The HiMen Treasure
matter of fact the land is covered with ruins of villages and
cities, probably from days when Lurish Atabeks built on sites
laid out long before by their predecessors in the land, the
Kurdish Hasanwayds from Sarmaj near Harsin, and the
Sassanians before them.
Christians and Jews were settled in this country in very early
days; and graves of far more ancient people lie beneath the
ground that runs towards die rivers, graves marked with
boulders embedded in earth and thorns, but still visible to the
eye of the expert and of the tribesman.
The country is divided by the almost unbroken ridge of
Kebir (or Kabir) Kuh, and beyond, south-eastward, flows the
Saidmarreh River, which becomes, lower down in its better-
known reaches, the Kerkha. It is a fine stream, green and
deep. It flows through desolate hills that lie in rust-coloured
ridges, like the upturned hulls of ships, in parallel ranges east-
ward. The eastern bank is Lakistan, a dangerous country,
whence Bairanwand and Sagwand raiders cross the stream in
summer ebb and pillage the tribesmen of the border.
I have been into the north of Lakistan, travelling into it
from the plain of Nihavend: but it was surrounded by so
careful a cordon of police, and was considered so undesirable
for the traveller, that I thought the best chance of reaching
the centre of the country would be through die solitudes of
Pusht-i-Kuh, if one could cross them unhindered and un-
observed. This would have proved a perfecdy sound and
successful theory if a buried treasure had not come to compli-
cate my plans.
Tbe Treasure
" As you are thinking of Luristan, would you like to hunt
for a treasure?*' said someone at a party one evening, a few
days before I was to leave.
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