The Assassins' (Jastle of Lamiasar
by 2 yards deep, dug into the solid rock. I counted three of
these just outside the castle walls on the north and east. In
times of siege numerous other cisterns of the same kind, some
finished inside with mortar and vaulted over with masonry,
some merely cut into the stone, stored the water within the
walls. They are scattered everywhere, and probably each
dwelling had a tank of its own, like the Assassin castle of
Sahyun, in Syria. In the lower part of the enclosure a stone
belt which runs across from west to east contains a row of
these cisterns close together, the largest one being over forty
feet long. Here the rock still shows traces of a small conduit
cut to run water from one cistern to the other, so that die leat,
entering through the higher north wall of the castle, filled all
the reservoirs as it flowed down.
This was not the only water supply. From the eastern
rampart, about half-way down its length and close to where
two of the outer cisterns are scooped out of flat slabs of rock
beneath the wall, a covered way dropped about 900 feet down
to the river. Part of it still exists: it is 3 feet wide, covered
in with arched masonry, very rough, about a foot thick, and
ends at the water's edge in a tower ten feet square. Both
tower and passage are now filled in with earth, but no doubt
they were built in rough steps, as the gradient of the hill is
much too steep for a path. The people of Shahristan have a
curious tradition, and call this passage the Gurg-u-Mish, or
Wolf-and-Ram. The rams, diey told me, were put into the
tunnel with skins of water tied under their bellies; the wolves
were let in behind. Terrified by the pursuing wolves, and
with no escape from the narrow way, the flock rushed up the
slope and provided the casde with water. But it would need
the imagination of a folk-lore expert to find the origin of this
remarkable tale.
A man from Shahristan, who had given us figs on the way
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