'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎379v] (783/820)

732
YAM—YAM
There they halt for some three weeks to plough and sow their crops,
Cultivation of land by and then they go to Ak Band at the foot of the
Chdrva Yamufcs. tmkchen JJagh hills, where they remain for the
winter and the spring, returning in time to reap
their crops, which are sown in November.
The grain, when reaped, is buried, they say, and they then return to
Ak Band Ak Band, and only come to the south of the
Gurgan 1 later on in the autumn.
The number of CJidrvd of all sections collected near Ak Band in the
winter is said to amount to about 800 families.
According to the chief of the Kujuk, Chumur, there are no inhabitants
Country between the Gur- ° n t ] ie banks of the ^rgan near Kujuk, or
gan and the Atrak. on the southern bank of the Atrak, and the
country between the two rivers is all chul, and
it is impossible for one to cross to the Atrak from Kujuk.
From the Obd of Sultan Khan Daz we proceeded 6 miles to Oba-i-Hatim
Ateh Bai obd on the Gurgan. M _ ulla ’ lte]l Bai action, on the bank of the Gur-
gan, 4 or 5 miles east of Ak Kaleh.
We pitched our camp on the nothern bank of the river. The ford
^ . j f j I found to be firm and good, and the water about
up to the mules bellies. The Gurgan river
here is about 30 yards wide, running in a narrow bed with steep banks,
some 15 feet below the level of the plain.
Hatim Mulla and his men were originally on the Atrak, and they are
Ateh Bai driven by Ja’afar- amongst those Ateh Bai who were lately driven
bai from the Atrak. away from the Atrak by the Ja’afarbai.
From Oba-i-Hatim Mulla AtehBai on the bank of the Gurgan, 4 or 5
j nc i ia miles east of Ak Kaleh, we proceeded to India,
9 miles. f''
Our route led north by west across the open plain that stiet.hes from
the Gurgan to the Atrak.
K'zil Ban. Three miles out we came to the Kizil Ilan {q.v.)
Two miles beyond Kizil Ilan we crossed what evidently had been the
Ancient canal from the bed of some large canal from the Gurgan, and
Gurgan. at the 9th mile we came to a slight rise, some
■^ nch5 - 30' high, called Incha.
From Incha we proceeded 12 miles to Oba-i-Shaikh Nazar AtehlBal on
Ateh Bat Ota on the Atrak. 8 <™thern bank of the Atrak, 3 miles west
of Gudri.
Our road led north across the plain for the first 5 miles, when we
Drying up of the swamp passed a pool of rain water at the foot of some
south of the Atrak by diver- rising ground, and continuing along the western
sion >f tne water from the edge of this rise we then crossed a muddy wet
southern to the northern bed . ,i ? ij-nri j i i
• stretch of ground, full of low reeds and sedgy
grass. This is said to have been a large swamp in 1891.