the immediate environs of Ispahan; but the city, and the fortress itself, in the state in which I saw it, form a ruin such as we rarely meet with, even in the East. [Bazaar]