GIFT OF 
 
 HORACE Wo CARPENTER 
 
KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR 
 
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
KASHMIE AND KASHGHAE 
 
 A NAEEATIYE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE JOUENEY OF THE EMBASSY TO 
 KASHGHAE IN 1873-74. 
 
 BY 
 
 H. W. BELLEW, C.S.I. 
 
 SURGEON-MAJOR, BENGAL STAFF CORPS, 
 
 Author of " Journal of a Mission to Kandahar in 1857-58? 
 
 " Grammar and Dictionary of the Pukkhto Language" 
 
 " From the Indus to the Tigris" S*c. 
 
 LONDON: 
 TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 1875. 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 

CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Steppe Country Agricultural Settlements Natural Productions 
 Prevalent Diseases Climatic Influence Ancient Inhabitants 
 Early Conquest by China Conversion to Islam Invasion by 
 Mughol Campaigns of Tymur The Mughol Khans Expedi- 
 tion into Tibat The Khoja Usurpation Tungani Rebellion 
 AtalikGhazi ....... 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Preparation for the March Halt at Murree Departure from Murree 
 The Nara or " Cord " Rope Bridge Manner of Using It An 
 Incident of Camp Life The Jhfola or " Swing Bridge " Valley 
 of the Jhelam River The " Costum " of the Ancients Ruins 
 of Ancient Temples The Kaddal Bridge . . .33 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Visit from Diwan Badri Nath River View of Srinaggar Character 
 of the Architecture Scenes on the River Banks Floating Gardens 
 of the Dall. The Death of " Jingo "Visit to the Maharaja- 
 Banquet in the Ranbir Bagh The Kashmir Bayadere A Review 
 of the Kashmir Garrison Departure from Srinaggar Delayed 
 Story of a Pilgrim . . . . . . .57 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Visit to a Silk Filature The Maharaja visits the Envoy March 
 away from Srinaggar The Valley of the Sind River Mountain 
 Scenery at Sona Marg Pass from Kashmir to Tibat Crossing 
 of the Zojila Pass Winter Quarters in Kashmir Change of 
 Climate and Scene The Bhot Gpgly Abandoned Gold Diggings 
 Polo at Kargil Dress of the Bhot Peasant Buddhist Religious 
 Buildings Deserted Village . . . . .83 
 
 A oo a ,* 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 r PAGE 
 
 The Lammas of Lammayuru Life in a Lammasary Buddhism 
 and Polyandry Reception by Bhot Villagers Avalanche of 
 Stones The Raven and Rock Martin Stalk a Herd of Gazelles 
 Bhotmo Toilette Arrive at Leh Warm Clothing for the Passes 
 A Day at Hemis Gonpa Interior of Buddhist Temple Decayed 
 State of Buddhism Mughol Invaders of Tibat A Day after Wild 
 Sheep 113 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Ascent of Khardong Pass March in a Fall of Snow The Nubra 
 Valley Hot Springs at Panamik The Carawal Dawan A lucky 
 Shot The Glaciers of Saser Instinct of the Yak The Kumdan 
 Glaciers Effects of rarefied atmosphere Camp at Daulut Beg 
 Uldi The Effects of Dam History of Sa'id Khan His Escape 
 to Kabul Shares Kashghar with his Brother The Caracoram 
 p ass _The Kanjud Robbers Frozen Snipe on the Willow Pass 
 Meet our Yarkand Allies . . . . -144 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Visit to the Shrine Departure from Shahidulla Route down the 
 Caracash Valley The Shrine of Ababakar Revolt of the Kirghiz 
 
 Career of Sayyid Ali Recovers Government of Kashghar 
 
 Anarchy follows his Death Ababakar usurps the Govern- 
 men t_Character of Ababakar Approach to Sanju Pass Rough 
 Ground and Obstructions A Block on the Pass Sudden Snow- 
 stormFall of an Avalanche Benighted in the Snow Arrival 
 at Sanju. .... 183 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Reception and Dasturkhwan Character of the Country The Mir 
 of Sanju Receipt of the Atalik's Letter Character of Rustic 
 Life Our Rest House at Karghalik Frequency of Goitre A 
 Novel Military Salute Entry into Yarkand Reception in the 
 City Visit to the Dadkhwah His Reception of the Envoy 
 Turkish Bath in the City Afghans in Kashghar . . .219 
 
CONTENTS. vii 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 History of Yarkand City Political Factions of the Country Time 
 of the Chinese Rule The Tungani Rebellion Interior of the 
 City Variety of its Inhabitants Interior of a Restaurant Mar- 
 ket-day and Week-day A Round of the Shops Cradle Life of 
 Tatar Babies Russian Covers and English Interiors The Iron- 
 monger's Shop Institutions of the City Relics of Chinese Occu- 
 pation The Andijan Caravansary The City Magistrate on Tour 
 Decline of Prosperity ...... 249 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Departure from Yarkand The Atalik's Life Guards Arrival at 
 Yangi Hissar Approach to Kashghar Reception by Atalik 
 Ghazi The Ceremony of His Court Features of the Atalik 
 His Character Our Residency at Kashghar Appreciation of the 
 Telegraph Ruins of Ancient Kashghar Building of the Pre- 
 sent City Its Mixed Population Exercise of Chinese Troops 
 Fate of the Chinese Garrisons Chinese Converts to Islam Dress 
 of the Andijan Soldier ..... 285 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Shrine of Hazrat Afac Account of the Khojas Revival of 
 Islam Working of Miracles Dinner with Haji Tora Party at 
 the Residency The Shrine of " Lady Mary "Legend Connected 
 Therewith Reception at Artosh History of Satoc Baghra Khan 
 His Conversion to Islam Death of Satoc Sport with the 
 Hunting Eagle A Day after Wild Boar On the Skirts of the 
 Tianshan Camp Amongst the Kirghiz Bash Sughun Islam 
 and the Chinese Rule . . 320 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Visit to the Heir Apparent Tolerant Character of the Natives De- 
 parture from Kashghar Departure of the Wakhan Party Sud- 
 den Change of Season A Monastery in the Desert The Sands 
 of the Desert Cities Buried under Sand Shrine of Ordain 
 Padshah History of 'Ali Arslan Khan His Death and Burial 
 Sudden Change of Seasons Benefits of our Stay at Kashghar 
 Opium Smokers Experiences of a Panjabi Trader Prospects 
 of Trade . . 356 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Departure from Yarkand The Kokyar Route " The White Mosque" 
 March up the River Tiznaf The Pakhpu Highlanders Peri- 
 odical Floods Passage of Yangi Dawan Mountains Spread into 
 Plateaux View from the Top of the World Difficult Bit of 
 Road Return to Civilisation Reception at Leh Reflections and 
 Comparisons Funeral of Dr Stoliczka . . . 388 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE region lying immediately beyond the northern 
 frontier of our Indian Empire and comprehensively 
 designated Chinese Tartary, has during the last quarter 
 of a century, from time to time, attracted the attention 
 of Europe, owing to the steady extension of the Eussian 
 dominion upon its northern borders. This attention, at 
 no time very fixed upon the mind of the public, received 
 a fresh impetus by the events and issues of that remark- 
 able revolution which in 1862-63 severed the connec- 
 tion of this region from the rest of the Chinese Empire, 
 and in the following years led to the conquest of its 
 southern portion by a successful adventurer from an 
 adjoining principality. 
 
 It has now for us acquired a special interest, no less 
 by reason of the intercourse which, in the efforts to 
 develop a trade in that direction, has sprung up between 
 us in India and the ruler of this newly-constituted state 
 of Central Asia, than by that of the peculiar relations in 
 which he stands to his Russian neighbour. And the 
 questions naturally arise What is the new principality 
 of Kashghar ? And who is its founder Atalik Ghazi ? 
 
 It is not my purpose in these pages to enter on the 
 theme of Central Asian politics, nor to attempt an in- 
 vestigation of the causes which have conduced to the 
 
 6 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 successful establishment of a new Muhammadan state on 
 the ruins of the Chinese rule in this part of the Asiatic 
 Continent ; nor yet to inquire into the motives for the 
 revival of a decayed Islam in this extreme limit of the 
 Musalman polity of Central Asia. Neither is it any 
 part of my purpose in these pages to discuss the merits, 
 or question the wisdom of one line -of policy over an- 
 other, in respect to the relations we are by force of 
 neighbourhood involved In with the several states of 
 Central Asia. 
 
 These subjects have each and all of them a special 
 interest, but of a nature much too important to be 
 cursorily treated in the course of a popular narrative of 
 travel in the region of their development. It will suffice, 
 for the information of the general reader, simply in this 
 place to review in brief terms some of the principal 
 events which have combined to draw us into friendly 
 relations with the successful usurper, whom fortune has 
 drawn from the obscurity of his own home of discord 
 and dismemberment to figure in the light of a conqueror, 
 and with a fame which has been noised over the world 
 more by the force of fortuitous circumstances, than 
 through any individual merits of his own. 
 
 That great Muhammadan revival which, during the 
 past sixteen or eighteen years, has disturbed the peace of 
 the Chinese Empire to the extent of seriously threatening 
 the stability of its ancient regime, and which from time 
 to time has been brought to the notice of the western 
 world under the different names of Tayping rebellion 
 (by some considered a Christian movement), Panthay 
 insurrection, and Tungani revolution, according to the 
 several peoples promoting it in the different parts of the 
 Empire, though resulting in various issues in the several 
 provinces, was of uniform character so far as concerned 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 the persistent efforts of the rebels to subvert the consti- 
 tuted government in favour of their own advancement 
 to the supreme control of affairs. Or, in other words, to 
 supplant on the soil of China the state religion of Budha 
 by the majesty of Islam the doctrine of Muhammad. 
 
 In this place it concerns us only to trace very briefly 
 the progress and consequences of that widespread move- 
 ment in the westernmost frontier province of the 
 Empire the province which has been made familiar to 
 Europeans under the name of Eastern or Chinese Tur- 
 kistan and to describe the origin of our intercourse 
 and relations with the present ruler of that portion of 
 the region comprised in the territory of Kashghar. 
 
 Chinese Tartary under the imperial government com- 
 prised the two main divisions of Zunghar, or Mugholistan, 
 and Kashghar, or Eastern Turkistan, on the north and 
 south respectively of the intersecting range of the Tian 
 Shan or "Celestial Mountains." It constituted the pro- 
 vincial government of Ila, which was administered by a 
 viceroy whose seat was at the capital, called Ghulja or 
 Kuldja. 
 
 The northern division was called by the Chinese Tian 
 Shan Peh Lu, or "The way north of the Celestial 
 Mountains," and the southern division was similarly 
 called Tian Shan Nan Lu, or "The way south of the 
 Celestial Mountains." 
 
 The first of these has lapsed in great part from China 
 to Russia, and the former viceregal capital of Ila is now 
 a Russian garrison town, linked by telegraph to St 
 Petersburg ; whilst the most important part of Zunghar 
 is now an integral portion of the Russian dominion in 
 Asia, the boundary of which in this direction marches 
 directly with that of Kashghar, and is, in fact, immedi- 
 ately in contact with its people through the nomad 
 
x PREFACE. 
 
 in the western towns by the Khoja family of Khocand, 
 had raised it to a pitch of prosperity and wealth such as 
 it had not known since the decline of the Chaghtay rule 
 in the fourteenth century, now found themselves without 
 a recognised leader, and with no definite plan of opera- 
 tion, nor any acknowledged object of attainment. 
 
 In this state of aimless confusion their chiefs fell to 
 quarrelling amongst themselves, and being men who 
 had always occupied a subordinate position, and who 
 were without the talents requisite for command and 
 organisation, they very soon succumbed to the ambition 
 of more able heads and stronger minds. 
 
 First and foremost amongst these last was the chief of a 
 numerous family of Muhammadan divines, which had for 
 several centuries been settled at Kucha as the hereditary 
 custodians of a very sacred shrine in the city suburbs, 
 dedicated to the perpetuation of the memory of some 
 early martyr to the cause of the faith in these distant 
 lands, who had been canonised for his services in the 
 propagation of Islam. 
 
 This family of priests had, from the sacred nature of 
 their calling, and the influential position by common 
 consent accorded to them in society, acquired a con- 
 siderable control over the minds of the people through 
 the agency of their spiritual offices ; and, though amply 
 provided for in respect to temporal requirements by 
 very liberal grants of rent free lands, they did not neglect 
 such opportunities as the circumstances of their position 
 offered to increase the stock of their worldly possessions 
 pari passu with that of their spiritual control; and at 
 the time of this revolution they were, in point of wealth 
 and influence, the foremost of the Chinese subjects resi- 
 dents of Kucha, independently of the rank they held in 
 society as Khojas. The term Khoja, it may be here*. 
 
PREFACE'. ; x i 
 
 noted, means' ".gentleman," and is applied as a title to I 
 wealthy merchants and divines of a certain recognised \ 
 position, much in the same manner as we employ the 
 terms " esquire" and "reverend." . 
 
 The head of this Kucha family was one Eashuddin or 
 Eashiduddin. He took the leading part in the control 
 of affairs immediately after the overthrow of the Chinese 
 authority, and appointing the different members of his 
 family to the several local governments, now deprived 
 of their proper officials, very speedily secured the Tun- 
 gani a scattered flock of sheep without a shepherd as 
 his easy tools for the establishment of an independent 
 Khoja kingdom under his own sovereign control as 
 king. 
 
 So sudden was the overthrow of the Chinese rule, and 
 so indifferent were the people as to their successors in the 
 government, that Eashuddin, in the course of a few short 
 months, and without any serious opposition, was acknow- 
 ledged king ; and as such received the zakat and 'ushar 
 from all the country between Yarkand and Turfan, the 
 several district governments of which were held by a 
 host of his sons, nephews, and other relations ; though 
 not everywhere with that concord of action and unison 
 of sentiment which is necessary for successful admini- 
 stration. 
 
 But whilst Eashuddin in the north was consolidating 
 his authority over the states that had acknowledged his 
 rule, the states of Khutan on the south and Kashghar on 
 the west had already passed into the possession of two 
 other adventurers, whom the circumstances of the time : 
 and locality had brought to the front as leaders, and set 
 at the head of affairs in their respective places. 
 
 These were the Mufti Habibulla, an aged priest of 
 Khutan, who had recently returned from a pilgrimage to 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 Mecca with enlarged ideas of the world beyond the 
 limited horizon of his own secluded home, and Sadie 
 Beg, a barbarous nomad, the freebooter chief of the 
 Kirghiz of Kashghar. 
 
 The country was divided between these three self- 
 constituted rulers, when, in the first days of 1865, Khoja 
 Buzurg Khan, the lineal descendant of the Khoja Afac, 
 issuing from his retreat in Khocand, crossed the Tarik 
 Dawan passes to essay the recovery of the throne of his 
 ancestors. At the time he set out on this expedition he 
 was in the camp of the Khocand ruler, 'Alim Culi, who 
 had usurped the government from Khudayar, the rightful 
 Khan, and was at this juncture at the head of his troops 
 and partisans opposing the Eussian advance against 
 Tashkand. The Capchac leader, little reckoning the 
 power of his mighty foe, encouraged the enterprise of 
 the Khoja in the hope of reasserting the Khocand influ- 
 ence in the western states of Kashghar, and dismissed 
 him with best wishes for his success. 
 
 'Alim Culi, under the circumstances pressing, could 
 not spare any of his troops for service with the Khoja, 
 but appointed one of his trusty lieutenants and firm ad- 
 herents to accompany Buzurg Khan as military com- 
 mandant of such troops as he might raise at Khocand ; 
 whither the two repaired from Tashkand, in November 
 1864, to complete the arrangements for their enterprise 
 against Kashghar. 
 
 Buzurg Khan set out from Khocand towards the close 
 of the year with a following of only sixty-six men under 
 the command of Ya'cub Beg, Baturlashi, or " Leader 
 of the Braves " (the lieutenant lent by 'Alim Culi), an 
 Uzbak of Piskat near Tashkand, who had successively 
 held the rank of Coslibegi or "Lord of a shire" under 
 the governments of Mallah Khan, Khudayar Khan, and 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 'Alim Culi in Khocand. On arrival at Khashghar the 
 Khoja was welcomed by the people as a deliverer for 
 they were reduced to the extremity of despair under the 
 oppression of the hungry Sadie, and the violent excesses 
 of his lawless Kirghiz and he was forthwith established 
 in the palace as king. His first act was to appoint his 
 Baturbashi to the restoration of order in the city, and 
 the organisation of an army from amongst the Khocand 
 and Afghan residents found within it. 
 
 It is unnecessary here to follow in detail the career of 
 this remarkable character, nor that of his master, the 
 Khoja Buzurg Khan. An account of his life, compiled 
 from such information as I was able to collect during 
 our stay in the country, has been submitted to govern- 
 ment with my " Historical Sketch of Kashghar, and 
 General Description of the Country." Suffice it to say 
 that the latter, true to the character of his fraternity, 
 on the realisation of so readily conceded a throne, at 
 once made over the conduct of affairs to his general, and 
 himself straightway launched out into a course of unre- 
 strained debauchery^and licentiousness; whilst the other 
 his Baturbashi prompted by the instincts of his 
 ambitious nature, and fortified by the experience acquired 
 during the vicissitudes of a quarter of a century of usur- 
 pations, discords, strifes, and contentions which had 
 been the lot of his life in his own country, took advan- 
 tage of the opportunity to seize the government for 
 himself, and gradually to extend his authority over 
 the whole country as the " champion of Islam," under 
 the religious title of " Atalik Ghazi" a career in which 
 he was favoured by the circumstances of the time ; 
 namely, the weakness of the Pekin government on the 
 one side, and the occupation of the Eussians on the other. 
 
 It was about this period the arrival of the Khocand* 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 or Andijan party, in' the country tliat news of the' 
 revolution in Kashghar came dribbling across the passes 
 into India with the caravans of the petty traders of 
 Yarkand and Khutan. For these men now flocked over 
 into Kashmir in greater numbers than before, as those 
 of Kashghar, Acsu, and the other northern cities of the 
 territory resorted to the Russian markets in that direc- 
 tion, to procure the commodities of which they had been 
 deprived so suddenly by the abrupt severance of their 
 communications with China. 
 
 The appearance of these foreign traders in the Pan- 
 jab, and their glowing account of the requirements of 
 their country, now cut off from its natural source of 
 supplies by the overthrow of the government of which 
 they had heretofore been the subjects, soon secured for 
 them the interest and support of some commercial friends 
 on the line of their route, with the view of creating a 
 trade with the countries on the north of the Himalaya. 
 
 As a result of the representations made on this sub- 
 ject, the government in 1866 established the Palampur 
 fair, with a very liberal outlay, to encourage the develop- 
 ment of trade with Central Asia by the route through 
 Little Tibat. The Yarkand traders appear to have 
 appreciated its advantages, and their professions of good- 
 will and gratitude for the cordial reception accorded 
 them were by some viewed in a hopeful light as sure 
 prognostics of the early development of a really profit- 
 able trade with a region supposed to be of vast extent, 
 and represented as teeming with a population of scores 
 of millions of people who wanted tea, and cottons, and 
 many other stuffs which they could not now procure 
 through the usual channels of supply; and for which they 
 were dependent upon us, if we would but exert ourselves 
 to meet their wants, and reap, by way of reward for 
 
PREFACE. xv 
 
 our trouble, clear profits of from fifty to seventy-five 
 per cent., as were already realised by the petty traders 
 Sikh and Afghan from the Panjab on the small 
 ventures carried over the passes by them. 
 
