scaffold destroyed and a dome built over the tomb ; also I forbad the servants, with threats, ever to bring about the movement again.
Ghazni is a very humble place ; strange indeed it is that rulers in whose hands were Hindustan and Khurasanat,1 should have chosen it for their capital. In the Sultan's (Mahmud's) time there may have been three or four dams in the country ; one he made, some three yighach (18 m. ?) up the GhaznI-water to the north ; it was about 40-50 qari (yards) high and some 300 long ; through it the stored waters were let out as required.2 It was destroyed by 'Alau'u'd-din Jahdn-sos Ghiiri when he conquered the country (550 ah.-1152 ad.), burned and ruined the tombs of several descendants of SI. Mahmud, sacked and burned the town, in short, left undone no tittle of murder and rapine. Since that time, the Sultan's dam has lain in ruins, but, through God's favour, there is hope that it may become of use again, by means of the money which was sent, in Khwaja Kalan's hand, in the year Hindustan was conquered (932 AH.-1526 AD.). 3 The Sakhandam is another, 2 or 3 yighach (12-18 m.), may-be, on the east of the town ; it has long been in ruins, indeed is past repair. There is a dam in working order at Sar-i-dih (Village-head).
In books it is written that there is in Ghazni a spring such that, if dirt and foul matter be thrown into it, a tempest gets up instantly, with a blizzard of rain and wind. It has been seen said also in one of the histories that Sabuk-tlgln, when besieged by the Ral (Jal-pal) of Hind, ordered dirt and foulness to be thrown into the spring, by this aroused, in an instant, a tempest with blizzard of rain and snow, and, by this device, drove off his foe.1* Though we made many enquiries, no intimation of the spring's existence was given us.
In these countries Ghazni and Khwarizm are noted for cold, in the same way that Sultania and Tabriz are in the two 'Iraqs and Azarbaijan.
