Joistan
small watercourses that ran through the tilled earth, a com-
fortable sound after the mountain silence.
The Upper Sbtb
I now meant to make straight for Teheran, sketching out the
more or less unmapped eastern Shah Rud as I went—but the
problem of the Daylamite frontier made me decide first on a
western detour by Joistan in case any medieval traces might be
visible at the southern opening of the Hazarchal track
Joistan, however, which we reached through a dreary land
of red earth by Dizan and Mehran, turned out to be a large,
prosperous village with some of the old humped tombstones
(called shutur—or camel), and with carved stuccos and lattice
work in the houses—but no trace of fortifications* West of it,
the Shah Rud runs in an open populous valley filled with
villages, with the chief place and centre of government visible in
green groves at Shahrak, some hours* ride away. North-west
of it is Elburz, not impressive from this its gender side, masked
from the lower ground by a world of folds and outworks.
On die opposite side of the valley, the slope rises gradually
to the passes on the skyline, with a fair number of villages,
and many tracks over the edge to the Qazvin plain. One
comes here into reddish earth like that of Alamut, and this,
and the softer lines of the landscape, give to the lower Talaghan
a mild and smiling aspect after the dark granite and high
severity of Takht-i-Suleiinan.
I did not rest long at Joistan, which is at the opening into
this milder land, for I heard of a fortress some hours' ride away
on this side of the Hazarchal Pass near Parachan. In spite of
the heat, in spite of the extra fatigue involved by the moral
effort of retracing one's steps, in spite of'Aziz's remonstrance
and The Refuge of Allah's eloquent silent resignation, I decided
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