 For on this route, unlike those through the territories 
 of our western neighbours of Balochistan and Afghanis- 
 tan, there were no claimants of blackmail, whose fellows 
 > robbed and murdered you even after paying the demands 
 of the hungry crew ; but there were risks of another kind. 
 The trader by this route had more to dread from the 
 dangers and difficulties of the country than from the 
 attacks of banditti or the depredations of tax-collectors ; 
 and the loss of a few fingers or toes from frost-bite, with 
 the death of a greater or less number of cattle from the 
 toils of the journey and the inhospitable nature of the 
 region and climate, were the worst of the hazards he had 
 to provide against. 
 
 Stimulated, however, by the tempting prospects of so 
 handsome a profit, and encouraged by the free access 
 afforded to the new market, some native traders essayed 
 the journey, and returned satisfied with the success of 
 their operations. In 1868, following this, the trade 
 received a fresh impetus by the journey of an enterpris- 
 ing tea-planter who, emerging from the seclusion of his 
 little plantation in Kangra, took a selected assortment 
 of goods to Yarkand. 
 
 Mr E. B. Shaw has given to the world a most in- 
 teresting account of his journey to and experiences in 
 the country, and has pourtrayed the peculiar character- 
 istics of the people so different from those of India 
 with a singular fidelity; but he has hardly done justice 
 to the natural obstacles of the country, nor clearly 
 pointed out the impracticable difficulties of the passes 
 as a trade route at any time. And whilst laying stress 
 
xvi PREFACE. 
 
 on the very natural anxiety of- Atalik Ghazi (whose 
 family had become Eussian subjects, and whose native 
 country had "for ever" passed within the territories 
 of the Russian Empire, even before he had estab- 
 lished himself in the position he had usurped from 
 the master he was sent to serve; whilst his troops 
 were either Russian subjects, or those of the Khan 
 restored by that Power to his throne in Khocand) for an 
 alliance with, and recognition by the British Govern- 
 ment, he has enlarged on the grand prospects of a 
 commercial intercourse with the country whose markets 
 had been already, in the time of the Chinese rule, stocked 
 by Russian merchants. And he has betrayed, by the com- 
 placent endurance of the rigid restrictions of the close 
 imprisonment imposed upon him during the six months 
 of his stay in the country, an amount of enthusiasm for 
 the cause of his adoption which may serve to explain in 
 some measure the omission to note certain facts as to 
 the population and resources of the country, and the pe- 
 culiar conditions of its political existence, which under 
 more favourable circumstances must have prominently 
 arrested the attention of the traveller. 
 
 Mr Shaw and Mr Hayward, the latter of whom ven- 
 tured to explore the country in the cause of geographical 
 science, entered the country together from the south at 
 the very time that Captain Rein thai and some Russian 
 merchants, escorted by a party of Cossacs, entered it 
 from the north. They were detained in their progress 
 to the court of Atalik Ghazi till the Russian officer had 
 concluded the business he had been sent to negotiate, 
 and were then conducted to Kashghar as Mr Shaw has 
 described in his well-known book. 
 
 Messrs Shaw and Hayward were not the first Euro- 
 peans who in recent years have penetrated to Kashghar 
 
PREFACE. xvii 
 
 from our side of the passes. The interest of the British 
 public in the countries of Tartary was first revived in 
 recent times by the enterprise of that learned scientific 
 traveller, Adolphe Schlagentweit, who, in 1857, pene- 
 trated to Kashghar and, arriving there during the revolt 
 raised by the rebel Khoja Wali Khan, fell an unfor- 
 tunate victim of that bloodthirsty tyrant's madness. 
 
 In 1865 Mr W. K. Johnson, of the Great Trigono- 
 metrical Survey, whilst working on the frontier of the 
 territory of the Maharaja of Kashmir, descended the 
 Tibat highlands to the northward, and in September 
 October of that year visited Khutan as the guest of its 
 new king, Habibulla Padshah, at the time that Atalik 
 Ghazi was yet the Coshbegi Ya'cub Beg in command of 
 the troops of the Khoja Buzurg Khan installed as king at 
 Kashghar, and was on his behalf contesting the possession 
 of Yarkand against the party holding it for Eashuddin 
 of Kucha. Following Mr Shaw's return to India in 
 1869, came Mirza Shadi, as envoy (the capacity in which 
 he had the year before proceeded to the Kussian capital) 
 from Atalik Ghazi to the Viceroy. He returned in 1870 
 with Mr Forsyth's mission, of which Dr Geo. Henderson 
 and Mr Shaw were the other members. Dr Henderson 
 has given us an account of this journey, of the difficul- 
 ties they encountered on the road, and the disasters that 
 befell their baggage. Yet notwithstanding these hin- 
 drances he has, much to his credit, with the able aid of 
 his co-author Mr Hume, and other coadjutors, enhanced 
 the interest of his work by a valuable illustration of the 
 ornithology and botany of the regions the party traversed. 
 But he has besides and this is what interests us here 
 introduced us to Cazi Ya'cub Khan, the future envoy 
 with whom I shall hope to make my readers better 
 acquainted in the following narrative as Haji Tora. 
 
xviii PREFACE. 
 
 The return of Mr Forsyte's party to India after a very 
 brief stay at Yarkand, was followed by the arrival of 
 Ahrar Khan, Tora, as envoy from Atalik Ghazi to the 
 Viceroy; and the reception at Kashghar of the Eussian 
 embassy under Baron Kaulbars for the negotiation of a 
 commercial treaty. A few months after the departure 
 of the Eussians, satisfied with the adjustment of their 
 business, Ahrar Khan returned to Kashghar from his 
 mission to India, and immediately, in November 1872, 
 our friend Sayyid Ya'cub Khan the Cazi of Dr Hen- 
 derson's narrative was despatched as the envoy of 
 Atalik Ghazi to the Viceroy of India and the Sultan of 
 Turkey. And this brings us to the despatch of the 
 British Embassy to Kashghar in 1873-74. 
 
 With the works of Mr Shaw and Dr Henderson already 
 before the public, it may be considered a presumption on 
 my part to obtrude with a further account of a country 
 already so fully described by them; but being convinced of 
 the importance to us of the latest and freest information 
 regarding the countries beyond our Indian possessions in 
 that direction, the more especially on account of the mag- 
 nitude of the interests involved by the character of the 
 policy whatever it may be which our statesmen may 
 adopt towards the yet independent states of Central 
 Asia, I venture to hope that even the smallest item 
 added to the stock of knowledge already made public 
 concerning the state of society and civilisation, the his- 
 tory and resources natural and industrial of these 
 states, and especially of the new addition to their num- 
 ber by the establishment of the independent Khanate of 
 Kashghar, may not be unacceptable ; particularly since 
 the affairs of those distant and inaccessible regions, at 
 this time more than ever, claim an unusual interest as 
 much amongst .the Continental nations of Europe as 
 
PREFACE. xix 
 
 amongst our insular public, and our Indian subjects who 
 are so close to the theatre of their progress. 
 
 "With this intent therefore eschewing the discussion 
 of politics as being beyond the purpose before me, and 
 avoiding a repetition of what has been already told by 
 my predecessors on this field of travel I venture to 
 offer a plain account of the journey and experiences of 
 the embassy to Kashghar in 1873-74, with such matters 
 of interest regarding the people and the country as our 
 opportunities enabled us to obtain. 
 
 Finally, in committing my book to the notice of the 
 public, I have only to add that, it has been put together 
 at odd hours in the midst of a holiday after three years 
 of continuous hard work of a varied and onerous nature, 
 and under circumstances depriving me of reference to 
 records and authorities. 
 
 H. W. B. 
 
 ALGIERS, 28th March 1875. 
 
KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 BEFORE taking the reader across the passes, a brief intro- 
 ductory notice of the country beyond them will in this 
 place, for convenience' sake, be advisable in order to 
 avoid digression from the narrative of the journey. We 
 will, therefore, proceed in brief words to remind the 
 reader of the geographical position and physical charac- 
 teristics of that region, and set before him a short notice 
 of its peoples, and the principal events of their past 
 history. 
 
 The territory of the Khanate of Kashghar which, in 
 the time of the Arab conquest, was known as Kichik 
 Bukhara or " Little Bukhara," and in that of the Chagh- 
 tay rulers as Mugholistan or " Mughol-land," has been 
 in modern times made familiar to European readers 
 under the names of Eastern or Chinese Turkistan or 
 " Turk-land." It comprehends the basin of the Tarim 
 river in all its extent, and runs east and west between 
 the parallel ranges of the Tianshan and Kuenlun moun- 
 tains on the north and south respectively. On the west it 
 is separated from the corresponding basin of the Oxus 
 the Khanate of Bukhara by the range of the Bolor moun- 
 tains and Pamir steppes, which, extending north and 
 south, connect the other two mountain barriers. And on 
 
 A 
 
KASHGHAR. 
 
 the east, beyond Turfan on the north and Chachan on 
 the south, it is limited by the Great Desert of Gobi. 
 
 Within these boundaries the country presents a vast 
 undulating plain of which the slope is very gradual 
 towards the east, and of which the general elevation may 
 be reckoned at from three to four thousand feet above 
 the sea. The aspect of its surface is mostly one of unmi- 
 tigated waste a vast spread of bare sand and glaring 
 salts, traversed in all directions by dunes and banks of 
 gravel, with the scantiest vegetation, and all but absence 
 of animal life. Such is the view that meets the eye and 
 joins the horizon everywhere on the plain immediately 
 beyond the river courses and the settlements planted on 
 their banks. 
 
 The mountain ranges bounding three sides of the 
 territory are amongst the loftiest in the world, and their 
 highest recesses are filled by glacier masses of greater or 
 less magnitude. These last, on the north and south, are 
 the feeders of the principal rivers of the country ; and 
 in the summer season cause their swelled streams to over- 
 flow the low banks of the sandy channels in which they 
 run. The rivers all issue from these mountain barriers 
 at intervals on the three sides of the enclosed area, and, 
 following a more or less easterly course, converge towards 
 the mid plain. And at different spots on its surface they 
 coalesce to form the Tarim river, which becomes lost in a 
 wide stretch of swamps and lagoons known by the name 
 of Lob, and described as covering an area of from three 
 to four months' journey in circuit. Little is known of 
 this vast tract more than that it is the nest of a wild race 
 of outcast people who shun the society of their fellow- 
 men, and contest the shelter of the forests and reed belts 
 with their more natural denizens the wild hog, panther, 
 tiger, and wolf. Beyond the lagoons is an unexplored 
 
STEPPE COUNTRY. 3 
 
 waste of blindingly bright salts, untraversable to all but 
 the wild camel, which, in its solitudes and freedom, breeds 
 and lives and dies a stranger to the toils and slavery 
 of his domesticated brother. 
 
 Owing to the nature of the country, and the sterility 
 of its soil, the population is massed at isolated intervals 
 bordering the mountain skirts along the banks of the 
 several rivers where they issue upon the plain. They 
 thus form separate settlements or states, separated each 
 from the other by a greater or less expanse of blank 
 desert, which is composed mostly of sand and gravel, 
 with a varying proportion of salines. 
 
 Cut off from each other as their several settlements 
 thus are, they form within themselves, for the purposes 
 of support, government, and defence, independent little 
 societies, which are confederated within the general area 
 of the country into one or more leagues or factions, 
 according as the political interests of the several com- 
 munities are influenced by the vicissitudes of the times, 
 and the disturbing effects of changing dynasties. Each 
 of these separate states or settlements has a central 
 fortified capital, around which spread the suburbs, and 
 beyond these again the rural districts and townships, 
 according to the facilities for irrigation and cultivation. 
 
 There are altogether thirteen such isolated settlements 
 within the Kashghar territory, exclusive of the highland 
 district of Wakhan and Sarighcul the Sarikol of the 
 maps whose Aryan population are of a different stock 
 and language to the Turk and Tartar of the rest of the 
 territory ; and they contain the whole of the settled 
 population of the country. Of these, Yarkand is by far 
 the largest and most populous settlement. It was the 
 seat of government under the Chinese who, for revenue 
 purposes, reckoned its population at 32,000 houses, of 
 
4 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 which about a fourth were allotted to the city and 
 suburbs. 
 
 Under the present regime these settlements may be 
 considered as reduced to seven provincial governments, 
 each administered by a Dadkhwah, or "magistrate," 
 who is under the direct orders of the Khan alone. 
 They are, in the order of their succession from the 
 south round to the north and east, Khutan including 
 Chachan, Yarkand, Kashghar with Yangi Hissar and 
 Maralbashi, Acsu and Uch Turfan, Kucha, Kurla, Ca- 
 rashahar including Lob, and Turfan or Kuhna Turfan, 
 " Old Turfan," as it is called, to distinguish it from the 
 little agricultural settlement of the same name adjoin- 
 ing Acsu. 
 
 In general appearance these settlements wear a look of 
 great prosperity and plenty. They are veritable oases in 
 a dreary and arid desert, and produce within their seve- 
 ral areas all the requisites for the independent support, 
 so far as food and clothing are concerned, of their normal 
 populations ; but they are incapable of sustaining the 
 strain of a largely increased demand. 
 
 Cultivation is entirely dependent on the water supply. 
 And this, owing to the small calibre of the rivers, is limited 
 in extent. What there is, however, is utilised to the 
 best advantage, and spread over the cultivated tracts in 
 numerous canals and irrigation cuts, whether fed from 
 the rivers or from springs. 
 
 The rural population is settled along the courses of 
 these streams in detached farmsteads, usually composed 
 of a cluster of three or four tenements together, which are 
 surrounded by their own fields, vineyards, ,orchards and 
 plantations. These farmsteads radiate from the city 
 suburbs in all directions quite to the verge of the culti- 
 vated tracts, where they end on the edge of the desert ; 
 
AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENTS. 5 
 
 and in some localities they form an unbroken spread of 
 trees, fields, and houses that stretch for a distance of from 
 ten to fifteen miles along the course of the larger canals. 
 
 To the traveller approaching from the desert, in the 
 spring season, the first appearance of one of these settle- 
 ments conveys the idea of dense population and profuse 
 abundance ; but on entering within the charming area 
 the reality soon discloses itself to his observation. He 
 finds that the mass of tall foliage, so attractive by reason 
 of its refreshing verdure, is very largely that of unpro- 
 ductive trees except of fuel, timber, and shade such 
 as the willow, poplar, and elm ; whilst the other most 
 common trees, such as the mulberry, walnut, and 
 ekeagnus, are not so valuable a source of food however 
 useful in other respects as trfe less obtrusive and more 
 carefully tended apple, apricot, plum, and vine. He 
 will find that the houses of the people are widely and 
 sparsely scattered, and dot the surface at such intervals 
 that scarcely fifty are within the range of sight all round, 
 at a radius of from one to two miles. Between them, 
 he will note that the patches of field and garden produce 
 wheat, barley, maize, and rice, cotton, flax, and hemp, 
 as well as tobacco, melons, lucerne, and pulse, and all 
 the vegetables of an English kitchen garden. 
 
 The list is long, but the out-turn is not in proportion ; 
 for he will learn, on inquiry, that vegetation in this 
 region only flourishes between April and October, and 
 that the produce of six months has to feed the people for 
 twelve, and that without the aid of external supplies. 
 These circumstances, coupled with the extent and nature 
 of the several settlements, perforce limit the population 
 capable of being supported in each, and reduce the 
 numbers very far below the figures heretofore received 
 as representing the inhabitants of this territory. 
 
6 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 During our stay in the country I made careful inquiry 
 on this subject, and have come to the conclusion that 
 the population of the territory of Kashghar, as before 
 defined, including the nomade Kirghiz subjects of the 
 Khan, and the hill tribes of Muztagh and Sarighcul, 
 taken all together, is considerably less than a million 
 and a half of souls. In fact, the whole region is as waste 
 and uninhabited as it looks upon the map. 
 
 It is not, however, devoid of some natural productions 
 of great value, and contains within itself a store of 
 mineral treasures which might be made a source of very 
 considerable wealth. It was the knowledge of this fact 
 that induced the Chinese to cling so perseveringly to this 
 distant and expensive frontier province of their empire. 
 Under their rule the gold mines and jade quarries of 
 Khutan, the copper mines of Khalistan, and the silver and 
 lead mines of Cosharab, gave employment and support to 
 thousands of families of Chinese emigrants and Tartar 
 colonists. The coal of Acsu and Kuhna Turfan was, in 
 their time, the common fuel of every household in those 
 parts of the territory. The iron of Kizili furnished them 
 a supply for the manufacture of domestic utensils ; whilst 
 the sulphur of Kalpin and the alum, sal ammoniac, and 
 zinc of the volcanic region north of Acsu the Khan 
 Khura Tagh afforded the materials for the prosecution 
 of several industrial pursuits, and supplied the wants of 
 the dyers, and tanners, and other such native industries. 
 
 The animal productions of the country were mostly 
 obtained through the huntsmen of Lob, who bartered 
 stags' horns, swans' down, otter skins, and other furs, 
 including tiger and panther skins, for corn, cottons, tea, 
 and cutlery. The wool of Turfan and the musk of 
 Khutan were exported to Kashmir, the one for the 
 manufacture of its peculiar shawls, the other for the drug 
 
NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 7 
 
 market of India. The sheep, horses, oxen, and camels 
 met the wants of home use and consumption, and were 
 bartered by the Kirghiz for silks, cottons, tea, and 
 cutlery. The wild camel of the Lob desert, the tiger of 
 the Maralbashi forests, and the mardl, or " stag," of the 
 same locality, the wild hog of the reed belts bordering 
 the rivers, the gazelle of the desert, and the antelope of 
 the mountains, the wild horse and wild sheep (ovis Poli) 
 of the lower hills, and the wild yak- or cutds (bos grun- 
 niens) of the snowy ranges were objects of the chase to 
 the hunter in their several vicinities ; whilst, similarly, 
 the pheasant, partridge, and hare, with the sand grouse 
 and wild duck on the plains, and the snow pheasant 
 and francolin on the hills, afforded sport to the falconer 
 and sportsman in those localities. 
 
 The silk and cotton fibre and fabric of Khutan and 
 Turfan found markets in Khocand and the adjoining 
 provinces of China respectively ; whilst the hemp resin, 
 or bang, of Yarkand formed .the principal item of export 
 in the direction of Kashmir and the Panjab. For the 
 rest, the carpets and felts of Khutan, the boots and furs 
 of Yarkand, and the saddlery and harness gear of Acsu, 
 were exchanged between the several states of the terri- 
 tory for the more special of their productions, such as 
 the cows and mules of Khutan, the walnuts and dried 
 fruits of Yarkand, the linseed of Kashghar, the tobacco 
 of Acsu, and sheep of Turfan, &c. 
 
 Such in main are the geographical features of the 
 territory, and such the principal of its productions. Its 
 climate is equally peculiar and varied. Its chief charac- 
 teristics are the extremes of temperature in midsummer 
 and midwinter, the general aridity of the atmosphere 
 and rarity of rainfall, and the periodical winds and 
 sand-storms that sweep its surface. Their intensity and 
 
8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 duration varies in different parts of the country, and 
 their nature is further modified by the operation of local 
 causes. 
 
