to take this opportunity of reproducing what Chardin says of Parsi burial. We who know India are very familiar with "Towers of Silence." Bombay, Poona, Karachi, all places where Parsis congregate, have their Towers of Silence. You look at their solid circular white-washed walls from a distance, and you note the crow, kite, and vulture hovering round. But few of us perhaps ever view the inside. (There must be no confusion of the "Tower of Silence" with that which was known to the Persian as "Atish-gah." (I give here a picture of the old Atish-gah, near Isfahan.) Chardin (vol. ii. p. 186, edition Amst., 1735), who writes of 250 years ago, thus describes the Parsi burial place of Isfahan, situate about 15 miles from the town, in a secluded spot: "C'est une tour ronde, qui est faite de grosses pierre de taille; elle a environ trentecinq pieds de haut et quatre-vingt-dix pieds de diamètre, sans porte et sans entrée." Chardin next describes the method of conveying the dead from the top of the wall to the base inside: "Cette tour a au dedans un degré fait de hautes marches, attachées contre le mur en tournant. Quand ils portent un Mort dans ce Tombeau, trois ou quatre de leurs Prêtres montant avec des échelles sur le haut du mur, tirent le cadavre avec une corde, et le font descendre le long de ce degré, qui est cent fois plus dangereux et plus difficile qu'une échelle, n'y ayant rien à quoi on puisse se tenir; car ce ne sont que des pierres fichées dans le mur, à trois ou quatre pieds l'une de l'autre, non pas en ligne droite, mais en tournant et qui n'ont pas plus de neuf pouces d'assiette; aussi avais-je très peur .. de tomber, tant en montant qu'en descendant. Il y a dans celui-ci une manière de Fosse au milieu, que je vis remplie d'ossements et de guenilles. Ils couchent les Morts tout habillés sur un petit lit. Ils les rangent tout autour, contre le mur; si serrés qu'ils se touchent les uns les autres, sans distinction d'âge, de sexe ou de qualité; et ils les étendent sur le dos, les bras croisés sur l'estomac contre le menton, les jambes croisées l'une sur l'autre, et le visage découvert. On met proche du Mort, à son chevet, des Bouteilles de vin, des Grenades,1 des Coupes de fayence, un Couteau, et d'autres ustensiles, chacun selon ses moyens." It is well worth while to compare this account (there is much more, but I have quoted enough) with that given in the Encyclopædia Britannica of the Parsi Dakhma or "Tower of Silence," and the burial ceremony on Malabar Hill in Bombay to-day. The differences are marked. In the latter a small door in the wall obviates all dependence on scaling-ladders, cords, and perilous steps. Crows at Isfahan, vultures in Bombay, are the genii loci. Every Dakhma has, or ought to have, its attendant mortuary chapel. Chardin and the Encyclopædia Britannica each describe theirs. We left Yezdikhāst shortly after one o'clock, and passing through Aminābād (fine sarai with ab-ambar in courtyard; near sarai large walled residence; extensive cultivation) and Maksud-beg, we reached Kashera (or Khāshira) at 4.30, the distance being close on 30 miles. "Our horses from Abadah to Kumeshah were all fairly good, and the one that I rode from Khāshira to Kumeshah went like a bird, covering the 13 or 14 miles in one hour and twenty minutes, and that despite ten minutes lost in reloading the post-boy's pony, which fell and, freeing itself of kit and rider, bolted. The post-boy narrowly escaped a fractured leg. However, we all set to, and in ten minutes had pony, kit, and postbag readjusted, and were off once more at a hand canter in the direction of Kumeshah. Soon the famous pigeon-towers came in sight" (Diary). If you would see a picture of a Persian pigeon-tower, turn to Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii. p. 297, and Chardin, vol. ii. p. 128. The traveller towards Isfahan picks up a nice little river just about Maksudbeg and follows it and its pleasingly cultivated valley to Marg, 10 miles short of Isfahan. There the river seems to lose itself, but actually flows on, I hear, into the Zendeh Rud, and so through Isfahan, away to run to earth in that miniature Kavir known as the Gavkhaneh salt marsh. The banks of this river are just studded with pigeon-towers, the guano from which works wonders with melons, grapes, and other fruits. For a vine, though, they say, there is nothing like a dead dog or a dead anything snugly stowed away at the roots. My lips still cherish the memory of a luscious, fleshy grape that the wily Afghan used to sell to us in the days of the second Afghan War (1880). That I believe to be the true Linnæan vitis carnivora.2 1 Pomegranates. This is not dog Latin. VOL. XXXIV. I PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. SOCIETY'S LECTURE SESSION. Evening Lecture. - On March 21st Sir Alfred Sharpe, K.C.M.G., G.B., will lecture on "Eastern Africa after the War," in the Synod Hall, Castle Terrace, at 8 P.M. Afternoon Lectures. These are delivered in the Royal Society's Hall, 24. George Street, at 4.30 Р.М. On Thursday, March 7, the Rt. Hon. Sir William Macgregor, P.C., G.C.M.G., C.B., formerly Acting High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, and successively Lieut.-Governor of British New Guinea, and Governor of Lagos, Newfoundland, and Queensland, will lecture on "The Settlement of the Pacific," and on Thursday, March 14th, Mr. Andrew Watt, M.A., Secretary Scot. Meteor. Society, on "Meteorology and the War." GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. EUROPE. The Peoples of Hungary. - In the December issue of the Geographical Review, Mr. B. C. Wallis discusses the physical characters of Hungary, the distribution of the people and of the nationalities, and gives a general account of Hungarian agriculture. The paper is illustrated by a useful series of sketch-maps, and by a number of tables, and contains a large amount of detail. Among the more general points that emerge from the survey we may note that Mr. Wallis is of opinion that, despite the doubts which have been cast upon them, the Hungarian census figures are substantially accurate. Further, in a brief discussion of the claims which have been put forward in some Yugoslav programmes, the author expresses the opinion that the so-called "corridor," which has been claimed as a means of connecting the Northern with the Southern Slavs in a post-bellum rearrangement of territory, would involve the taking over of a purely German population, and has nothing to support it from the point of view of nationality. The South Slav