Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-03-19
AN ANCIENT VILLAGE.
A Son Of Noah. According to Its InhabI-
tantS, Said to BE the Founder.

=
tants, Said to Be the Founder.
Onr special correspondent with the
Afghan Commission thus describes an
extraOrdirary-looking village which he
passed at the distance OF 100 miles
from Teheran:
1--WE had not proceeded ar on our
way when ycstiges Of the former condi-
tion Of things met our eyes 1t was at
place only 100 miles from Teheran
that we first realized the dreadful state
of danger in which the people had
lived. We found most remarkable
village at which we encamped. Sup
posing no Information could have been
procured, and an archRologist had
come upon it by accident, he would
have had profound puzzle to unravel
and explain. The name of the village
is Lasgird. The people ascribe an i'm
mense antiquity to it, and say that Las,
or Last, son of Noah, drew on the
ground the 'gird, or circle, which is
the plan of the structure. The hero of
this legend is not very familiar to BIZ
blical scholars in the West, but he is
not unknown in Afghanistan. The
Colosseum at Rome, although an oval,
would convey some idea of the general
appearance of Lasgird, only it must be
conceived as built of mud, which is al
most the only building material of this
country. 1t should also be recollected
that the one belongs to a period of good
architecture, of which it is a celebrated
monument, while the other may be said
to be entirely destitute of any preten-
sions of this kind.
The rude mud walls are thick and
solid all round at the base, and rise
some thirty or forty feet, where there is
a line of doors, with here and there q
small window between them. By
meaps of projecting beams, or branches
of trees, over which smaller branches
are laid, kind of gallery is produced,
bearing strong resemblance to those
simple forms of birds nests which are
formed of sticks placed on the upper
branches of trees. The wonder is how
the eggs do not roll over, or that the
chicks do not tumble down to destruc-
ton. So it is with the galleries of Las
gird-there is no protection on the
| SuSS' Il Su "0 oetV WoluCu anu
sheep and goats, upon them-a more
frail and dangerous-looking arrange
ment it would be hard to conceive.
'There are two tiers of houses all
round, and in some places there ap-
peared to be three. All had these gall
leries in front, either to communicate
with the next house, or, as some did
not communicate, they were only of
use to come out upon to sit, or work, or
for the children to play upon; to us
these places seemed the brink of de-
struction, while to the women and chill
dren it all appeared as safe and COM
Portable as if they had been monkeys.
OF course there was no getting up to
these galleries from the outside; that
would have suited the Turkomans. The
means Of going up were all on the in
side. In some instances there are rough
steps of mud, and in others there are
inclined planes, half ladders and half
road, made in the same way as the gal
leries. These lead up to galleries COM
municating with the houses, which were
an exact repetition of those on the out
side, the only difference being that they
were not so high up, and there were
walls at places which did duty as par
apet, hence the certainty of falling over
did not seem so great from the inside
as on the outside.
"While looking at this strange struc-
ture from one of these upper galleries,
an old woman, of at least 20 years of
age, passed me, with child stuck in
some primitive way on her back; few
yards from me was one of these means
of ascent formed of sticks with the re-
mains of mud hanging to it. 1t would
have done for fowls to 60 up to their
roosts upon. She clambered up on this
to the gallery above, but that was not
her destination; her house was one up
still higher in a corner, and to reach it
she had to crawl up on the edge of
crumbling mud wall, not above eight
cen inches wide; on her left hand was
perpendicular descent, enough to
make any one dizzy, and death at the
bottom of it, if fall should occur; al
though the other side there was only a
few feet, if the old creature had slip.
ped, the chances are that she would
have rolled down, and fallen over the
gallery with the baby on her back. The
old lady went up very steadily, and
reached her crows nest IN perfect safe
ty. could not help thinking that a
few generations of this kind of thing
would undo all our development, and
that we would 60 back again to our
original Simian condition.
.'The dwellings Of the people were all
in the upper part of the great circle,
and the center was filled up with
strange moss structures, which are now
falling to decay, as there is no longer
any danger from the Turkomans.
These places were for containing the
grain of the village and for receiving
the live stock of the villagers when
raid occurred. One of number of
wells was pointed out to us within
circle, and we were told that they had
three or four which were all kept in
good order in the days of danger.
There is only one entrance to this cir
Gle, and that is by small entrance
scarcely four feet in height, to which
there is stone door working with
pivot and socket similar to the ancient
stone doors found in the Hauran and
other parts of the Soudan. This stone
door Of Lasgird is very rude one, be- /.
ing eight inches thick in some parts,
and it tells its tale OF the existence Of
great danger and the necessity for pro-
lection.
''Sir Peter Lunsden had n lonp con-