 Thus, the temperature, which in the western districts 
 falls to 26 Fah. below zero during winter, and rises in the 
 sun's rays to 150 Fah. during summer, is described as 
 of more equable and temperate character in those on the 
 eastern borders of the country, where, as in Lob and 
 Turfan, frosts are mild and of short duration, though 
 the summer heats are more oppressive by reason of the 
 steamy vapour raised by the sun's action upon the swamp 
 tract which covers so wide a surface of the land in that 
 direction. 
 
 The steady north-west wind, which blows down the 
 valley in spring, is followed in the autumn by violent 
 storms and whirlwinds,, which reach their maximum 
 intensity on the eastern half of the plain, and raise clouds 
 of sand that fill the air with an impenetrable obscurity 
 over hundreds of square miles of the country. Eain 
 rarely falls on the plain, and only in thin showers during 
 the summer season a fortunate circumstance for the 
 people, for a good downpour, such as we are accustomed 
 to in India, would sap their mud walls and bring the 
 houses down upon their devoted heads. Snow falls in 
 winter for a few days only, to the aggregate depth of 
 perhaps a foot, and only on the westernmost parts of the 
 plain. 
 
 The wide range of atmospheric temperature in the 
 course of succession of the seasons, combined with the 
 effects of the other meteorological phenomena above 
 referred to, are not without their special influence on 
 the health standard of the people ; though what the pre- 
 J cise nature of this may be there are no sufficient data 
 from which to draw a just conclusion. 
 
PRE VALENT DISEASES. 9 
 
 During our sojourn in those cities, I opened a chari- 
 table dispensary in Yarkand and Kashghar, and, from the 
 large numbers daily attending, was enabled to acquire a 
 tolerably correct idea of the diseases most prevalent 
 amongst the inhabitants, as well as to form an opinion 
 as to the standard of their physical development and 
 endurance as a people. The result of my experience 
 tends to prove that, of the mass of disease and suffering 
 I saw, less was attributable to the direct influence of 
 climate than might have been expected ; that more was 
 the result of the operation of local agencies, and that 
 most owed its origin to neglect of hygiene coupled with 
 indulgence in vicious habits. 
 
 Under the first category, inflammatory affections of 
 the respiratory organs and glands of the throat were 
 common enough, as were rheumatic affections ; but 
 fevers were not so. And of these typhoids and remit- 
 tents w^ere more prevalent than intermittents, which 
 last, indeed, were remarkably unfrequent. On the 
 other hand, scrofula and pulmonary consumption, can- 
 cers and melanotic tumours, appeared with a frequency 
 of recurrence attractive of attention ; whilst diseases of 
 the eye its membranes and humours, and blindness 
 cataract and amaurosis, were met at every turn, the result 
 of atmospheric and terrestrial influences combined. . 
 / These last with bronchocele, which, in every form and 
 variety, are of almost universal prevalence in the city 
 and suburbs of Yarkand more than elsewhere, are attri- 
 butable to local agencies originating in the nature of 
 the soil, and afflict the people to a hideous degree. The 
 frequency of blindness is attributable to the intense glare 
 from the snow-white salines that almost everywhere 
 encrust the light sandy soil of the country ; whilst the 
 prevalence of goitre is assigned a cause in the quality of 
 
io KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the water supply which flows over a sandy soil very 
 largely composed of mica. 
 
 Of the diseases produced by vicious habits and faulty 
 mode of living, we need here only refer to those resulting 
 from the very general abuse of opium and hemp, as, owing 
 to their frequency and aggravated forms in both sexes, 
 they form an important item in the sum total of the 
 defects that combine to deteriorate the physical standard 
 of the people. They are found in great variety, princi- 
 pally connected with derangement of the digestive func- 
 tions, and may be classed under the comprehensive term 
 dyspepsia a disease which, in its aggravated forms, 
 unfits the sufferer from the pursuit of his ordinary avo- 
 cation, and too often develops itself into hypochondriasis 
 and mania. 
 
 With the above result of my experience of the healthy 
 state of the people in the two principal cities of the 
 country, it would appear that climate is less at fault 
 than society. On our own party, numbering 130 men, 
 the effects of the climate, during a residence of six 
 months in the western districts of the country, was only 
 beneficial. But then, as honoured guests, we were sur- 
 rounded with every comfort and convenience of pro- 
 tection, and the experiences of our mode of life during 
 the most healthy season of the year, afford no criterion 
 whereby to judge those of the resident population living 
 under far less favourable conditions. The rigorous 
 character and prolonged duration of the winter season 
 in this region condemns the people to a life of inactivity 
 during nearly half the year, whilst the powerful action 
 of the sun intensified by the arid and desert nature 
 of the country during the remaining portion of the 
 period, operates to render them less capable of enduring 
 physical exertion than the inhabitants of the more tern- 
 
CLIMA TIC I NFL UENCE. 1 1 
 
 perate climes, and at the same time under conditions 
 that claim all the energies of the people for the produc- 
 tion of the means of subsistence hinder a free develop- 
 ment of the mental faculties in the paths of science or 
 literature, and prevent the cultivation of the arts of 
 civilised life, such as architecture, painting, mechanical 
 skill, and so forth, in any degree beyond that of their 
 simplest and barbarous forms. Such is the conclusion 
 to be drawn from what we saw of the country and its 
 people. We found the latter for the most part suitably 
 clad and well nourished were they not so they could 
 not exist in such a climate but at the same time we 
 observed that they were singularly deficient in the 
 power of enduring any sustained physical exertion, par- 
 ticularly in the way of marching, even the poorest doing 
 their journeys astride an ass. Their literature, with the 
 exception of a few works dating from the flourishing 
 epoch of the Chaghtay rule, is very meagre, and consists 
 mostly of theological books introduced by the priesthood 
 of Bukhara and Khocand. Their cities, with the excep- 
 tion of two or three decayed mosques of the Arab period, 
 are devoid of buildings of any architectural merit, whilst 
 the mud-built houses composing their towns and home- 
 steads cannot for a moment compare with the picturesque 
 edifices of an Indian city ; for the substantial structure, 
 elegant style, and convenient design of the latter are 
 altogether unknown in Kashghar alike in the palaces of 
 the kings or mansions of the nobles, which differ but 
 little, except in size and interior comfort and decoration, 
 from the humble flat-roofed mud-built tenements of the 
 general community. 
 
 The country has no manufactures, and produces no 
 works of art of any excellence, or of such quality that it 
 could barter with its neighbours for more requisite com- 
 
12 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 modities. The silk fabrics of Khutan are far inferior to 
 those of Khocand, and find no demand beyond the limits 
 of their own territory; whilst its coarse cottons and felts 
 are sought only for the home market of Khocand. And 
 similarly the boots of Yarkand and the saddles of Acsu 
 go abroad no further than Kirghiz camps on the borders 
 I of the country. The wool of Turfan the finest in the 
 J world supports no home manufacture of any excelling 
 merit, though in the hands of the Kashmiri it produces 
 the shawls of which the celebrity is. world wide. The 
 highly prized jade, so greatly in demand amongst the 
 Chinese, was only wrought in the country by the skill of 
 emigrants artists from the interior of the empire. It 
 is on its raw materials and natural products that the 
 country depends for its external trade, and not on its 
 manufactures or products of skilled industry. Its gold 
 and silk, its musk and jade, its ~bang and its wool, are 
 all that the country can give for the tea, sugar, spices 
 and drugs of which it stands in need ; for the cottons 
 and muslins, the silks and satins, the velvets and bro- 
 cades of which the wealthy are the purchasers ; and for 
 the furs, cutlery, and hardware which are required by 
 every household. But for the development of these 
 natural sources of wealth the country wants a secure 
 and just government and a far more enlightened admini- 
 stration than is to be hoped for from a Muhammadan 
 ruler such as are the ignorant despots of the petty states 
 of Central Asia those sinks of barbarism, iniquity, fana- 
 ticism and oppression that form the crumbling barrier 
 between the civilised and Christian governments of 
 Great Britain and Eussia. The above facts, cited as 
 illustrative of the deficient energy of the people now 
 inhabiting the territory of Kashghar, are not to be con- 
 sidered as mainly the result of the climate in which they 
 
ANCIENT INHABITANTS. 13 
 
 live, though no doubt its effects are not without a certain 
 influence, which, in combination with the other conditions 
 of their position and government, has operated to pro- 
 duce the state of affairs described. 
 
 It is the nature of the society and the character of the 
 rule which obtain amongst them, acting upon the pecu- 
 liar innervation of the stock from whence they are 
 derived, that have been the principal agents in moulding 
 the character of the people to the fashion in which we 
 find it. 
 
 We are taught by the records of history that the 
 region now occupied by the people of Kashghar was in 
 remote times the seat of a race whose posterity have 
 peopled far distant and wide-spreading continents, and 
 have risen to the foremost rank in science and civilisation, 
 in industry and enterprise, in power and wealth. From 
 the vast plains between the Himalaya and the Altai, 
 and from the recesses of the mountain chain passing 
 diagonally between them, issued the forefathers of the 
 Saxon race in Europe, and their Aryan kindred in India. 
 But their pristine home knows them no longer, only a 
 few insignificant tribes (as to number) of the prime 
 stock now remaining in the inaccessible fastnesses of the 
 mountains from which they have been assigned a dis- 
 tinctive race designation. 
 
 </ It is on the slopes of the Hindu Kush the real Cau- 
 casus that we find the pure Caucasian, the representa- 
 tives of the original Saka, Sui or Sacoe, who were pushed 
 up from the plains by kindred tribes of the Yuchi, Getoe, 
 Jatta, or Goth, as they themselves were pressed by vast 
 hordes of a foreign and barbarous stock issuing from the 
 extreme north. 
 
 Successive irruptions of these northern barbarians 
 drove the Saka and the Jatta, or the Sui and Yuchi, as 
 
H KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the Chinese call them respectively, out of their primeval 
 seats, and impelled them upon Europe in the one direc- 
 tion, and upon India in the other. 
 
 In the west they have transplanted to the soil of their 
 adoption as in Gothland, Jutland, England, Saxony, 
 &c. the names of their colonising tribes; and in the 
 south they have repeated the names of the settlements 
 they left behind them, as Kasi or Banaras (Kasighar- 
 Kashghar), Hari or Harat (Arikhand-Yarkand), Kucha 
 or Kuchar (Kachar-Cachar), Kurla (Koela), Katak now 
 in ruins (Cuttack). At least, so I venture to conclude 
 from the similarity of names, and the historical record 
 of the emigration. Further, the northern highlands of 
 Kashghar are still known as Jatta Mughol the names of 
 its former and present inhabitants combined though in 
 the time of Tymur (Tamerlane) the country was called 
 simply Jatta, notwithstanding the fact of its inhabitants 
 being the Mughol ; and it is probable that the Jatta or 
 Jat, or Jath of the Panjab, who have been identified 
 with the Yuchi, originally dwelt in this locality bearing 
 their name. 
 
 The Yuchi were dispossessed of Kashghar, and driven 
 into Kabul and Kashmir, by a tribe of Mughol Tartar 
 pressing forward from the direction of Khamil and 
 Turfan. Their tribal name was Uyghur, but they were 
 called Hiungnu or Hioungnou by the Chinese, and 
 made themselves known in Europe where they are 
 represented by the Hungarians of the present day as 
 the Ouighour, Ougre, or Hunigur, Hongre or Hun. 
 These Uyghur are the present inhabitants of Kashghar, 
 but they have lost much of the distinguishing race type 
 of their original stock through Caucasian innervation 
 introduced with the Arab conquest; and the result of 
 the commixture has been, apart from the change of 
 
EARL Y CONQ UEST B Y CHINA. 1 5 
 
 physiognomy and growth of beard, an improved standard 
 of physical development and mental capacity. 
 
 They share the territory with the Calmac and Kirghiz, 
 who are Tartars of a strongly-marked Mughol or Mongol 
 type, and roam the northern and eastern borders of the 
 territory. The Calmac are Budhists, and the Kirghiz 
 nominally profess Islam, though in reality they are, as 
 the Musalmans style them, mere pagans. Both the tribes 
 have little intercourse with the settled Muhammadan 
 population on the side of Kashghar, whilst on the other 
 to the north of Tianshan where they are in force, they 
 are mostly Eussian subjects. 
 
 The Uyghur, after expelling the Yuchi about two 
 hundred years before the Christian era established an 
 independent kingdom in Kashghar, and waged a succes- 
 sion of wars against China, which ended by their sub- 
 jection to that empire about 60 B.C. They subsequently, 
 however, recovered their independence, but were again 
 attacked by the Chinese who annexed the country to 
 the empire, and in 94 A.D. occupied Kashghar. From 
 this they crossed the mountains into the Oxus valley, 
 and carried their arms as far west as the shores of the 
 Caspian. 
 
 From this period up to the time of the Arab conquest 
 of the Bukhara territory, or Transoxiana, in the early 
 part of the eighth century, Kashghar acknowledged a 
 more or less vicarious allegiance to the Chinese govern- 
 ment. So long as the government was strong at the 
 capital, and order reigned in the home provinces, 
 Kashghar remained loyal, and a willing tributary 
 governed by officers appointed from the imperial palace. 
 In times of civil commotion and dismemberment in the 
 interior of the empire, on the contrary, this territory 
 threw off its allegiance, and became divided into a 
 
1 6 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 number of petty states under independent local chiefs, 
 each at war with the other for mastery over the whole. 
 
 And such was the divided state of the country at the 
 time that the Arabs appeared on the banks of the Oxus 
 in the beginning of the eighth century. These im- 
 petuous conquerors here received a check in the vic- 
 torious career of their triumphs, and it was not till after 
 a succession of campaigns that they planted their creed 
 and rule on the soil of Bukhara. Yet, even in the first 
 of their onslaughts against this devoted territory, so 
 great was the zeal of their warriors, and so ambitious 
 the enterprise of their generals, that Cutaiba, in 712 
 A.D., penetrated into Khocand, and, crossing the moun- 
 tains, carried a rapid expedition through the length of 
 Kashghar up to Turfan on the proper China frontier. 
 
 The death of the Khalif Walid, however, necessi- 
 tated his hasty retreat from so distant a position, and 
 Kashghar enjoined a temporary reprieve. Meanwhile, 
 the Arabs consolidated their conquest on the west of the 
 passes, and stamping out with impartial ferocity alike 
 the worship of the Magi and the religion of the Chris- 
 tian, brought the whole country under the protection of 
 Islam. 
 
 Their inexorable law the Curan or the sword was 
 explicit, and left no middle course. Accept the one, 
 and claim the rights of equality, brotherhood, and pro- 
 tection ; reject it, and submit to the decree of God and 
 the edge of the sword were the only alternatives. The 
 Curan triumphed, and found so congenial a soil that its 
 doctrine soon struck root, and flourished with a prosperity 
 which rivalled that of the faith in the cradle of its origin, 
 and in after times, up to our own days, formed a centre 
 of its most fanatic bigotry and exclusive jealousy. 
 
 The most important of the early converts was Saman, 
 
CONVERSION TO ISLAM. 17 
 
 a Zoroastrian noble of Balkh, who embraced Islam in 
 order to regain possession of the hereditary estates from 
 which, under the new regime, he had been ejected. 
 Whatever his own convictions might have been, his 
 posterity were sincere followers of the prophet, for we 
 find the four sons of his son Asad holding posts of 
 honour and trust, as governors of the four most im- 
 portant provinces of the country Herat, Samarcand, 
 Farghana and Tashkand under the special patronage 
 of the Khalif. 
 
 Nasar, the son of Ahmad, and governor of Farghana 
 during the revolt of the Sistan princes, became ruler of 
 all Bukhara and Turkistan, and established the Samani 
 dynasty. His brother and successor, Ismail, raised the 
 Samani power to its highest point, and at his death, in 
 907 A.D., left an empire extending from Ispahan and 
 Shiraz on the west to Turfan and the Gobi on the east, 
 and from Sistan and the Persian Gulf on the south to 
 the Capchac Steppes and Great Desert on the north. 
 
 It was during the Samani rule that Islam was first 
 introduced amongst the Uyghur of Kashghar. Here, 
 as in the Oxus valley, it met a determined opposition, 
 and, notwithstanding the conversion of Satoc Bughra 
 Khan, the hereditary chief of Kashghar, and his zeal in 
 the cause of its propagation, the doctrine and law was not 
 enforced in the country until Khutan the ancient strong- 
 hold of Budhism was finally subjugated. This was 
 after a warfare of nearly twenty-five years, during w^hich 
 the flower of Persian chivalry withered on an unknown 
 waste, and a host of Arab martyrs sanctified the soil with 
 their blood, and earned for themselves a lasting memorial 
 in the endless calendar of Muhammadan saints. 
 
 On the decline of the Samani dynasty after a rule of 
 nearly a hundred and fifty years during which the Per- 
 
 B 
 
1 8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 sian literature suppressed by the Arabs was revived, 
 and the religion planted by them was established accord- 
 ing to the orthodox Sunni ordinance in triumph over 
 the Shid heresy propagated by the false prophet Muc- 
 cann'a the Bughra Khan family, whose ruling chief was 
 called lylik Khan and had his capital at Kashghar, 
 rose to power, and the Uyghur Empire spread over the 
 vallies on both sides of the Bolor range from the Caspian 
 to the Gobi. 
 
 lylik Khan was dispossessed of his western conquests 
 by the Saljuk Tatar under Sultan Sanjar; and dissen- 
 sions breaking out in the Bughra Khan family, the 
 Uyghur, divided amongst themselves, soon succumbed 
 to the Cara Khitay, a Mughol or Mongol horde, who 
 were advancing from the direction of Ila in the early 
 part of the twelfth century. Gorkhan or " Sovereign 
 Lord " the title of the leader of this wandering horde 
 of Chinese outcasts profiting by the asylum granted 
 to his Budhist following on the Uyghur borders, took 
 advantage of their internal dissensions to seize the 
 country for himself, and very quickly extended his 
 conquests up to Khiva. The Cara Khitay rule, after 
 enduring for eighty-five years, was suddenly overthrown 
 by the treachery of Koshluk Khan, who plotted with 
 Cutubuddin Muhammad Khwarizm Shah for the divi- 
 sion of the Gorkhan Empire between them. 
 
 This Koshluk was prince of the Nayman Kirghiz a 
 tribe which, like some others of those wandering shep- 
 herds, professed Christianity as members of the Nes- 
 torian Church and fled from his home in Caracoram 
 before the hostility of Changiz, who was pressing for- 
 ward his Mughols from the north-east, to seek asylum 
 with the Gorkhan of kindred race and country. He 
 met a cordial reception from the Cara Khitay leader, 
 
INVASION B Y MUGHOL. 1 9 
 
 and received his daughter in marriage, but repaid these 
 favours by the basest ingratitude ; and when the 
 Khwarizm king, flushed by his recent successes against 
 Khurasan and Bukhara, refused the tribute heretofore 
 paid by Khiva, and Gorkhan in his old age personally 
 took the field against him, Koshluk made a diversion in 
 favour of Cutubuddin Muhammad, and brought defeat 
 on the army of his patron, and following the rout of his 
 troops, made a prisoner of his father-in-law, and usurped 
 the reins of government. 
 