claim, again, to "the Bačka," that is, to Baranya, Bács-Bodrog, and the Banat, he regards as open to the following objections. It would involve the taking over of many German and Magyars, with in some areas only a few Slavs. It would mean the loss to Hungary of an area which probably ranks second in agricultural importance, being only surpassed by the Magyar area on the Alföld. Finally, it implies Slav possession of the lower reaches of the Theiss as well as of the Danube below the Drave confluence. This would affect the use of the rivers as navigable waterways within Hungary. The Moslem Populations of Russia. - Recently various articles have appeared in the public press on the possible effects of the political upheaval in Russia on the Mohammedan and Turkish-speaking peoples there, more especially in connection with the so-called Pan-Turanian movement in Turkey. In several issues of The Near East abstracts have been given of an article on the Pan-Turanian movement which appeared in The Round Table, and the issue for December 28 contains in addition a leading article on the subject which discusses some interesting general points. The Russian Empire includes a total of under 20 millions of Mohammedans, of which some 16 millions are Turkish-speaking. The latter fall into three groups of very unequal size. The smallest, but intellectually the most important, is that of the Kazan Tatars. Though the centre for this group is the town of Kazan, its members live along the great bend of the Volga from Nijni Novgorod to Samara, and, including the Tatars of Astrakhan, number about a million and a half. They live isolated among other Russian peoples, use Turkish mostly as an adopted speech, and since 1905 have had a measure of freedom for their Press, which has undergone great developments. If Russia can be reorganised as a federal republic, they are probably destined to become the centre of the Turkish-speaking populations of that country. The second group includes the Tatars of the Caucasus area, which number about two and a half millions, but there are in addition about one and a half non-Tatar Mohammedans here. This group is cut off from the other Moslem communities of Russia by alien peoples, but is only separated by the Black Sea and an artificial land frontier from the Mohammedans of Turkey and Persia. Though less developed intellectually than the Kazan Tatars, this group has the economic advantage of the rich resources of the Baku oilfields. If chaos continues in Russia these Tatars may tend to turn towards Turkey. By far the largest compact group of Turkish-speaking peoples included in the Russian Empire is that which inhabits Central Asia. These number some twelve millions, and occupy an area between the Volga and Caspian on the west, the line of the Trans-Siberian on the north, and the frontiers of Persia, Afghanistan, and China on the south and east. All belong to the Sunni sect. The whole area was but loosely linked even to Imperial Russia, and the cutting of the Orenburg-Tashkend and Trans-Caspian railways would largely isolate these peoples. Should Russia break up, it seems probable that "GermanOttoman diplomacy can be relied upon to embody it [the area] in a Turkish-Islamic State. The prospects in this direction would amply atone for losses in Southern Mesopotamia and Syria. A BerlinBokhara project would take the place of the frustrated BerlinBaghdad scheme, and there would be an additional incentive for Constantinople to make peace with non-Turkish Islam, and win back the allegiance of the Arabs." Perhaps we may add that, as has been several times emphasised here, under Russian rule cotton-growing has made great progress in Turkestan. Thus, if Central Asia came indirectly under the control of Berlin, Germany would obtain direct land access to one of the most important raw materials of modern industry. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY. Sources of Potash. An article on this subject, in Nature for January 3, draws attention to a possible new source of supply which may acquire importance in the near future. It has been shown that potash-felspar, with the help of common salt, can be utilised to yield potassium chloride. Large deposits of suitable material occur in Great Britain-in Cornwall, Wales, and parts of Scotland. In the last named there are untouched supplies in Sutherland, where the visible outcrops are estimated to contain 20,000,000 tons of suitable material. It is believed that these deposits could be worked at a profit, and might lead to the development of an important potash industry in this country. The article goes on to give a somewhat detailed account of the Alsatian deposits near Mulhouse, which have had a considerable amount of attention drawn to them lately. These deposits are deep-seated, lying at depths of from 1600 to 2100 feet, and are very extensive. Only one mine was worked before the war, and the German Government regulated its output artificially in the interests of the Stassfurt mines. Other considerable potash deposits are known to occur in Spain and in Abyssinia. The last are in Italian possession, but till recently their exploitation has been very difficult, owing to the hostility of the Abyssinians. The question of the sources of potash, especially from the point of view of the industrial utilisation of Scottish felspar, formed also the subject of a lecture delivered by Dr. R. Campbell to the Edinburgh Geological Society lately. Dr. Campbell discussed not only the Ashcroft process of utilising Scottish felspars as a source of potash, but also the necessity for finding felspathic raw material for the enamel, glass, and pottery industries. The results of a survey of Scottish rocks were summarised, and it was stated that, in addition to the extensive beds near Durness in Sutherland, other deposits occurred in other parts of Sutherland and in the counties of Argyll, Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine. Potash felspar was mined and ground at Monymusk in Aberdeenshire nearly 150 years ago, and the lecturer stated that there seemed every prospect of the revival of a neglected Scottish industry. NEW BOOKS. EUROPE. La Révolution Russe: À Petrograd et aux Armées (Mars-Mai 1917). Par CLAUDE The events of the revolution in Russia are still too near at hand to permit of any real perspective, and we must accept M. Anet's book for what it professes to be, viz., a series of rapid sketches of the happenings of the early months, from March to May 1917, written from day to day from first-hand knowledge and |