conducted out of the streets, are carefully
collected in stagnant pools, dug expressly for the
purpose, in the open streets. This ingenious
contrivance for securing to the inhabitants
the greatest possible amount of unhealthiness
in the compactest possible form, is rendered
still more effective by certain practices, which
prevail amongst the people, of flinging out
their dead cats and dogs, and other contaminating
putridities, into the middle of the
streets, where they are suffered to rot and
volatilize into the air. Yet this city was
originally built with infinite pains and
magnificence, and constructed with a skilful eye
to its defences. Fortified on all sides, by a
deep ditch, and solid earthen walls, pierced
by gates, and defended by outworks, it
presented an almost impregnable aspect; although
at the time when the Persians assailed it, the
fortifications appear to have been so much
neglected, that had the besiegers conducted their
operations with ordinary tact, they might have
carried the place, according to the best military
authorities, in four-and-twenty hours.
From the description Mr. Kaye gives us of
the city, we gather that it forms a quadrangle,
the four sides of which are of nearly equal
length, a little less than a mile in extent,
fronting the four points of the compass. The
main defences consisted of two covered ways,
or fausse-braies, on the slope of the embankments,
one within, and the other without, the
ditch; the outer one being on a level with the
surrounding country. On the northern side
rose up the citadel, which, overlooking the city,
and being built of excellent brick masonry,
with high ramparts and towers, was the
strongest point of the whole.

The internal structure of the city is perfectly
regular, and in strict accordance with
its external form. It is divided into four
sections, by two principal streets, which cross
each other at right angles in the centre. The
manner in which these streets are built, with
shops on the lower floors, and covered in at
the top with a succession of small domes
springing from arches, so as to form splendid
bazaars, realises in the description those
pictures of Oriental pomp and wealth which
the European imagination associates with the
gay marts of the East , but, unfortunately,
these graceful outlines, enlivened to the roof
with the lively tints that flash upon the eyes
from the richest stuffs of the East, will not
bear close inspection. The bazaars have fallen
into ruin, and are literally choked up with
rubbish. The decay of all this fine masonry
is the inevitable consequence of a singular
defect in the architecture, common to all
similar structures in that country,—not one
of the arches having a key-stone, in the
absence of which, a vacancy is left in the
apex, filled up loosely with bits of broken
bricks.

The population of Herat, (we are speaking
of it as it was described by Pottinger, and
the description, no doubt, applies, with slight
exceptions, to the present time,) numbering
altogether about forty-five thousand souls,
consists of a strange mixture of Hindoos,
Armenians, and Jews. It was a period of
domestic savagery when Prince Kamran,
whom the Persians came to dispossess, ruled
over the Heratee dominion. The local
Governor was allowed so small a salary, that he
made up for the short-comings of his income
by plundering the houses of the inhabitants,
and selling the people into slavery, just as
the prodigal proprietor of a well-wooded
estate would cut down his timber whenever
he wanted to raise a sum of money for his
exigencies. The consequence was, that the
people of Herat lived in a state of continual
fear. They wore in their anxious faces the
aspect of a miserable and harassed race.
Every man suspected his neighbour, and
lurked about corners, and hurried stealthily
through the streets with looks of watchfulness
and alarm, as if he were endeavouring to
escape observation, or fly from pursuit. Women
hardly ever made their appearance out of
doors; and after dark it was dangerous even
for men to go abroad without armed escorts.
The shops were hastily shut up before sunset;
and all through the night the poor people, who
had locked themselves up for quiet and
security in their houses, were scared by shrieks,
and cries, and challenges, ringing up from the
streets, where the rulers of the city were
waylaying and kidnapping such of their luckless
subjects as were foolhardy enough to linger
outside their doors, or to thread in the dusk
any of the avenues of the town, in pursuit of
their pleasures or their business. Such a
state of things is incredible out of that kingdom,
or Ogredom, of Dahomey, where human
traffic is a royalty, systematically worked and
fiscally protected, like a herring-fishery, or a
gold mine. But there are many incredible
things done in the East, of which we have yet
to learn the mysteries.

It was this seizing and selling of men and
women, which furnished the Shah of Persia with
a pretext for laying siege to Herat in 1838.
Amongst the indiscriminate victims by whose
blood and muscles the Governor's coffers were
thus continually replenished, were many
Persians; and the Shah was no doubt
perfectly justified in seeking an indemnification
for the wrongs committed against his subjects.
But it was only a pretext, after all; and if
there had not been another motive at the
bottom, the probability is that he would
never have troubled himself to vindicate at
Herat personal rights which he treated with
royal contempt at home. The motive is
easily explained.

Herat was formerly tributary to Persia:
and even when it was governed by an Afghan
prince, it continued to pay tribute to the Shah,
disguised under the name of a present. That
Persia should desire to recover her influence
in Herat, and be ready to seize upon the
flimsiest pretence for making war upon it,