 He did not, however, long retain his ill-gotten power, 
 and soon paid the penalty of his perfidy with his life. For 
 Changiz, who had at this time mastered the tribes on the 
 eastern and northern borders of Kashghar, now claimed 
 the submission of the Uyghur. The northern division, 
 under Aidy Cut, at once joined his victorious standard ; 
 but Koshluk, ruling the southern division, mindful of 
 their former enmity, refused to do so. Changiz sent a 
 division of his Mughol under two generals to reduce the 
 refractory leader and annex his country. Koshluk now 
 deserted by the Uyghur fled precipitately to Khutan, 
 whilst the Mughol surprising his Nayman troops left at 
 Kashghar, put them all to the sword, and went in pur- 
 suit of the fugitive. Koshluk, on their approach, aban- 
 doned his family and treasures, and with only two or 
 three attendants, fled to the recesses of the mountains in 
 Wakhan. Here he was seized by some shepherds of the 
 country, who handed up his head to propitiate the 
 Mughol pursuers. 
 
 And thus Kashghar, about 1220 A.D., passed into the 
 hands of Changiz. Its territory suffered little of those 
 horrors and destructions which mark to the present day 
 the onward progress of this renowned conqueror, for the 
 Uyghur now bodily joined his standard to work the 
 
20 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 havoc they parried from their own country by this 
 happy allegiance. Under the magnificence, protection, 
 and toleration of the Mughol rule, Kashghar enjoyed a 
 degree of prosperity she had never before known ; and 
 her cities, being on the line of route of the great trade 
 caravans between China and Europe, soon rose to a 
 position of wealth and importance. 
 
 The Christian, too, equally with the Budhist, both of 
 whom under the ascendancy of Islam had been per- 
 secuted and proscribed, now reappeared in the country, 
 and dwelt on equal terms with their former oppressors. 
 The Muhammadan priest, now deprived of his power of 
 appeal to the sword, rapidly lost the supremacy he 
 had by violence held over the minds of the people, and 
 Christian churches and Budhist temples sprung up where 
 mosques fell to decay. That Christianity here had at 
 this period acquired some considerable footing, may be 
 concluded from the fact of Yarkand being a bishop's see 
 at the time Marco Polo visited the country in the middle 
 of the thirteenth century. 
 
 On the death of Changiz, his vast empire was divided 
 between his sons, and the Kashghar territory formed 
 part of the kingdom assigned to Chaghtay. But on his 
 death, which occurred a few years later, the kingdom 
 fell to pieces, and Kashghar became the bone of conten- 
 tion between rival princes of the Chaghtay line and that 
 of his brother Aoktay, the Khacan of China, and passed 
 in whole or in part alternately from one to the other till, 
 finally, about the middle of the fourteenth century, it 
 was brought together as an independent kingdom under 
 Toghluc Tymur of Chaghtay descent, who moved his 
 capital from Acsu to Kashghar; and had his summer 
 quarters on the borders of the lake Isigh Kol on the 
 
CAMPAIGNS OF TYMUR, 21 
 
 north of the Tianshan, in the territory called Mugho- 
 listan, or Jatta Mughol, or Ulus Jatta. 
 
 Toghluc Tynrnr restored peace and order in the country, 
 appointed his court after the model of the Mughol Em- 
 pire, and re-established Islam which, since the downfall 
 of the Mughol Empire, had become the dominant creed 
 in these regions. Towards the close of his reign, taking 
 advantage of the troubles distracting that country, he 
 invaded Bukhara, and left his son Ilyas Khoja in the 
 government of Samarcand. But a few years later, on 
 the death of Toghluc Tymur in 1363 A.D., he was 
 driven out of the country by the Amirs Husen and Tymur 
 (afterwards Tamerlane), and on reaching Mugholistan 
 was killed by Camaruddin Doghlat, his father's gover- 
 nor of the province, who then seized all Kashghar, and 
 killed all the children of Toghluc Tymur except an 
 infant son Khizr Khoja who was carried away and 
 secreted in the hills about Sarighcul and Khutan by Amir 
 Khudadad, the governor of Kashghar. Amir Tymur, 
 on becoming master of Bukhara, carried four successive 
 expeditions into Mugholistan against Camaruddin and 
 the Jatta. In the last of these Camaruddin was killed, 
 and then, in 1383 A.IX, Khizr Khoja was recalled from 
 his exile and set on the throne at Kashghar by the 
 governor Amir Khudadad, son of Bolaji and nephew 
 of Camaruddin. He was unable to restrain his nomads 
 from their wonted raids upon the Tashkand frontier, 
 and consequently Tymur, in 1389 A.D., undertook his 
 fifth and last campaign against the country with a vast 
 army, which, advancing in four divisions two on the 
 south and two on the north of Tianshan swept the 
 whole country and reunited in the Yuldoz valley, driv- 
 ing half the population, together with their spoil of 
 captives and cattle and plunder, before them. 
 
22 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Tymur here divided the immense booty in slaves, 
 cattle, and merchandise amongst his victorious troops, 
 and then restoring Khizr Khoja, whose allegiance he 
 accepted, and whose daughter he married, to the govern- 
 ment, returned to his capital, leaving the country so 
 beggared and depopulated that it has never recovered 
 the shock. After Khizr Khoja the government de- 
 scended through a succession of Mughol Khans, his 
 descendants, whose reigns are characterised by an end- 
 less variety of disorders, strifes, and bloodshed more or 
 less connected with the state of affairs in Bukhara, and 
 the Uzbak ascendancy in Khocand and northern Turk- 
 istan till, after a duration of two hundred years, the 
 power passed into the hands of the Khojas. 
 
 These proved no better rulers than those from whom 
 they usurped the government, and the country knew no 
 peace until it passed under the rule of the Chinese. 
 
 Khizr Khoja was succeeded in the rule of the Mughol 
 by his son Muhammad Khan, who was the cotemporary 
 of Ulugh Beg in Mawaranahar, and of Shahrukh in 
 Khurasan, and was the last of the Khacan or "Em- 
 perors " who governed with the style and pomp of the 
 Chaghtay court. He was a wealthy prince and a bigoted 
 Musalman. During his reign the Muhammadan shara' 
 was firmly established as the law of the land, and the 
 country enjoyed a season of peace and prosperity. 
 
 During the succeeding reign of his son Sher Muham- 
 mad Khan, however, the country was plunged into dis- 
 order by the rebellion of Wais Khan, the son of his 
 brother Sher 'Ali Oghlan who, collecting a lawless band 
 of Kirghiz and Cazzac, raided the country in all direc- 
 tions and carried his incursions across the border into the 
 territories of Tashkand and Khocand. In the midst of 
 these disorders Sher Muhammad Khan died, and was 
 
THE MUGHOL KHANS. 23 
 
 succeeded on the throne by his nephew, the rebellious 
 Wais Khan. He was now powerless to restrain the 
 unruly bands of adventurers he had gathered together 
 about him, and his own inclinations drawing him to the 
 excitements of the camp, he abandoned the cares of the 
 government to prosecute a succession of fruitless cam- 
 paigns for the conversion of the Calmac. 
 
 Amir Khudadad, the hereditary governor of Kashghar 
 who had rescued the infant Khizr Khoja from the 
 clutches of his uncle Camaruddin and thus preserved 
 the family from extinction, and who for three quarters 
 of a century had served the Mughol Khans with loyal 
 devotion, and endeared himself to the people by his pro- 
 bity and just government now in his old age, hopeless 
 of restoring order in the country, determined to abandon 
 it. He invited Ulugh Beg to Chui, and there making 
 over the Mughol to him, left the country to close his 
 eventful life in the hallowed and peaceful precincts of 
 the Prophet's shrine. 
 
 The Mughol, averse to so summary a transfer, dis- 
 persed to their steppes, and Ulugh sent an army to reduce 
 them. Wais was killed in action on the banks of the 
 Chui, and Kashghar was occupied by the troops from 
 Samarcand. The succession was now contested between 
 his two youthful sons, Yunus and Eshanbogha. The 
 partizans of the former took him to Ulugh with the ob- 
 ject of securing his support, but he sent the wild young 
 Mughol out of the way to his father Shahrukh at Herat ; 
 and he put him in charge of the celebrated Maulana 
 Sharifuddin 'All Yazdi to be educated and polished. 
 
 Meanwhile Eshanbogha, who was a mere puppet in the 
 hands of the Mughol chiefs, themselves divided by jea- 
 lousy and discord, was finally set on the throne at Acsu by 
 Mir Sayyid 'All, who had recovered his hereditary govern- 
 
24 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ment of Kashghar from the nominees of Ulugh, after 
 an estrangement of fourteen years. He was obliged, 
 however, to abandon Acsu for the more secure retreat of 
 his steppes, and here varied the monotony of his life by 
 a succession of raids on Syram and Tashkand, and an 
 invasion of Khocand or Andijan. These hostilities in- 
 duced Abu Sa'ld, the successor of Ulugh Beg, to summon 
 Yunus from his retreat in Shiraz, and to restore him to 
 the government of the Mughol. His polished education 
 in Persia, however, quite unfitted him to cope with the 
 rough barbarity of his nomads, from whom he had be- 
 come estranged by an absence of twenty-four years, and 
 his first essay to recover the rule proved a disastrous 
 failure. With the aid of his patron, however, and 
 matrimonial alliances with his successor at Bukhara, and 
 with the ruler of Khocand, he ultimately succeeded in 
 establishing an insecure government at Tashkand, and a 
 doubtful authority over Kashghar which had become 
 divided between Eshanbogha in the east and Mir Sayyid 
 'Ali in the west, and their children respectively. On the 
 death of Yunus the Uzbak power, which had been rapidly 
 progressing under Shaiban Khan during his reign, 
 acquired a complete mastery all over the states of 
 Bukhara and Khocand. Tashkand soon fell to them, 
 and Mahmud, the son and successor of Yunus, was 
 driven back upon his steppes ; but unable to control the 
 discords and contentions amongst the Mughol, he left 
 their camps and repaired for asylum to Tashkand, and 
 was there, with all his family, executed by the Uzbak 
 chief. His brother Ahmad Khan, surnamed A laja " the 
 slayer," during the life of Yunus, had retired to rule over 
 his steppes, and, after subduing his enemies amongst 
 the nomads with a severity and recklessness of life which 
 gained him the name by which he is known in history, 
 
EXPEDITION INTO TIB AT. 25 
 
 contested the possession of KasLghar against Ababakar, 
 a grandson of Mir Sayyid ' Ali, who had seized the western 
 half of the territory, and fixed his capital at Yarkand. 
 He captured the cities of Kashghar and Yangi Hissar, 
 and laid siege to Yarkand, but was ultimately driven back 
 to his steppes by Ababakar. 
 
 It was on his return from this campaign that, hear- 
 ing of the fate of Mahmud, he went to avenge his death. 
 He was, however, repulsed with loss, and retiring to Acsu 
 died there in the winter following. His numerous sons 
 now contested the rule of the Mughol amongst themselves 
 and Ababakar. After several years of civil war, Mansur 
 secured the eastern government up to Acsu, whilst his 
 brother Sultan Sa'id who, after a variety of adventures, 
 had found refuge at Kabul, returned thence as a parti- 
 zan of Babur, and seized the western half of the terri- 
 tory from Ababakar ; and thus the two brothers enjoyed 
 a divided government over the states of Kashghar. 
 
 Sultan Sa'id was the last of the Mughol Khans who 
 exercised any real authority in the country. He sub- 
 dued the nomad camps on the northern borders, and 
 secured the conquests made by Ababakar in the direction 
 of Badakhshan and Kashmir. In 1531-2 A.D. he in- 
 vaded Tib at with an army of 5000 men, but becoming 
 very ill in the passage of the mountains, and finding the 
 country incapable of supporting his troops during the 
 winter, he seized upon Balti with a thousand men, and 
 sent the rest under his son Iskandar to winter in 
 Kashmir. 
 
 In the following summer he was rejoined by these 
 troops, and sending them forward to the conquest of 
 Lhassa, or Aorsang, himself set out to return to his capital. 
 He died in the passage of the mountains, not far from the 
 Caracoram pass, from the effects of the rarified atmos- 
 
26 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 pliere. His eldest son, Rashid, now set out from his 
 government at Acsu and seized the capital. He executed 
 and banished all his father's faithful servants, and dis- 
 persed his family, and allied with the Uzbaks. On the 
 death of Mansur, he brought all the country up to 
 Turfan under one united government, but on his death, 
 owing to dissensions amongst his sons, the several states 
 fell asunder under different members of the family, all 
 more or less at feud with each other. 
 
 In this state of disorder and weakness Khoja Hida- 
 yatulla, surnamed Hazrat Afac, the head of a family of 
 priests, descendants of the celebrated Makhdumi ui'azim 
 \/ of Bukhara, who had only in recent years acquired a 
 position at Kashghar, usurped the government amidst a 
 perfect maze of intrigues, plots, and contentions. Being 
 ousted by a combination of his opponents, the Khoja 
 about the middle of the seventeenth century called to 
 his aid the Calmac ruler of Ila or Zunghar ; but he 
 seized the country for himself, merely reinstating the 
 Khoja for the purpose of administering the government 
 under officers appointed by himself. 
 
 This, however, did not restore peace to the country, 
 and on the death of Afac a fresh war broke out amongst 
 the Khojas, his sons and successors, for the mastery; and 
 it continued, under varying phases, for more than a cen- 
 tury, when the anarchy in Zunghar led to the occupation 
 of Ila by the Chinese, and their subsequent conquest of 
 Kashghar as successors of the Calmac possessors 
 about 1760 A.D. 
 
 The Chinese, on taking possession of the country, in 
 no way interfered with the internal administration of 
 the government, which was carried on as heretofore by 
 Musalman agents, supervised by Chinese officers who 
 were all under the control of a provincial governor ap- 
 
THE KHOJA USURPATION. 27 
 
 pointed from Pekin ; but they planted a strong garrison 
 in the capital of each of the states, and held other 
 strategic points and frontier posts for the defence of the 
 country, maintenance of order, protection of trade, and 
 the realisation of the revenue. 
 
 The advance of the Chinese so far to the west alarmed 
 all the petty states of Central Asia, and the priesthood, 
 stimulated by the appeals of the expatriated Khojas, 
 who had found an asylum in Khocand, called upon the 
 princes and people to unite under the green banner of 
 Islam to repel the infidel foe. But then, as now, the 
 anarchy, rivalries, and jealousies dividing the several 
 independent governments of that seat of Muhammadan 
 bigotry and ignorance prevented any coalition or unity 
 of action, though the self-made monarch of the newly 
 raised Afghan kingdom, in the arrogance of his sudden 
 rise to power, sent a force to protect the frontier at 
 Tashkand, whilst his envoys went to Pekin with a 
 haughty demand for the restoration of Kashghar to its 
 Musalman rulers. 
 
 His embassy met with no further mishap than a sum- 
 mary dismissal, and Ahmad Shah was content to avenge 
 himself by overruning Badakhshan and leaving Islam in 
 Kashghar to take care of itself, whilst he more profitably 
 employed his arms in the Panjab. The dispossessed 
 Khojas, however, never ceased to agitate their claims, 
 and seized every promising opportunity to invade the 
 country and attempt the recovery of their patrimonial 
 rights. 
 
 In these endeavours they were encouraged to per- 
 severe, by the facilities afforded for intrigue through 
 the intimate relations permitted to subsist under the 
 Chinese rule between the western states of Kashghar 
 and the Khanate of Khocand, by reason of the trade 
 
28 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 privileges granted by the Pekin Government in favour 
 of the Khan of Khocand, whose territory, paripassu 
 with the establishment of the Chinese rule in Kashghar, 
 had grown into an independent principality. 
 
 No less than four times during the present century 
 did the Khojas invade Kashghar from Khocand and 
 raise the three western states of Khutan, Yarkand, and 
 Kashghar in revolt against the Chinese authority. In 
 each instance were they welcomed with acclamations of 
 joy as deliverers from the infidel yoke, and in each in- 
 stance, after only a few brief weeks of authority, were 
 they loathed as shameless libertines, and execrated as 
 merciless tyrants. In each instance they fled before the 
 Chinese reinforcements without a party to stand by them 
 in the hour of need, or to follow them in their turn of 
 misfortune. And in each instance was the restoration of 
 the infidel rule, despite its accompanying reprisals, exe- 
 cutions, and tortures, hailed with satisfaction as the 
 lesser of the two evils ; for in its train came protection, 
 law, trade, and prosperity, neither one or other of which 
 was known under the riot and plunder of the Khoja 
 bands of needy adventurers. 
 
 Yet notwithstanding these experiences, so strong is 
 the inherent fanaticism of Islamite bigotry, however lax 
 may be the observance of its ordinances, that there is 
 little doubt had another invasion under the former con- 
 ditions occurred, it would have run a similar course to 
 its predecessors. And this opinion is supported by the 
 facts of the successful career of the present ruler of the 
 territory a career prosecuted under circumstances so 
 different from those attending previous invasions from 
 the same principality of Khocand. 
 
 The last revolt in Kashghar, inaugurated from the side 
 of Khocand, was that under Khoja Wali Khan in 1857. 
 
TUNGANI REBELLION. 29 
 
 At this time a new power had established itself upon the 
 borders, and with the appearance of the Eussians on the 
 Jaxartes and on the shores of Isigh Kol, the influence of 
 the Khan of Khocand on the one side, and of the Chinese 
 in Kashghar on the other, relatively and substantively 
 underwent a change more or less in subservience to the 
 ambition of their more powerful neighbour ; and both 
 alike, though from the action of different causes, before 
 long became distracted by anarchy and revolt, much to 
 the advantage of their mutual enemy hovering upon 
 their borders. 
 
 During the intestine feuds and disorders at this period 
 convulsing the principality of Khocand, the Russians, 
 through the exigency of the position in which they found 
 themselves, were forced to advance and annex the most 
 important part of the territory. Following this, the re- 
 volt in Kashghar, surging on from the Chinese provinces 
 to the East, necessitated their interference and assump- 
 tion of authority over Zunghar ; and this at a moment 
 far from convenient to themselves, with the progress of 
 the annexation of the country down to Samarcand still 
 upon their hands. 
 
 It was whilst the Russians were thus occupied that 
 Khoja Buzurg Khan, doubtless much to their satisfac- 
 tion, quitted the trenches of Tashkand with the permis- 
 sion of Alim Culi, and with his small band of adventurers 
 under Baturbashi Yacub Beg set out from Khocand to 
 recover the rule of his ancestors over the divided states 
 of Kashghar, now completely severed from their connec- 
 tion with the Chinese Empire by the insurrection of the 
 Tungani. 
 
 It is not necessary here to trace in detail the brief and 
 inglorious career of the Khoja, nor that of his more 
 successful general, Yacub Beg, in the conquest of Kash- 
 
30 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ghar. Suffice it for our purpose to say that the latter, 
 after deposing his master, was indebted for his success to 
 the aid of the Andijan or Khocand emigrants and mer- 
 chants he found in the country, as well as, like all 
 Muhammadan usurpers under similar conditions of 
 education and circumstances, to the free use of the irre- 
 sponsible despot's privileges, exercised solely for the 
 advancement of his personal interest. 
 
