The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-02-05
FOUNDED BY NoAH's SON.
An Extraordinary-Lookin Village in the
Wilds of Persia.

hHuS OF fefSIas
Our special correspondent with the
Afghan Commission thus describes an
extraordinary-looking village which he
passed at the distance of one hundred
miles from Teheran:
"We had not proceeded far on our
way when vestiges of the former condi-
ton of things met our eyes. 1t was at
place only one hundred miles from
Teheran that we first realized the dread
full state of danger in which the people
had lived. We found most remark
able village at which we encamped.
Surprising no information could have
been procured, and an arch@ologist 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, a son of Noah, drew on the
ground the grid or circle, which is
the plan of the structure. The hero of
this legend is not very familiar to Bibli-
cal scholars in the West, but he is not
unknown in Afghanistan. The Colos-
scum at Rome, although an oval, would
convey some idea of the general appear
ance of Lasgird, only it must be con-
ceived as built of mud which is almost
the only building material of this coun-
try. 1t should also be recollected that
the one belongs to 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
a small window between them. By
means of projecting beams, or branches
of trees, over which smaller branches
are laid, kind of gallery is produced,
bearing a 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
Lasgird-there is no protection on the
edge, yet we saw women and children,
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 appeared to
be three. All had these galleries in
front. either to communicate with the
next house, or, as some did not commu-
nicate, they were only of use to come
To eff oy.f fNrs tha oh
dren to play upon; to us these places
seemed the brink of destruction, while
to the women and children it all APP
peared as safe and comfortable as if
they had been monkeys. Of course
there was no getting up to these CALLER
les from the outside; that would have
suited the Turkomans. The means
of going up were all on the inside. In
some cases there are rough steps of mud,
and in others there are inclined planes,
half ladder and half road, made in the
same way as the galleries. These lead
up to galleries communicating with the
houses, which were an exact repetition
of those on the outside, the only differ
ence being that they were not so high
up. and there were walls at places which
did duty as parapet, hence the GER
tainty of falling over did not seem quite
so great from the inside as on the out
side, While looking at this strange
structure from one of these upper gall
leries, an old woman, of at least
seventy 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
with sticks, with the remains of mud
hanging to it. 1t would have done for
fowls to go 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 eighteen inches wide;
on her left hand was a perpendicular
descent, enough to make anyone dizzy,
and death at the bottom of it if
fall should occur; although the
other side. there was only a few
feet, if the old creature had slipped, 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 safety Icould not
help thinking that few generations of
this kind of thing would undo all our
development, and that we would go back
again to our original Similar condition.
THE dwellings of the people were all
in the upper part of the great circle,
and the center was filed up with strange
moss structures, which are now falling
to decay, as there is no longer any dan
ger from the Turkomans. These places
were for containing the grain of the vii
lage and for receiving the live stock of
the villagers when raid occurred, One
of number of wells was pointed out to
us within a circle, and we were told that
they had three or four which were
always kept in good order in the DAYS
of danger. There is only one entrance
to this circle, and that is by small en-
trance scarcely four feet in height, to
which there is stone door work
ing with pivot and socket similar to
the ancient stone doors found in the
Hauran and other parts of the Soudan.
The stone door of Lasgird is avery rude
one, being eight inches thick in some
parts, and it tells its tale of the exist
- i Al.