 Consequently, we find that the history of the six 
 years during which he gradually brought into his sole 
 and undisputed possession the six principal states of the 
 territory Turfan, Kucha, Acsu, Kashghar, Yarkand, 
 and Khutan, each of which has a melancholy record of 
 its own wrongs and sufferings is a fearful picture of the 
 miseries and ruin worked upon the country in the pro- 
 cess of reconverting it into a Muhammadan government 
 on the model of the intolerant and fanatic courts of the, 
 let us hope, happily doomed Bukhara and Khocand. 
 
 The events of this period, as we were in a measure 
 enabled to ascertain during our stay in the country, 
 differed little in point of reality from the accounts which, 
 from time to time, floated about the frontier bazars of 
 the Panjab, and now and again received a fresh interest 
 from the exciting details brought down by the traders 
 returning from the north, though, strange to say, they at 
 the time hardly attracted the notice of the Indian press 
 in any degree commensurate with their importance. 
 
 Yet, during this eventful time were enacted in the 
 states of Kashghar a succession of mean intrigues and 
 base treacheries, a role of wholesale assassinations and 
 summary imprisonments, and a course of confiscations, 
 executions, and tortures, the detail of which is horrify- 
 ing, though by itself incomplete without the addition of 
 the tyranny of Islam its merciless massacres and 
 
ATALIK GHAZL 31 
 
 forcible conversions, its intolerance of the unbeliever 
 and destruction of every trace of his religion, its lawful 
 plunder of his property and its equally legal enslave- 
 ment of his person and his family. 
 
 Through an ordeal, such as is portrayed above, did 
 the states of Kashghar pass before Yacub Beg, as Atalik 
 Ghazi or "Champion of the Faith," established his autho- 
 rity over the country, and revived its decayed Islam 
 on the model of the orthodox Sunni doctrine by the 
 strict enforcement of the Shara and the restoration of 
 Muhammadan relics all over the country. 
 
 In this course the ruling families of the newly estab- 
 lished principalities of Khutan and Acsu cum Kucha 
 were cleared away root and branch. The aged chief of 
 Orumchi, who, on the destruction of the Acsu family, 
 temporarily became prince of Turfan as an integral por- 
 tion of his dominion, passed away during the storm 
 which, presently following its capture by Yacub Beg, 
 swept over his capital, and left his populous and flourish- 
 ing territory a depopulated and beggared waste ; whilst 
 of the Tungani leaders and governors in these eastern 
 towns not one survived the transfer of the rule. 
 
 With the establishment of the new regime, however, 
 and the disappearance of all supposed to be in any way 
 capable of obstructing its endurance, the country has 
 become consolidated under a single ruler whose aim is 
 to assimilate the whole to one uniform standard under 
 the banner of Islam. With the conflicting element of 
 the Budhist Calmac who preponderate, or did so, on the 
 borders of the Eastern States as pagan tributaries paying 
 the jaziya, and the large number of enslaved captives 
 of war, and forced converts both Chinese and Calmac 
 mixed up with the Muhammadan population generally 
 throughout the country, the task is of itself one of no 
 
32 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 small difficulty, without considering the nature of the 
 material on which the ruler has to rely for the mainten- 
 ance of his authority in the country of his conquest. 
 Let us hope, in the interests of philanthropy and civi- 
 lisation, that the conquering chief now that he has the 
 field clear to himself may prove himself worthy of the 
 charge he has assumed ; and that the intercourse he has 
 for other purposes initiated with the governments of 
 Europe most powerful in Asia, may in due time be the 
 means of introducing an enlightened, just, and tolerant 
 government into a region where their fruits promise a 
 more abundant harvest than in any other part of the 
 Central Asian area. 
 
 With this necessarily very brief and summary review 
 of the country and its people, we may now proceed with 
 the narrative of the journey of the Embassy to Kashghar 
 in 1873-4. 
 
CHAPTEK I. 
 
 IN the first days of the year 1873 there arrived in 
 Kashmir, after a hazardous passage of the mountains, a 
 party of eight or ten Andijan or Khocand horsemen 
 headed by one who, in the summer of 1870, had'made 
 the journey northward from Srinaggar in company with 
 Mr Forsyth's Mission to Yarkand in that year. Their 
 appearance at so late a period of the season was unex- 
 pected, but, the nature of their errand being explained, 
 they were welcomed and expedited on their way by the 
 officials of the Maharaja. 
 
 Sayyid Yacub Khan, Torah, the Envoy of Atalik 
 Ghazi to the Viceroy of India and the Sultan of Turkey, 
 in the first instance repaired to the camp of the Lieu- 
 tenant Governor of the Panjab, which was at that time 
 pitched at Hasan abdal during the manoeuvres of an 
 army of exercise assembled in that locality, and present- 
 ing himself before Sir Henry Davies made known the 
 purpose of his visit. 
 
 After a brief rest there, during which he enjoyed a 
 hearty hospitality and witnessed a military spectacle 
 such as, in point of magnificence and splendour, and I 
 may add efficiency, is not to be seen out of India, he 
 proceeded to Calcutta; and having satisfactorily adjusted 
 his business with the Government of India there, he set 
 out on his mission to Constantinople. 
 
 In the interval of his absence was organised the 
 Embassy to Kashghar for the purpose of concluding a 
 
34 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 treaty of commerce with that state, a treaty for 
 which Atalik Ghazi, through his envoy, had expressed 
 his earnest desire as a means of improving the friendly 
 relations which had recently sprung up between the two 
 governments. 
 
 Mr T. D. Forsyth, C.B. (now Sir Douglas Forsyth, 
 K. C.S.I.), whose identification from the first with the 
 measures exerted for the development of our trade with 
 Yarkand at once pointed him out as above all others the 
 most fitted, by his intimate knowledge of the country 
 and people, for the conduct of such an enterprise, was 
 selected for this important duty, and appointed on the 
 part of the Viceroy of India his Envoy and Plenipoten- 
 tiary for the purpose stated. 
 
 With him was associated an efficient staff of scientific 
 and military officers to profit by the occasion thus offered 
 of increasing our meagre information regarding those 
 most interesting and almost unknown countries which 
 lie immediately to the north of the Himalaya, and which 
 it was hoped the embassy would visit before returning 
 to India ; for the programme of its march included a visit 
 to Khutan and Acsu, and a journey through Badakhshan 
 and Balkh to Kabul. 
 
 The enterprise attracted no small amount of attention 
 at the time, and awakened an interest hardly less sus- 
 tained in England than in India itself ; whilst, w r ith less 
 of publicity, it claimed the more close scrutiny of other 
 countries more directly affected by the scope of its 
 operations. 
 
 The press in India was full of the movement, and 
 viewed the subject under various aspects of its bearing. 
 And even before the departure of the embassy discussed 
 its objects whether commercial, scientific, or political 
 with as little of discretion as of propriety, and questioned 
 
PREPARING FOR THE MARCH. 35 
 
 the individual merits of its several members with more 
 of candour than of compliment. The dangers that were 
 ahead of us, the troubles that would beset our course, and 
 the horrible fate that was to cut short the triumph of 
 our labours were vividly portrayed by a very well in- 
 formed writer in the Pioneer, and reached us in time 
 only to add a zest to the spirit of the enterprise. 
 
 With due deference to the general accuracy of the 
 writer above referred to, I may here note, in reference to 
 his moral warnings and doleful forebodings, that if, in 
 the following pages, I am silent in regard to those dan- 
 gerous ordeals prognosticated by him, the reader may 
 certainly conclude that we benedicts had no cause to 
 fear the prophesied assaults against the sanctity of our 
 hymeneal vows, whilst as to the bachelors of our party 
 they can speai for themselves. Of the perils foretold 
 by him from the capricious temper and uncontrolled 
 violence of Atalik Ghazi we fortunately had no ex- 
 perience not a single member of our party lost his head 
 to satisfy the whim of a despot's wrath, neither did any 
 one of us find lodging in a Eussian prison ! 
 
 What our real experiences were the narrative will in 
 due course unfold. Meanwhile let us return to the 
 arrangements for our journey. 
 
 Much preparation and careful attention to details were 
 necessary for the proper equipment of the party on a scale 
 commensurate with the requirements of the expedition, 
 and in a style befitting the importance of the occasion. 
 
 To be independent in our movements, and have the 
 means of transport under our own control, it was de- 
 cided to purchase a baggage train of a hundred mules 
 for the express use of the embassy. The gear of these 
 as well as the mule trunks were all made in the govern- 
 ment manufactory at Kanhpur, or more familiarly 
 
36 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Cawnpore, and were turned out in the best style of 
 workmanship and of the most improved pattern. The 
 packsaddles were of the New Zealand pattern, and 
 adapted to riding or loading according to necessity, 
 and the mule trunks were of sheet leather, sewn with 
 copper wire, and looked very much more serviceable than 
 they proved under the test of experience. 
 
 The tents were made to order at the manufactory of 
 the Lahore Central Jail, on a pattern devised by Mr 
 Forsyth, and, despite the many poles (three upright 
 poles of two pieces each, and two folding ridge poles), 
 and sockets and ropes, proved roomy and comfortable, 
 and an efficient protection against the weather. They 
 were something in the style of the " Swiss cottage " 
 tent, with a double roof ; the outer one projecting all 
 round to form a spacious verandah in front, to cover a 
 closed boot on each side and a bath-room behind. They 
 stood us in excellent stead on the journey, and were 
 brought back in better condition than any other portion 
 of the camp equipage. 
 
 These preliminaries amongst other camp requisites 
 settled, the establishment of tent pitchers, mule drivers, 
 &c., engaged, the mess stores and servants provided, the 
 military escort appointed, and the last though by no 
 means the least in point of importance or latest in the 
 order of adjustment the arrangements with the Maha- 
 raja of Kashmir for the laying out of provisions and 
 stores at the several camp stages across the uninhabited 
 highlands of Tibat by both the Caracoram and Chang- 
 chanmo routes, as well as for carriage and supplies on the 
 route through Kashmir completed, the camp was ordered 
 to assemble at Eawal Pindi on the 1st July, and on that 
 date Lieut. -Colonel T. E. Gordon (now C.S.I.) arrived 
 there and took command of the whole. 
 
HAL T AT MURREE. 3 7 
 
 From Eawal Pindi the party marched in two divisions 
 to Murree, and camped there on the Flats, where, since 
 some days previously, the Kashmir officials, agreeably 
 to requisition, had collected a string of eighty or ninety 
 riding and baggage ponies for the use of the embassy. 
 Here I joined the embassy, made the acquaintance of 
 its members, and learned the arrangements for the order 
 of our journey. Each of us was provided with a tent, 
 table, and chair, and three pairs of mule trunks (to which 
 extent our personal luggage was limited), all of uniform 
 pattern, and brand new. Each of us was restricted to 
 two personal servants and two riding horses with their 
 grooms, whilst all in common shared the benefits pro- 
 vided by the mess establishment. The whole of the 
 carriage, the pitching and striking of the tents, and, in 
 fact, the entire camp arrangements were organised with 
 military precision ; and from first to last, as our subse- 
 quent very grateful experience testified, were most 
 admirably conducted under the able supervision of 
 Captain E. F. Chapman, E.H.A., of the Quarter-Master 
 General's Department, to whom this arduous duty was 
 committed. 
 
 On the 15th July, after a couple of days' halt at 
 Murree, the advance party marched en route for Srin- 
 aggar, under command of Captain J. Biddulph, 19th 
 Hussars, A.D.C. to the Viceroy. His party consisted of 
 Captain H. Trotter, E.E., and his native surveyor Abdus- 
 Subhan and assistants; Dr Ferdinand Stoliczka, Ph.D., 
 of the Geological Survey of India, and his native taxi- 
 dermist ; Kasaidar Afzal Khan, llth B.C., A.D.C. to Mr 
 Forsyth ; Hospital Assistant Asmat Ali and the escort of 
 Infantry, Corps of Guides ten men with a non-com- 
 missioned officer in charge of the tosliakhana or " pre- 
 sents" with camp servants. 
 
38 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Four days later, the head-quarters' camp with Colonel 
 T. E. Gordon, of the Adjutant General's Department, in 
 command, followed on the same route. His party 
 comprised Captain Chapman and myself ; Corporal A. 
 Ehind, 92d Highlanders, Camp Sergeant ; Munshi 
 Fyz Bakhsh, Persian Secretary to Mr Forsyth ; Tara 
 Sing, Treasurer and Accountant ; the Mess Establish- 
 ment; Hospital Dispenser; Jamadar Siffat Khan with 
 ten troopers Cavalry Corps of Guides, and camp servants, 
 and stores, and the reception tents and establishment of 
 the Envoy and Plenipotentiary. 
 
 Such was the composition of the head-quarters' camp 
 of the Kashghar Embassy as it set out from Murree on 
 the morning of the 19th July 1873. The rainy season 
 had already set in, and we were prepared to encounter 
 some storms and showers on the few inarches that would 
 carry us beyond the limits of the monsoon ; but we did 
 hope to make our start in one of those breaks in the 
 heavy charged mass of clouds which so frequently occur 
 on the hills to mitigate the oppressive gloom of the 
 season, and enliven into activity for a short interval the 
 suppressed energies of their animal life, to exhibit in full 
 grandeur the magnificence of their forests and glorious 
 panorama of mountain scenery, and to call forth from all 
 sides a chorus of praise and joy from bird and beast and 
 man. 
 
 No such enjoyable respite was our lot. On the con- 
 trary, our party started on the march before us in a 
 down-pour of rain such as I have rarely witnessed, and 
 which did a good deal to wash off the bright polish of 
 our new camp equipage, and test the mettle of our men 
 and cattle. Some little delay occurred in loading and 
 starting the 105 mules and ponies, and the three or four 
 score coolies which composed our caravan of transport, 
 
DEPARTURE FROM MURREE. 39 
 
 but a little temper and patience soon saw all fairly off 
 the ground, and in as good order and more cheerful 
 spirits than were to be expected under the circumstances. 
 Fortunately the march to Dewal was a short one, and a 
 halt there the next day enabled us to dry our tents and 
 the contents of our boxes. On the 21st we marched ten 
 miles down to Kohala, and there halted the next day. 
 We found a grateful shelter from the stifling heat in 
 this deep and narrow passage of the Jhelam in the dak- 
 bungalow, whilst our camp filled the compound, and 
 spread along the river bank above its causeway, which 
 we found obstructed in some places by landslips from 
 the slope above. 
 
 On the 23rd we resumed our march, and, crossing the 
 swift-surging torrent of the river by a neat little chain 
 suspension bridge a little way beyond the bungalow 
 and its bazar, entered Kashmir territory. From the 
 bridge where, previous to its construction in 1870, 
 the passage was effected by ferry boat, with at all times 
 more or less of hazard, and too often of loss there are 
 two routes to the Happy Valley, as the basin of Kashmir 
 is appropriately designated, and both unite at Chikar, 
 where the rise out of the low valley of the Jhelam com- 
 mences. The shortest, but the most difficult, is that 
 directly over the Danna hill ; the other winds round it to 
 the northward through the valley of the Jhelam. 
 
 We followed the latter, and, by the successive stages 
 of Chattar, Kara, Thandali, Hattyan, and Chikar, arrived 
 at Chakoti, where we halted a day, and breathed again 
 freely the cool mountain air, which after the simmering 
 heats and worrying mosquitos of the lower hollows was 
 most refreshing to men and cattle alike. 
 
 The heat in these little hollows full as they are with 
 terraced rice cultivation, and shut in on all sides by lofty 
 
40 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 mountains is at this season insupportable, and severely 
 tried our cattle and followers. I felt it much more 
 exhausting than anything I have experienced at the 
 same time of year in the open plains of India in the 
 Pan jab at least. There the heat is high enough, but 
 the air is light and moving, and there is ample breath- 
 ing room. Here, on the contrary, the sun's rays shine 
 through a stratum of dense vapour, which floats about 
 the mountain tops, and loads the limited atmosphere in 
 the deep shut-in hollows between them with a heavy, 
 stagnant, steamy air which bears one down by the very 
 weight of its oppression. 
 
 The route, however, is a well frequented one, and is 
 doubtless familiar to many a Kashmir tourist. I need 
 not, therefore, tarry over its description more than to 
 note that at each stage which is usually fixed on a 
 small flat of some talus as it shelves down to the 
 channel of the river is a rest house of primitive con- 
 struction, but none the less of welcome shelter. These 
 bungalows have been built by the Kashmir government 
 for the convenience of travellers and tourists, and their 
 accommodation is free ; but attendance and supplies are 
 not provided, though the latter are usually obtainable in 
 the vicinity. 
 
 On this occasion of our journey, however, we at each 
 stage found an abundant supply of all sorts of provisions 
 for ourselves and followers, with cattle, coolies, and all 
 sorts of camp forage which the Kashmir officials had 
 collected for the use of the embassy. But this super- 
 abundance and assiduous attention was quite exceptional, 
 and only called forth by the special occasion. 
 
 On our march along this portion of the route which 
 is, compared with the hills on the British side of the 
 river, very sparsely peopled we witnessed the different 
 
A SINGLE CORD ROPE BRIDGE. 41 
 
 modes by which the natives are in the habit of crossing 
 the river. 
 
 Owing to its rapids, and the huge boulders obstruct- 
 ing its channel, the stream is neither fordable nor pass- 
 able by boat, and the means adopted for crossing it 
 depend on the nature of the locality selected for the 
 passage. Thus the Nynsukh, just above its junction 
 with the Jhelam (or, as it is here called, the Bedasta) at 
 Kara, is crossed by a rope bridge of the kind called ndra. 
 It is a single cord stretched across from bank to bank, 
 and secured on either side to some projecting rock or 
 firmly set tree. The banks here overhang the river in 
 high vertical precipices, and appeared to me at least 150 
 feet apart. The cord is furnished with a loop cradle 
 which is slung on to it by a forked piece of wood. This 
 last forms the upper part of the cradle which, when once 
 adjusted, is irremovable from the cord, though it slides 
 freely backwards and forwards on it by shaking the cord. 
 
 From our camp, on the opposite side of the Jhelam, I 
 watched this very frail-looking arrangement with much 
 interest, in the hope of seeing it used, for on the steep 
 slopes of either bank I could detect no path leading to 
 or from it ; but after a while, not finding my curiosity so 
 speedily gratified, I stationed my servant outside the 
 tent with directions to warn me so soon as he saw any- 
 body approach the spot I indicated. Presently he 
 reported a man coming down the hill side. His colour 
 was so much that of the ground that I did not readily 
 distinguish his form until a pair of lank legs caught my 
 eye overtopping a projecting rock, and picking a way 
 along what now appeared as a mere goat track. I fol- 
 lowed the course of their owner over the short inter- 
 vening space to the bridge, and as he approached found 
 I had been watching a nearly naked mountaineer as 
 
42 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 thin and poor as the coolies in our camp, his brethren 
 and our own too in the light of our common Aryan 
 descent. He had a small bundle tied on his back. It 
 looked like a kid-skin of flour on which was placed a 
 folded blanket signs which betokened that our friend 
 was bound on a journey, for amongst these people of few 
 wants, and not more intellect, the wallet of parched 
 barley meal and the coverlet of coarse wool are the 
 humble representatives of those varied luxuries and 
 multifarious requisites that constitute the travelling ac- 
 companiments of civilised man. 
 
 Arrived at the bridge our interesting subject hitched 
 up his bundle by a jerk of the tattered scarf that held it, 
 and tightening the ends over one shoulder and under the 
 other arm secured the knot across the chest. He then 
 cast a hasty and timid glance all round, and, without 
 any direct examination of the thread on which he was 
 about to trust his life, cautiously stepped down to the 
 edge of the rock, pulled the cradle to him, seated him- 
 self in the loop, the sides of its single cord passing 
 between his flank and arm on each side, and pushing off 
 from the bank shot at once half way across. And now 
 commenced the exciting part of the passage. 
 
 In the outset the cradle with its freight slid down 
 the slope of the cord with rapidity and ease, but mid- 
 way was brought to a stand in the sag produced by its 
 weight, and our venturesome traveller was seen sus- 
 pended in mid-air over a rushing, roaring, and foaming 
 torrent below. He rested a moment to allow the vibra- 
 tion of the cord to cease, and then commenced to finish 
 the transit. This he did by seizing the cord with both 
 hands and propelling himself forward by a sudden jerk 
 of the legs, grabbing it a foot or two in advance ; and 
 so on by a repetition of this process he worked his way 
 
MANNER OF USING IT. 43 
 
 up the slope to the other bank. At each move forward 
 he held firm hold for a moment or two to time the jerk 
 with the vibration of the cord and ease the wooden sling 
 working upon it by that act of propulsion. 
 
 The process must be quite as laborious and hazardous 
 as it appeared to my unaccustomed eye, though the 
 people about assured me it was very simple and safe, 
 and that accidents rarely happened though the bridge 
 was in constant use. The cord, I was informed, is nothing 
 but a close, thick, and strong twist of a long climbing 
 plant mixed with the straight twigs of a species of indigo- 
 fera, both of which grow in plenty on the slopes of all 
 these hills ; but the cradle and shore fastenings are of 
 raw hide in addition. These bridges are only used 
 where the banks are very steep and the stretch across 
 not very wide. They require repair every year, but are 
 very strong and capable of crossing horses and sheep, 
 which are for the purpose slung in the cradle as usual, 
 and let gently down one slope by paying out a rope 
 attached to it, and hauled up the other by a similar 
 arrangement. 
 
 On the following day at Thandali, the next stage 
 beyond Kara, we saw the river crossed in quite a diffe- 
 rent manner, and the only one the locality admitted of. 
 Here the ground forms a low flat semicircular reach but 
 little raised above the channel of the river, whilst the 
 opposite bank shelves precipitously to the water's edge ; 
 thus affording no points of holdfast for the ndra or 
 " cord bridge," nor presenting suitable spots for the piers 
 of ihQJhula or " swing bridge "which we saw further on. 
 
 Heavy rain fell during our night's stay at Kara, and 
 amongst other accidents brought my tent down upon me 
 by the snapping short at the joint of two of the three 
 poles that supported it so inefficiently. I was fast asleep 
 
44 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 at the time, but the tremendous weight that overpressed 
 me worse than any nightmare soon roused me to a 
 sense of impending suffocation. By an instinctive effort 
 my arms raised up the load of weighted canvass enough 
 to allow of my slipping out of bed, but only to find my 
 feet pressing a sodden carpet, spongy as a bog, on the 
 water-logged turf beneath it. Crouching under the 
 prop of my boxes I extricated myself from the ruins in 
 miserable plight, and passed two of the longest hours of 
 my life, coiled up in some damp and musty horse clothing 
 on the top of a mule trunk in one corner of the veran- 
 dah till daylight dispersed the darkness and revealed 
 the only sound pole already arrived at an angle of forty- 
 five in its desertion of the perpendicular. My erstwhile 
 vainly repeated summons unheard in the pattering of 
 the rain and the roaring of the Jhelam whose clamour, 
 in the hush of night, reigned supreme and sole, with an 
 intensity magnified by the absence of that hum of 
 activity which enlivens the day with the varied sounds 
 of animal life now brought my servants to my aid. A 
 few minutes sufficed to set matters right, and then, in a 
 more comfortable mood of body and mind, looking 
 around the scene of my troubles I congratulated myself 
 on the better judgment that resisted the promptings of 
 the moment to essay the shelter of the dak-bungalow 
 hard by. The house, I knew, was already fully occupied 
 by the tourist families we found in it on arrival, but its 
 verandah would have afforded a dry corner could it be 
 reached. This was just the difficulty I felt in the dark- 
 ness, and its nature was now apparent, for the space 
 between us, though hardly more than a hundred yards, 
 if as much, was covered with a variety of harmful 
 obstructions. The faggots of firewood, bundles of hay, 
 sacks of barley, and piles of mule gear, with coiled-up 
 
AN INCIDENT OF CAMP LIFE. 45 
 
 knots of benumbed coolies and shivering ponies which 
 the Kashmir officials had collected here for our use, 
 blocked the way everywhere in the picturesque disorder 
 characteristic of the ways of native camp life. 
 
 This heavy rain somewhat delayed our departure, and 
 it was ten o'clock before our camp got away from Kara. 
 The mid-day heat and the heavy stifling atmosphere of 
 Thandali proved very trying to our cattle and men, and 
 justify the numbering of this march amongst the list of 
 those the most memorable for hardship on our long 
 journey. 
 
 At Thandali we found the river in full flood, its bois- 
 terous current rushing away with quantities of drift, and 
 presenting an appearance far from inviting a swim across 
 its stream'. Yet it was here we saw it crossed on the 
 sliindz, which I was about to describe just now when I 
 digressed to the record of the above personal incident 
 as illustrative of the mishaps of camp life. 
 
 The shindz, which is commonly used on the Indus, and 
 other rivers of the Panjab, is merely an inflated hide 
 either of the ox or goat. Those we saw here were of the 
 latter animal, and were formed of two separate skins 
 lashed together. Each was separately inflated by blow- 
 ing through a wooden vent fixed in one of the fore-legs 
 of the hide, and closed by a plug of the same material. 
 The little float thus formed was then held on the edge of 
 the stream till the rider, striding across it, passed each 
 leg through a loop of strapping hanging like a stirrup 
 leather on each side, and, holding each vent plug in 
 either hand, lay his chest upon the hides, and plunged 
 out into the foaming torrent, paddling with arms and 
 legs as in the act of swimming. Much dexterity and 
 skill are required in the proper management of these 
 wonderful little floats to prevent a sudden capsize. We 
 
46 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 saw several men out on the shindz in quest of the drift 
 borne down by the flood, and to judge from the ease and 
 confidence with which each guided his awkward little 
 craft, they must be practically familiar with its use in 
 this place. The courage with which they buffetted the 
 breakers, and the dexterity with which they avoided the 
 whirl of the rapids, were no less astonishing than the 
 skill with which they secured a passing waif, and the 
 firmness with which they rode as their buoyant supports 
 were borne bounding over the wave tops. 
 
 On this occasion we saw the river crossed under excep- 
 tionally difficult conditions. In the ordinary state of the 
 current the passage is a simpler matter, and admits of a 
 bundle being carried on the back of the passenger who, 
 if he cannot paddle himself over, may be towed across by 
 another who can. 
 
 In the times of the Mughol and Afghan the shindz 
 was in much more frequent use than it has been under 
 the more settled government that has succeeded their 
 turbulent rule in this country. It was then the means by 
 w r hich robber bands crossed either to harry their neigh- 
 bour's territory, or to escape the pursuit of their enemies, 
 as from its portability and ready adjustment it proved 
 a safe and expeditious mode of overcoming the water 
 obstructions of the country. About midway between 
 Eara and Thandali, and on the opposite side of the river, 
 a little above the junction of the Kishanganga with the 
 Jhelam, is the town of Muzaffarabad, where are the ruins 
 of a large sarae of the Mughol period. The Afghans, 
 when they held Kashmir, kept a garrison here for the 
 protection of the road, which was in their time infested 
 by robber bands. This road which, from Muzaffarabad 
 onwards to Baramulla, runs parallel to the route we fol- 
 lowed on the opposite side of the river, is known as the 
 
THE JH&LA OR "SWING BRIDGE." 47 
 
 Durrani road of Pakli and Damtaur, and is the easiest 
 and most practicable of all the routes leading to Kash- 
 mir, being open all the year round. 
 
 At Hattyan, the next stage beyond Thandali, we saw 
 the " swing bridge," or jhula, which I have before men- 
 tioned. There were two of them, within sight of each 
 other, between Hatty an and Garhi. The latter is a con- 
 siderable village on the opposite side of the river, which 
 here flows in a wide channel flanked by high banks, 
 the stream itself varying in breadth from fifty or sixty 
 to a hundred and fifty or more yards. 
 
 The jhula consists of three ropes stretched across the 
 stream, at a height of eight or ten feet, between two 
 buttress piers, built up of loose boulders and brush- 
 wood faggots, at the edges of the current. Each pier 
 slopes as a causeway on the land side, and drops as a 
 wall towards the water, whilst in its substance are im- 
 bedded several strong upright posts as supports for the 
 bridge ropes. These ropes are disposed across from side 
 to side in a triangular form,, so that a cross section would 
 mark the points of a capital V, thus V two parallel 
 ropes forming the upper plane, and a central one the lower 
 plane. This disposition is maintained throughout the 
 stretch by large V shaped prongs of wood, which, at inter- 
 vals of four or five yards, are secured in position above 
 and below by thongs of raw hide, and further strength- 
 ened above by a cording which is passed across between 
 the two upper points where they are fixed to those ropes. 
 
 The stretch of the bridge was about eighty yards, and it 
 hung with a considerable bend by its own weight, whilst 
 the wind swayed it from side to side in an alarming 
 manner. It is crossed by the passenger walking on the 
 lower of the ropes, which is sometimes of double or treble 
 strand, and holding his balance with the hands on the upper 
 
48 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ropes, which run at each side on a level with his shoulders. 
 I saw four men cross this bridge at the same 'time, and two 
 of them carried bundles on their backs. They followed each 
 other at intervals of four or five paces, and were careful to 
 walk "out of step" so as to prevent the dangerous undu- 
 lation which would have jerked them off their narrow foot- 
 ing had they kept "in step." As they arrived at the prongs 
 in succession they cautiously "ducked" under the cross 
 cords, and I noticed that only one man at a time passed 
 between any two of the prongs. The weight of these four 
 men bore down the bridge, in the middle of its span, quite 
 to the surface of the water, and, indeed, I saw one man's 
 feet immersed in the crest of a wave. The shock of this 
 "catch" did not, as I expected it would, throw him off 
 his footing, but it set the whole loop a swinging and 
 vibrating in a manner most uncomfortable to witness. 
 The commotion, however, did not for a moment stop the 
 progress of the passengers, and I saw them land on the 
 other side, and take their several ways without ever a 
 glance back at the awkward path they had trodden so 
 skilfully, or, most probably, a thought of the peril they 
 had escaped. 
 
 At this place the charger of one of our guide's cavalry 
 escort, whilst being led along by the groom, fell over 
 the bank, a sheer drop of sixty to eighty feet, into the 
 river, and was borne by the current to a small island 
 flat in its mid-stream, a little way lower down. The 
 unfortunate creature was there found to have broken a 
 thigh bone, and was consequently put out of suffering 
 by a bullet through the head. Captain Chapman crossed 
 over on a shindz for this merciful duty. This accident 
 at the outset of our march was the only loss that befell 
 the troop horses of our little escort in all our journey. 
 From Hattyan our next stage was to Chikar, where the 
 
VALLEY OF THE JHELAM RIVER. 49 
 
 Danna road from Kohala joins the main route. At this 
 place we quitted the low, hot valley of the Jhelam, and 
 beyond it rose up to the cool forest tracts, which on this 
 side of the river extend on to the entrance of the Wolar 
 basin the renowned Vale of Kashmir (Kashi Merii ?) 
 at Baramulla. 
 
 The change was no less agreeable on account of the 
 improved climate than on that of the finer scenery. At 
 Dewal and Kohala we left behind us the forests that 
 give the Murree hills their charm, and, crossing the river 
 at the latter place, entered quite a different climate and 
 country. 
 
 From Kohala to Chikar our route lay through the 
 narrow winding pass of the river Jhelam, over an in- 
 terrupted talus strip, cut at intervals by vdeep ravines, 
 through which pour the torrent feeders of the main 
 stream below. On its shelving slopes are terraced flats 
 of rice and maize cultivation, and the homesteads of its 
 peasantry, surrounded by their orchards and hedges. 
 Between these occupied plots the general surface of the 
 uneven tract is set with a more or less abundant brush- 
 wood jungal, of which the dodonsea, carissa, wild olive, 
 barberry, jujube, adhatoda, &c., with the wild fig, rottlera, 
 and other such trees, are the chief components. 
 
 Above this river-bank tract the hills slope away to 
 lofty peaks, presenting, in infinite variety of surface, a 
 vast extent of uniformly verdant pasture, which (broken 
 by neither rock nor forest) spreads up their sides to the 
 highest summits. 
 
 At Chikar we left this tame scene, and passed on to a 
 wooded region, the pine and cedar forests of which vie 
 in magnificence with the majestic heights they clothe, 
 and afford many a prospect alone well worth the jour- 
 ney to gaze upon. 
 
50 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Our next stage on was to Chakoti, where we halted a 
 day. On this march we passed some small camps of 
 Gipsies, generically styled kanjar, on the tramp to the 
 Happy Valley. They were as ragged, conservative, and 
 happy in their dirt and poverty, as they are found to be 
 elsewhere, and to judge from their naked forms were as 
 indifferent to the cool breezes of the mountains as they 
 are to the hot blasts of the plains. We also met some 
 large caravans of Mt the " costum" of the ancients 
 bound to Eawal Pindi. We had met several of these 
 convoys on the three or four preceding marches, during 
 which we also overtook some Peshawar traders driving 
 their small convoys of twelve and fifteen mules, laden 
 with asafoetida and snuff respectively, to the Srinaggar 
 market ; but on this occasion I noticed three convoys, 
 said to consist of eighty bullocks each. I learned from 
 one of the drivers that the- root was collected on the hills 
 near the Zojila pass, and when we arrived there I got 
 some specimens of the plant by sending a man off into 
 the hills to fetch them. The driver told me that each 
 bullock carried two maunds of Jcut, and that the drug 
 was bought by the merchants at Eawal Pindi, at the rate 
 of a rupee per ser of two pounds. Some idea of the 
 quantity of this root which is annually carried out of 
 Kashmir may be formed from the approximate data I 
 got from this man. The 240 loads of this drug which 
 we met on this day and its peculiar odour loaded the 
 air around represent, at eighty pounds per maund, a 
 total of 38,400 pounds of fcut, worth at Kawal Pindi 
 19,200 rupees. We had already, in the previous stages, 
 passed nearly as large a quantity,, and my informant 
 assured me that several similar convoys would follow 
 during the next three weeks. 
 
 It appears that anybody can go and collect the roots 
 
THE " CO STUM" OF THE ANCIENTS. 51 
 
 where they grow, but the peasantry of the vicinity are 
 usually employed to do so. The plant grows wild and 
 in great abundance in certain localities, and I could 
 learn of no restrictions or regulations concerning its 
 collection. The root is largely consumed in India in the 
 service of the Hindu temples, and is exported from 
 Bombay to China, where it is used as incense. 
 
 In the umbrageous gullies and ravines about Chakoti, 
 I added several specimens to the collection of little birds 
 I had been shooting on the march up, but none so beau- 
 tiful as a white bird of paradise with a long, graceful 
 tail, and a bright purple green beak ; and the male of the 
 same species, but of a russet colour. On arrival at 
 Srinaggar, I despatched a tin-lined case of these birds 
 to India, whence, in the following year, they were sent 
 home. On opening the cases for two others of the five 
 I filled shared a like fate by spending a rainy season in 
 Calcutta the tin was found honeycombed with rust, 
 and the contents utterly destroyed by the ravages of the 
 weevil. Fortunately the birds collected north of Leh 
 escaped this exposure, and arrived in sound condition. 
 
 The march from Chakoti to Uri is picturesque, but 
 trying to laden cattle, owing to the steep ascents and 
 descents across the succession of deep ravines that cut 
 the road, which is otherwise good, and shaded. There is 
 a good deal of cultivation on the route, fields of rice, 
 maize, cotton, and pulse, of the kind called mdh, occupy- 
 ing the terraced flats on each side of the way. In the 
 intervals between these productive patches the road is 
 hedged about by the filbert and jujube, the pomegranate 
 and mulberry, the fig and apricot, the diospyrus (called 
 amluJc), and pear, with the grape vine twining in intricate 
 leafy coils amongst them ; all in the wild state excelling 
 in foliage, failing in fruit. 
 
52 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Our camp at Uri was pitched, between the fort and 
 the stage bungalow, on a high shelf of turf land backed 
 by hills of charming aspect, rich in the variety of their 
 forest foliage, and glad in their pastures of brightest 
 green. This is the prettiest spot we have yet camped 
 on, and the clear, sunny sky spread above the fleecy 
 vapours floating about the hill-tops favoured us with a 
 view of the scenery in its full beauty ; whilst the mea- 
 sure of its enjoyment, in the calm that comes with the 
 fading light of a setting sun, was filled by the grateful 
 notes of the bagpipe the music, of all others, in har- 
 mony with the occasion. It was the first time our camp 
 sergeant, Corporal Ehind, a piper of the 92nd High- 
 landers, tuned his pipes on the march ; and he could not 
 have selected a more fit opportunity for the essay of 
 those performances with which he so often enlivened the 
 dull hours of our subsequent experience. 
 
 The fort is a mud structure, capable of accommodating 
 a garrison of 200 men, and looks up and down the river 
 from the edge of a high cliff which here projects into 
 one of its many bends. Below it is a jh-fila, or " swing 
 bridge," by which the Muzaffarabad road, on the opposite 
 side, is reached. 
 
 The march from Uri to Urihan Boin (the n of the last 
 word is nasal) is through a most interesting tract by a 
 good road, which now runs across the face of precipitous 
 hills that overtop lofty cliffs dropping straight to the 
 river itself a foaming rapid, surging with ceaseless 
 tumult down the gorge and anon winds through shady 
 forests of the stately cedar and umbrageous plane, of the 
 comely sycamore and the bounteous walnut, with the 
 familiar hawthorn and favourite hazel amongst a host of 
 others, each with its special uses or peculiar beauties. 
 
 About midway on the march we passed the ruins of a 
 
JtUINS OF ANCIENT TEMPLES. 53 
 
 temple of the early Hindu period. The massive blocks 
 of its carefully chiselled limestone, in the confusion of 
 their heap, revealed only the basement of the central 
 temple and the portal of the quadrangle which once en- 
 closed it ; and there was nobody to tell the history of 
 those who in the solitude of its cloisters worshipped the 
 Supreme Essence in the midst of surroundings eminently 
 favouring the attainment of their desire the final ab- 
 sorption into the object of their devotion, the Supreme 
 Essence, the Universal Creator, the Author of all 
 Nature. 
 
 On the next march we passed a similar ruin in a more 
 perfect state of preservation. It is built of great blocks 
 of amygdaloid trap, and is called Banihar (or Ban 
 Vihara " The forest monastery "). In the centre of the 
 space enclosed by the quadrangle of cloisters stood the 
 temple, on the top of a solid basement which was as- 
 cended by a flight of steps facing the gateway. The 
 upper part had evidently been renewed, and when we 
 passed was occupied by a poor Brahmin who attended to 
 the service of the two emblems that stood on the altar 
 a small stone lingam set in the yuni, anointed with oil 
 and garlanded with flowers the worship of a degraded 
 Brahmanism in the place of a departed mystic Budhism. 
 At Baramulla there are side by side other relics of both 
 religious systems, and amongst them a lingam or priapus 
 cut out of a solid block of sandstone, about four feet in 
 diameter and sixteen feet high, and set on a masonry 
 platform little above the level of the encroaching turf. 
 
 The last miles of this march are singularly interesting, 
 and mark the spot at which the basin beyond burst its 
 bounds and drained its contents through the gorge now 
 occupied by the Bedasta or Jhelam. The road lies at the 
 foot of stupendous cliffs of slate, the vertical strata of 
 
54 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 which correspond exactly with the formation of the rock 
 on the opposite bank just below Uri, a distance of ten 
 miles down the gorge. 
 
 From the similarity of geological phenomena at these 
 spots of similar appellation I was curious to ascertain 
 whether there was any connection between them to 
 account for the coincidence, but my inquiries failed to 
 elicit any reason for such supposition, though they 
 afforded a clue to the designations of the two localities. 
 
 In the Kashmiri language, or, as it is here called, 
 Kashuri, uri is the name of a tree a species of the 
 coesalpinia which abounds in the forests of the vicinity ; 
 and boin is also the name of a tree the oriental plane, 
 the cliinar of the vernacular dialect which forms so 
 prominent a feature in the landscape of the valley. Uri, 
 therefore, may be rendered Anglice "The coesalpinia 
 trees," and Urihan Boin (the first word is the oblique 
 plural of uri) as " The casalpinia and plane trees," 
 though if my memory serves aright I saw no repre- 
 sentative of the first named at either place. There is 
 another tree, however, of very similar name, which is 
 common in both the localities. It is the wurri or " fil- 
 bert," and may with as much propriety as the first be 
 taken as the derivative of the topographical name. 
 
 Leaving Urihan Boin we marched to Baramulla, and 
 camped on the 1st of August a little above the fort 
 on the river bank, and just within the area of the Kash- 
 mir basin whose wide plain, encircled by a glorious 
 panorama of hills, spread out before us a charming land- 
 scape and most inviting picture, with the option of pro- 
 ceeding by land or water ; for from this point up to 
 Islamabad at the opposite side of the valley the Bedasta, 
 or Behut, as it is here called, is navigated. 
 
 Our last march into the valley partook of the delightfully 
 
THE KADDAL" BRIDGE. 55 
 
 refreshing character of the two preceding stages, but on 
 emerging from the hills we parted from the grand scenery 
 of their majestic heights for the soft champaign of the 
 plain ; which, however, possesses peculiar attractions of 
 its own, no less grateful to the senses it lulls to repose 
 with a calm pleasure than are healthful the exhilarat- 
 ing air and inspiriting scenery of the mountain tracts 
 around. 
 
 At three or four miles out from camp we passed the 
 ruins of Banihar, an ancient Hindu monastery of the 
 flourishing period of Budhism, which I have already 
 mentioned. On the opposite side of the road are a few 
 suttlers' huts, at which the traveller can refresh himself 
 and beast. 
 
 At Baramulla we saw the first of those extraordinary 
 constructions which form so peculiar a feature of the 
 river scene at Srinaggar a new form of bridge, in the 
 variety of which structures this country seems so 
 prolific. 
 
 It spans the river just above the town on a succession 
 of six piers, and is composed entirely of undressed logs 
 of pine and cedar timber. The whole tree trunk, in 
 fact, lopped of its branches. The strongest and longest 
 of them, laid side by side, are stretched across from 
 pier to pier to form the roadway, and merely rest, with- 
 out any further security, by two or three feet of their 
 length at either end upon the tops of the opposite piers, 
 which may be from twenty to twenty-five feet apart. 
 
 The piers are built up of similar logs arranged side by 
 side in layers of a square shape, the logs of each succes- 
 sive layer crossing those of the other at right angles, and 
 lodging in notches cut in the logs below. The lowest 
 layers are the broadest and diminish gradually as they 
 ascend to the centre, above which they again expand 
 
56 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 successively up to the top, where the logs equal in length 
 those at the bottom, thus giving the pier an hourglass 
 sort of contraction. The piers rest on a foundation of 
 stones embedded in the muddy bottom of the river, and 
 are protected against its current by a cut-water pointing 
 up the stream, and built of loose stones filled into a 
 frame of logs. Above they are furnished with upright 
 posts, which support the railing that runs on each side of 
 the roadway span. 
 
 This kind of bridge is called Jcaddal, which appears to 
 be the Kashuri form of the- Hindi kathan "made of 
 wood," and is very strong and durable despite its 
 ricketty construction and very dilapidated appearance. 
 There are six or eight of them on the river at Srinaggar, 
 which bear the traffic of the two halves of the city, and 
 some of them are further weighted with a row of shops 
 on each side the way ; most perilous looking abodes 
 projecting in all degrees of obliquity above the main 
 structure, and from its sides over the stream. 
 
 The timber being cedar is very durable, and accidents 
 rarely occur, owing to the elasticity of the construction, 
 and the outlet afforded to sudden floods through the 
 many passages in the substance of the piers. I wit- 
 nessed the behaviour of these bridges in the inundation 
 of 1869, and though they were nearly swamped by the 
 flood, none of them gave way, whilst many of the 
 houses on the river's bank the one I occupied amongst 
 the first were completely destroyed. 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 
 FROM Baramulla our camp marched to Pattan, and 
 halted a day under the shade of some magnificent plane 
 trees, from the high - spreading boughs of which the 
 golden oriole whistled out his plaintive cry, and the 
 starling chattered in convivial company. I measured the 
 girth of the two trees beneath whose shade my tent was 
 pitched ; and, taking them at about five feet from the 
 ground, found the one to be twenty feet round the clear 
 trunk, and the other twenty-one feet two inches. 
 
 At this place there are the ruins of two ancient 
 temples, built of blue limestone, carefully chiselled and 
 carved, in the same massive and enduring style as those 
 before mentioned, and like those of Martand, at the 
 further end of the valley, supposed to be dedicated to 
 the sun. There is also in course of erection, almost 
 within a stone-throw of them, but of just the opposite 
 characters, one of those hideous-looking constructions 
 those rambling blocks of mud and stone and raw brick, 
 whose patchwork walls are kept together in their erratic 
 lines by a lumbering frame of rough logs and undressed 
 planks which are making their appearance in all parts 
 of the valley for the rearing of silkworms ; an industry 
 recently introduced by the Maharaja as a government 
 monopoly. 
 
 "Whilst wandering, gun in hand, amongst these elo- 
 quent witnesses of the civilisation of the past and of the 
 present in this historic land, I shot some specimens of 
 
53 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the Kashmir cuckoo, and a beautifully coloured bee-eater ; 
 and then mounting the high clay banks to the right got 
 a wide view of the valley and its lake-basin lying ahead 
 of our position. 
 
 After the scenery we had just come through, the view 
 spread before us was in its immediate objects not alto- 
 gether so pleasing. The wide stretch of reed swamp 
 belting the Wolar lake, and the scattered farmsteads 
 and hamlets marking the accessible borders of this pes- 
 tiferous tract, from their dead level and unvaried repe- 
 tition of the same elements wherever the eye turned in 
 the survey of the landscape, proved if not disappointing, 
 at least unattracting. But the coup d'ceil beyond 
 the tout ensemble of the valley and its surroundings 
 presented a prospect worthy of admiration, unique of its 
 kind, and exceeding in extent of scope, as it excels in 
 point of beauty, anything that is to be found elsewhere 
 within the range of vision from a single point of view. 
 Projecting on to the plain from various points of its 
 circumference are those strange banks of lacustrine 
 deposit here called karewa which mark a former coast 
 line, and interpose their bare promontories to break the 
 even spread of grove and field, and to improve the land- 
 scape by variety in the form of its unchanging elements. 
 Between them are the wide sweeping gulfs and bays, 
 and the tributary valleys that shelter the rural popula- 
 lation and reward their toil with the fruits of a grateful 
 soil. Whilst above them all rises that glorious circle of 
 mountains which constitute the natural limit of the 
 region and the most remarkable feature of its scenery 
 their belts of black forest and slopes of green pasture 
 showing in vivid contrast with the snowy summits and 
 glistening peaks that form the crowning beauty of the 
 whole. 
 
VISIT FROM DIWAN BADRI NA TH. 5 9 
 
 Soon after our arrival at Pattan we received a visit 
 from Diwan Badri Nath, a high official of the Kashmir 
 court, who, on the part of his Highness the Maharaja, 
 welcomed us to Srinaggar, and delivered the friendly 
 messages he was charged with with an innate suavity 
 and politeness of manner quite charming in themselves, 
 and the more appreciable, because they were not mere 
 empty words, as the arrangements for the comfort of our 
 march thus far abundantly proved. 
 
 In the afternoon I accompanied Colonel Gordon to 
 return his visit, and next morning they rode off to- 
 gether in advance to select a site for our camp, which is 
 to halt some days at Srinaggar to equip our men and 
 cattle with warm clothing for the journey across the 
 passes. We followed with the camp next morning, and 
 on arrival at the river-bank below the city were met by 
 Pandit Hira Nand, chief of the city police, who was 
 awaiting us with one of the Maharaja's state barges to 
 convey us by water to the Nasim Bagh, where Captain 
 Biddulph's party was camped. 
 
 Captain Chapman and I accordingly took our seats on 
 the chairs set for us under the canopy of the pinnace, 
 and were paddled up to our destination by thirty boat- 
 men, whilst the camp, crossing at the first bridge, fol- 
 lowed the land route, and joined the advance party 
 under Captain Biddulph, whose camp we found pitched 
 on the shore of the Ball lake, under the shade of the 
 plane trees of the celebrated park here laid out by the 
 Emperor Akbar the Nasim Bagh. 
 
 The trip up the river was a very agreeable change, 
 particularly in the gorgeous and swift conveyance which 
 had been so very thoughtfully provided for us, for 
 the march was a long one, and the sun nearing the 
 meridian was growing uncomfortably strong. And it 
 
60 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 was no less interesting on account of the excellent river- 
 view of this remarkable city which we were enabled to 
 enjoy from the shelter of the open pavilion in which we 
 were seated. It was an oblong chamber built up in the 
 centre of the boat, and highly decorated in that intricate 
 pattern peculiar to the artists of Kashmir, and so well- 
 known for that marvellous blending of colour which, 
 without disturbance of harmony amongst all, presents a 
 groundwork of either according to the light in which it 
 is viewed. The shallow vaulted roof was supported 
 midway by pillars which divided the chamber into two 
 compartments, and at the sides by others which were 
 fitted for shutters to close the whole when necessary. 
 The weather being fine we found these last had been 
 removed, and consequently, the roof, supported on its 
 pillars alone, formed a canopy or pavilion open on all 
 sides above the panel of the basement. 
 
 The scene on either bank, as one is borne along 
 through the midst of the city, is bewildering by the 
 variety and the novelty of the sights that catch the eye 
 at every turn ; yet there is a sameness that pervades the 
 whole, and characterises it as essentially local. 
 
 The succession of bridges, under whose spans of creak- 
 ing and trembling logs for arches they are not to be 
 called our boat was shot with a speed against stream 
 hardly less than that of the more humble craft coming 
 down with it, are all members of one family; each a 
 singular repetition of the other, and all alike in their 
 tumbledown look, and peculiar structure, and decayed 
 appearance. The boats, too, which float amongst them, 
 our own not excepted, in all their different sizes and 
 various fittings, are of one shape and one resemblance. 
 Whether it be the light and painted state-barge, or the 
 ponderous and unadorned rice-boat ; whether it be the 
 
RIVER VIEW OF SRINAGGAR. 61 
 
 swift pinnace with its elegant canopy and many paddles, 
 or the more leisurely travelling-boat, with its mat roof 
 and mud-built cooking-range ; or whether it be the skiff 
 of the fisherman and fowler, or the punt of the market- 
 gardener and caltrops-picker, they are all of one pattern 
 and one build a flat keelless bottom, straight ribless 
 sides, and tapering ends that rise out symmetrically fore 
 and aft, prow and stern alike for advance or retreat. 
 
 Of such form, these boats are well suited for the con- 
 veyance of heavy burthens on a smooth stream; but 
 they are most dangerous craft on rough water. From 
 the wide hold they take of the water they gain buoy- 
 ancy in respect to freight, but they lose it in the matter 
 of riding. Instead of rising over the waves they present 
 an obstacle over which they break, and the surf pouring 
 over the low sides soon swamps the vessel. 
 
 The natives rarely venture far away from shore in 
 heavily-laden boats, and when crossing the Wolar lake 
 usually coast along its sides so that, if per chance caught 
 by one of the squalls which so often sweep its surface, 
 they can run as to a safe port into the belt of weeds 
 bordering its shores ; for here the water-lily, duckweed, 
 and caltrops, with other aquatic plants, cover the water 
 with a continuous spread of broad leaves which float on 
 the surface and prevent its being disturbed by the wind. 
 
 But to return to the river view. The mass of houses 
 built on the masonry embankments which rise out of 
 the water on either hand, and display here and there 
 amongst the varied components of their structure the 
 chiselled blocks of some ancient palace or temple, inces- 
 santly draw the eyes from side to side by the attraction 
 of some new form, and present a spectacle no less novel 
 in character than strangely diverse in its uniformity as a 
 whole. 
 
62 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 The gable roofs, with their untidy thatch of beech 
 bark and their attic lofts open at both ends, rest so in- 
 securely upon the loose-jointed frame of upright poles 
 they cover that they seem ready to fly away with the 
 first gale of wind, and certainly constitute the most pecu- 
 liar feature of the architecture everywhere. Whether 
 on the king's palace or the peasant's cottage, on the 
 merchant's store or the mechanic's shop, or whether 
 on the Hindu's barrack or the Musalman's mosque, this 
 draughty log-built roof is the same in character on all. 
 
 The edifices it surmounts present a greater variety of 
 structure, though in all except in the palaces and Hindu 
 temples, which are built throughout of solid masonry 
 the framework of upright poles fixed upon a raised plat- 
 form of masonry forms the skeleton. This framework is 
 held together by cross-trees and rafters and closed in, 
 tier above tier, either by a planking of rough-split logs 
 or a thin wall of bricks and mortar. The interior par- 
 titions are of lath and plaster, and the compartments 
 are lighted very much less than they are ventilated as 
 many a tourist in the "Happy Valley" must have dis- 
 covered to his cost in comfort by those lattice windows, 
 so rich in the variety and elegance of their designs, 
 which are, with the carved woodwork of the portals, the 
 most agreeable features of Kashmir architectural clecora-- 
 tion ; so far at least as exterior appearance is concerned, 
 for the matter of interior comfort is quite another con- 
 sideration, and dependent for its merits upon the views 
 or means of the occupants. 
 
 Glass windows are unknown out of the palaces and the 
 mansions of the wealthy. The lattice window supplies 
 their place, and how inefficiently may be readily under- 
 stood when one learns that the only device adopted for 
 keeping out the wind is a sheet of paper pasted over the 
 
CHARACTER OF THE ARCHITECTURE. 63 
 
 fretwork, whilst the cold air pouring in over the open 
 coping is considered out of reach and submitted to as a 
 matter of course. 
 
 The very general use of timber for house-building in 
 Kashmir, and the loose putting together of the beams 
 and logs, is said to be necessitated by the frequency of 
 earthquakes in the country. It seems, however, that 
 other causes are not without potent influence in deter- 
 mining the preference. And notably the character of 
 the people for physical inactivity a trait which is ex- 
 emplified in the nature of all their industries. 
 
 Their shawls and embroideries, their silver work and 
 papier-mache-painting, their stone-engraving and wood- 
 carving, &c., all alike exhibit proofs of wonderful 
 delicacy and minute detail, but tell of no active expen- 
 diture of muscular force. Where this is required, as in 
 house-building, we find it exercised only to the smallest 
 extent absolutely indispensable fo"r the attainment of the 
 object desired. Hence, though stone is abundant and 
 more durable, the easily-felled and floated timber is put 
 together in a style of unfinish altogether independent of 
 adaptation to stability under the conditions assigned. 
 Doubtless the humid character of the climate and the 
 soft nature of the soil may have their share of influence, 
 which must not be overlooked. But with the relics of 
 ancient edifices of ponderous stone and the existing 
 buildings of substantial masonry before us on the spot, 
 these conditions, it would appear, offer no serious ob- 
 stacle to a more finished and substantial style of architec- 
 ture to that which is in vogue here. Such as they are, 
 however, the houses of Srinaggar constitute the most 
 
 7 OO 
 
 prominent feature in the view of the city as seen on the 
 way up its stream. And more special objects amongst 
 them are the new houses rising on the river frontage 
 
64 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 very welcome signs, in their elaborate finish and straight 
 angles and neat lines, of the march of civilisation and 
 adoption of modern improvement ; the lofty piles of its 
 principal mosques topped with those peculiar belfry-like 
 towers supported midroof testimonies to the architect's 
 recognition of the dictates of taste as superior to the 
 claims of conventional form ; and those shapeless little 
 idol temples of stone and mortar which, though in 
 the front rank on the river's bank, would be passed 
 unnoticed but for the glare of their tinsel and gilt 
 incongruous objects in this quaint jumble of wood- 
 work structures. It remains to fill in the picture 
 with man, whose presence and activity enliven the scene 
 and complete the speciality of its character. In a city 
 so well situated as a centre for the trade of the countries 
 beyond the passes, one might naturally look for the 
 representatives of the different surrounding regions 
 amidst the crowd of its inhabitants, but they are not to 
 be found or at least they do not appear amongst the 
 moving forms that pass before the eyes of the mere 
 traveller in anything like the number expected. 
 
 As it is, the familiar forms of the Afghan and Sikh, 
 met here in so frequent recurrence, claim no such in- 
 terest from us as do those of the people the one ruled 
 in this valley not so very long ago, and the other rules 
 at the present time. Nor do the few members of those 
 little known tribes of the outlying districts of Dardistan, 
 Baltistan, and Bhotan who are found here as govern- 
 ment servants, more than excite a transient curiosity 
 amidst the crowd of natives which more fully attracts 
 the attention. It is the Hindu Pandit and the Musal- 
 man Kashmiri who are the chief actors in that busy 
 scene of life and activity which at this season meets the 
 eye at every turn in the river's course. 
 
SCENES ON THE RIVER BANKS. 65 
 
 The Pandit, or Batta as he is styled by his Muham- 
 madan brother, if not recognised by the nicer distinctions 
 of manner and speech, or the difference in dress and occu- 
 pation, may be at once distinguished by the paint-marks 
 carefully set on the forehead as the tokens of his reli- 
 gious purity. 
 
 He is seen as the well-to-do merchant, with a party of 
 his fellows passing up and down the stream, seated on 
 the matted floor of the Srinaggar gondola, in animated 
 chat on the concerns of his business ; his comfortable 
 form bulging between the tight strings of his spotless 
 linen, and enveloped in the loose folds of his soft warm 
 shawl. Or he is found en deshabille performing his 
 ablutions, immersed at the edge of the current under 
 which his shaven head, with its lank crown-top lock, 
 bobs now and again as he gabbles through the formula 
 of his prayers ; his hands the while, held up to the sun, 
 pouring back to the river the drops they had raised from 
 it, or quickly passing through the fingers the threads of 
 tldQJaneo which encircles his body ; unmindful alike of the 
 presence of the stranger or the proximity of his women- 
 kind the reputed fair Panditani who (the latter), 
 in like undisguise, may be disporting herself in the 
 same element, or, concealed within the ample folds of her 
 shapeless gown, may be washing her linen or filling her 
 pitcher at the brink. Or else he is observed as the Brah- 
 min priest his withered and emaciated form divested 
 of all covering but the indecent loin-clout seated on 
 his hams cooking his simple fare of unleavened cakes 
 and pottage, and guarding scrupulously the purity of the 
 spot sanctified for the operation ; or, seated crosslegged 
 at the door of his temple, he is reciting the shastar with 
 a volubility equal to the swaying to and fro of his body ; 
 
 or else, motionless and silent, he is absorbed in a trance 
 
 E 
 
66 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 of meditation, or more probably of mental torpor and 
 abstraction. Or lie is seen, writing-case and paper in 
 hand, as the civil functionary the scribe, the notary, or 
 the tax-collector in the pursuit of his special avocation, 
 or, as the corn chandler, on the river-barges superin- 
 tending the discharge of rice into the government 
 granaries, or its sale to the people. 
 
 The Kashmiri, or Kashuri as he styles himself, con- 
 stituting the bulk of the population, presents a greater 
 diversity of ranks and occupations. These, from the 
 barely clothed cooly and poverty-stricken peasant to the 
 richly clad merchant and wealthy proprietor, are all to 
 be seen in the course of a tour through the water-way of 
 the city. The silversmiths, lapidaries, papier-mache 
 artists, shawl-weavers, silk embroiderers, and other arti- 
 ficers are, of course, only to be seen to advantage in their 
 workshops on either side of the river. Here we are 
 concerned only with the scene on its banks, and they 
 consequently need no further notice in this place beyond 
 the mention of their general resemblance in outward 
 appearance to the Hindu portion of the population, from 
 whom they are sometimes, in the absence of the paint- 
 marks 01; tika, only to be distinguished by the different 
 folding of the turban. 
 
 The special actor on the river- scene is naturally 
 the boatman. His lithe, active form bared for the 
 task is seen everywhere as it bends to the rapid 
 strokes of his paddle ; and his merry voice, too often 
 raised in unseemly wrangle and vociferous vitupera- 
 tion, is heard above all other sounds. His family, who 
 live in the boat with him, are seen variously occupied 
 upon the banks ; the children remarkable for their 
 bright eyes, and soft, pleasing features disporting them- 
 selves on the limited planking of their homes moored 
 alongside; > whilst the mother and elder daughters are 
 
FLOATING GARDENS OP THE DALL. 67 
 
 busy on the beach in that laborious and unsightly task 
 of husking their daily modicum of rice. The loose- 
 sleeved and very roomy shift, which, like a long night- 
 shirt, covers the body from neck to foot, and forms, with 
 the characteristic cap of red fillet, their only dress 
 jerking up and down as their arms ply the pestle upon 
 the grain is not the least strange sight of the many 
 that here amuse the visitor. And this particular one, 
 from the awkwardness of the implements the pestle 
 being nothing but a pole of wood rounded at each end, 
 and the mortar a mere cup excavated in a clumsy log of 
 the same material suggests reflection on the apathe- 
 tic character of the people, who with such an easy com- 
 mand of water-power can tolerate so burdensome a task. 
 
 It was through such a scene as this, the main features 
 of which I have attempted to delineate by words, that 
 we passed on our way to the Nasim Bagh. The last 
 part of our route wound through that series of canals 
 which intersect the swamps lying between the city and 
 Dall lake. They are at this season nearly choked by the 
 abundance of the water-weeds that shoot up from their 
 shallow bottoms to mature their fruit on the surface, 
 and wither and rot ; whilst their tangled meshes obstruct 
 the passage, and poison the air with the stench of the 
 mephitic odours evolved from the festering mass of their 
 luxuriant foliage. 
 
 Between these narrow channels are small blocks of 
 water-logged land, on which stand the log-huts and 
 orchards of the market gardeners who supply the 
 city with vegetables. They rise little above the level 
 of the water, and are divided by cross trenches 
 into fields, or plots whose banks are lined by rows of 
 willows. Between these banks, which are further sup- 
 ported by stakes, and raised above the general level by 
 heaps of the decayed weeds drawn from the bottom of 
 
68 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the canals, the little skiffs of the cultivators ride their 
 way over the mass of reeds concealing the passage from 
 the eye of the stranger, and thus pass from one end to 
 the other of this pestiferous tract of labyrinthine swamp. 
 
 The produce of these gardens are cucumbers, melons, 
 pumpkins, and tobacco, and that of the canals and shores 
 of the lakes which is spontaneous are the water cal- 
 trops or singhara the fruit of which forms an important 
 item as a breadstuff in the food products of the country, 
 and is under government protection and the nidar, or 
 root-stalk of the water-lily (whose beautiful pink flowers 
 are the pdnpawsh of the Dall lake) which is largely con- 
 sumed as a vegetable. Passing beyond these canals, we 
 entered the circular pool, called the Dall, by one of those 
 clear passages between the reed beds which stretch 
 across its centre, and came upon the floating gardens. 
 These are formed of strips of decayed weeds which have 
 been fished up from the bottom of the lake by means of 
 a pole dexterously twisted amongst their long fibres. 
 They are staked to the bottom where they float by long 
 poles, and are covered above with small heaps of earth 
 in which the melon seed is sown. They are capable of 
 supporting the weight of two or three men at a time ; 
 but great caution is necessary to prevent the feet break- 
 ing through their flimsy, rotten structure. 
 
 On the lake we found a number of little skiffs, each 
 with its single occupant, dotted about the surface. 
 Here, in the line of our route, were two or three weighed 
 down with the pile of weeds their owners were poling up 
 from below for the repair of their floating melon beds, or 
 maybe for the formation of a new one. There, along 
 the shore, were a whole bevy of women, each paddling 
 her own canoe with the one hand, whilst the other was 
 rapidly plucking the duckweed that overspreads the sur- 
 
THE DEATH OF "JINGO." 69 
 
 face, and throwing it into the hollow behind her with an 
 eager haste, as though there was not enough to meet the 
 wants of all. It is a favourite fodder for cattle, and is said 
 to improve the milk of kine fed upon it. Further away, 
 on the calm, open surface of the lake, rode motionless 
 three or four boats as if moored to so many stakes, whilst 
 the occupant of each, reclining crouched up, composed 
 himself, head resting at the post, for a mid-day nap. Their 
 occupants were fishermen, and far from asleep, were 
 watchfully looking down the shaft of the narits or " har- 
 poon" they poised in one hand to spear the first fish 
 passing beneath its prongs. 
 
 We now came abreast of the handsome mosque of 
 Hazrat Bal, the favourite resort of holiday folks, and 
 passing its village, and the long array of bathing-closets 
 half submerged in the waters of the lake, were presently 
 landed at our camp a little beyond. Here, on the 4th 
 August, we rejoined our comrades who preceded us from 
 Murree. 
 
 The evening of our arrival closed with an abrupt end 
 to the career of a favourite little pet of mine. He was 
 a handsome and vivacious little Scotch terrier born of 
 imported parents, and was the very simile of the bright- 
 eyed little one represented in Landseer's "Dignity and 
 Impudence." He came into my hands as a tiny pup only 
 a few weeks old, when I was here in 1869 a gift 
 from my friend and former comrade in the Corps of 
 Guides, Captain C. W. Hawes and spent his infant days 
 gambolling on the turfy spot to which he now returned 
 only to find a grave under its sod. He had always proved 
 a faithful and intelligent little companion, and a bold 
 champion for his master, and now sacrificed his life in 
 the rash defence of his domain. We were seated at 
 dinner under the spreading boughs of some splendid 
 plane trees on the bank overlooking the shore of the 
 
70 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 lake the dark shades of the approaching night but 
 dimly pierced by the light of the lamps on our table, 
 and concealing all beyond the range of their rays in a veil 
 of black obscurity when some hungry pariahs prowling 
 in the vicinity, attracted by the savoury odours of our 
 viands, gathered round the lighted spot, and peering at us 
 from the edge of the darkness whence they had emerged 
 began stealthily to encroach on the privacy of our tem- 
 porary domain. Their appearance was immediately 
 announced by the challenge of my vigilant little friend 
 who, pursuing their retreat, plunged after them into the 
 darkness. An angry fight and a faint bark for assistance 
 soon hurried us with lights to the spot. The great 
 wolfish pariahs were driven from their worry, and my 
 poor dog lay moribund on the ground. His ribs had 
 been crushed in, and he was torn all over, and expired 
 in a few minutes without ever a groan. Poor little 
 Jingo ! His death was very sudden, and its sadness 
 heightened by the associations of the locality. I was 
 sorry to lose him, for he was an affectionate and brave 
 dog, and an universal favourite in the camp, where the 
 natives called him Jangu " the warrior." His death 
 was fully avenged next day, and half-a-dozen savage, 
 mangy curs fell to our rifles. 
 
 Shortly after our arrival in camp, Wazir Earn Dhan 
 made his appearance, attended by a long retinue of ser- 
 vants bearing the various comestibles of the dali or 
 " entertainment" sent by the Maharaja. The Wazir set 
 them in array on the turf in front of Colonel Gordon's 
 tent, and welcoming us to Kashmir in the name of His 
 Highness, made the customary health inquiries, and 
 expressed a hope that the arrangements made for our 
 march were such as met approval. 
 
 The dali comprised a number of sheep and fowls, and 
 dozens of great pottery jars of rice, and flour, with sugar, 
 
VISIT TO THE MAHARAJA. 71 
 
 tea, fruits, and spices, and butter and kitchen stuff of sorts 
 in liberal proportion. They were disposed of in the usual 
 manner that is, for the most part shared amongst our 
 servants and our visitor dismissed with compliments 
 and grateful acknowledgments to his master. 
 
 Next day, according to arrangement by the Eesident, 
 Mr Le Poer Wynne, we proceeded to visit the Maharaja. 
 At five o'clock in the afternoon his Prime Minister, 
 Diwan Kirpa Earn, arrived in our camp, and after a cere- 
 monial visit conducted our party to the palace in the 
 Slier Garhi Fort, whence a pinnace of the kind called 
 parinda, or " Flier," from its rapid progress, had been 
 sent for our conveyance. Maharaja Eanbir Sing met us 
 at the door of the terrace overlooking the river on 
 which he received us, and greeting each in turn in a 
 friendly manner conducted Colonel Gordon to the chair 
 on the right of his own, the rest of us finding seats on 
 either side. A brief conversation followed on general 
 topics, and then turned on the subject of our journey. 
 Our host warned us of the difficulties of the country on 
 the northern frontier of his territory, and said that, 
 though he had no personal knowledge of its character, 
 the reports of his officials described it as an inhospitable 
 desert waste on which the traveller, however well pro- 
 vided with creature comforts, was liable to suffer from 
 the extremity of cold and the difficulty of respiration. 
 He added, complimenting us on the enterprising charac- 
 ter of our nation, that we would doubtless overcome such 
 obstacles ; and so far as he was concerned, the country 
 he ruled being our own, and his interests identical with 
 ours, we had his best wishes for a prosperous journey and 
 safe return. In proof of which, he concluded, he had 
 issued orders for every assistance to be rendered to our 
 party in all parts of the country under his rule. 
 
 On rising to take leave His Highness conducted Colonel 
 
72 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Gordon to the door, and there, as on arrival, shaking 
 hands all round, dismissed us. 
 
 Next morning (the 6th August) Captain Biddulph's 
 party, with Captain Trotter and Dr Stoliczka, marched 
 away in advance en route for Leh ; thence to meet us, by 
 way of the Chang-channmo route, at Shahidulla, which 
 had been fixed as the rendezvous prior to advancing to 
 Yarkand. And in the evening, at the same hour as 
 yesterday, Colonel Gordon, Captain Chapman, and I 
 proceeded to return the visit of Diwan Kirpa Earn, 
 under conduct of Pandit Hira Nand, who came up from 
 the Fort in a government pari n da to do the honours 
 of the ceremony. The Diwan received us in his official 
 residence, adjoining the palace, with every mark of atten- 
 tion, and expressed himself highly gratified at the honour 
 we had conferred on him. He displayed an earnestness 
 to please us, and do all in his power to make smooth the 
 difficulties of our route ; and assured us, that by the 
 Maharaja's orders, he had issued minute instructions to 
 all the frontier officials as to the supply of provisions, 
 with strict injunctions that they were to spare no efforts 
 to ensure our comfort and safety on the march through 
 their respective charges. On taking leave he expressed 
 his hope that we would find the arrangements made for 
 the furtherance of our journey such as would meet our 
 approval. 
 
 The experiences of the road so far certainly testified to 
 the sincerity of his words, whilst our future experiences, as 
 it will be my agreeable duty to record hereafter more 
 fully than we could have expected, both on the march up 
 and down proved the perfect faith and thorough good- 
 will of our Kashmir friends. 
 
 The day had been a thoroughly wet one, and the clouds 
 only began to break and clear away to the mountain tops 
 
BANQUET IN THE RANBIR BAGH. 73 
 
 as we set out for our visit. The river was hardly affected 
 by this rainfall at the time of our return to camp, but 
 during the night it rose in flood and inundated the 
 Chinar Bagh to a depth of eight feet. This is a hand- 
 some plantation of very fine plane trees on the bank of 
 the Tsunt Kul or " Apple Tree Canal," which leads from 
 the river to the sluice gates of the Call lake, and from 
 its proximity to the city was at first thought of as the 
 most convenient site for our camp. Other considerations, 
 however, on the score of health and discipline, decided in 
 favour of the more distant and less humid spot, and we 
 very fortunately escaped the inconveniences of a midnight 
 stampede amidst the marsh and mire of that tempting 
 spot. 
 
 On the following evening we were entertained at a ban- 
 quet, as the guests of the Maharaja, in the Eanbir Bagh. 
 It is a palace, or hall of entertainment, which stands on a 
 high masonry plinth, and forms a square block with 
 open verandahs all round; and is covered with one of those 
 airy roofs which, in the manner peculiar to this country, 
 slope up from all sides to a central point, there to be 
 topped by another of miniature proportions. It has 
 been recently built in the Kashmir style of architecture, 
 and occupies a prominent isolated position on the river 
 bank above the city, and opposite the quarters allotted 
 for the residence of European visitors, and is furnished 
 in the Indo-European fashion. In front of it, and on 
 either side, is a fine turf promenade supported against 
 the river by a masonry embankment which is ascended 
 from the stream by a substantial flight of stone steps. 
 And in rear, beyond a high bank of turf, is a spacious 
 garden laid out, after our fashion, with fruit-trees, orna- 
 mental shrubs, and flowering plants. 
 
 On this occasion a company of infantry, and a military 
 
74 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 band were drawn up on the embankment from the land- 
 ing-steps to the verandah in which the Maharaja received 
 his guests. Here, as throughout the building, the floor 
 was carpeted with a sheeting of snow-white calico, which 
 answered well to counteract the dull reflection from the 
 walls highly embellished with the minute patterns of 
 the Kashmir style of decoration. We found His High- 
 ness and his two youngest sons pretty and intelligent 
 children seated at the upper part of the hall with the 
 Eesident and some officers who were visitors in the 
 valley, and his court officers standing in attendance 
 behind him. So approaching to pay our respects, we 
 found seats on the chairs reserved for us on either side 
 to witness the ndch which was to beguile the half-hour 
 before dinner the grace allowed the unpunctual ones to 
 join the feast. 
 
 A troupe of twelve or fourteen dancing girls the cele- 
 brated beauties of Kashmir attended by their torch- 
 bearers, now made their appearance at the top of the 
 verandah steps, and with one accord saluting the Maha- 
 raja, quietly seated themselves in a semicircle opposite 
 to us on the floor at the lower end of the hall. From 
 this they rose two and two in turn, and reciting and 
 singing and dancing, slowly worked their way up to 
 where our host was seated ; then saluting, they retired, 
 as gracefully as they had advanced, to make way for the 
 next pair, and so on. I will not attempt to describe this, 
 by us much abused, performance, for want of appropriate 
 words; because the terms " reciting and singing and 
 dancing," which, in default of better, I have used above, 
 do not convey to our ideas a true representation of what 
 they are meant to explain. 
 
 Whatever the faults of each, and however unsuited to 
 our tastes, these accomplishments are none the less 
 
THE KASHMIR BAYADERE. 75 
 
 appreciated by those amongst whom they flourish, and 
 by whom they are exhibited for our entertainment. 
 Besides, apart from the divergence of taste in these 
 respects, the performance, judged on its own merits, is 
 not altogether unworthy of commendation ; particularly 
 if set in comparison with the spectacles presented so 
 often on our own stage where the ballet is in vogue. 
 With the " bayadere " of Kashmir there is no studied 
 indelicacy of dress, any more than there is abandon in 
 the graceful movements of her limbs. These (the grace- 
 ful movements) are only acquired by long practice and 
 careful training, and to be judged fairly must be viewed 
 with an unprejudiced eye. For the dance of the Kash- 
 mir bayadere as she sails over the floor with those 
 graceful evolutions of the arms and body which attract 
 the eye more than that almost imperceptible movement 
 of the feet only recognised by the jingling of the ankle 
 bells is quite a different sight from the fling one sees on 
 the stage, or the performances we go through in the ball- 
 room ; though each may be appropriate in its own sphere. 
 
 After two or three rounds had been gone through dinner 
 was announced, and the Maharaja rising conducted the 
 Eesident and Colonel Gordon by either hand to the 
 table, and then retired through a side-door to join 
 Mirza Fazlullah Khan, the Persian Consul General of 
 Bombay, who, happening to be on a tour in the valley, 
 was one of his guests ; whilst the rest of us, following 
 the first lead, ranged ourselves on either side of the 
 board, and in the absence of our host did free justice to 
 the good things provided. 
 
 The dinner was served entirely after our own fashion, 
 excepting only the absence of our host from the head 
 of his own table, in deference to an absurd prejudice the 
 natives of India obstinately adhere to. This unjustifiable 
 
76 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 refusal to eat with us is the great stumbling-block in the 
 way of that social intercourse which we strive to culti- 
 vate with our native fellow-subjects, and will never 
 be removed until the native princes send their sons to be 
 educated in English colleges, where they may learn how 
 to associate with us on equal terms. 
 
 As it was, the Resident presided, and at the proper 
 time rose to propose the usual toasts " The Queen " 
 and " The Viceroy." Each in turn was duly responded 
 to, and then Colonel Gordon proposed " The Maharaja," 
 which was received in like manner, all standing. As 
 each toast was drunk, the band, which had been treating 
 us to a variety of music during the meal, struck up 
 "God save the Queen." On the conclusion of the last 
 repetition his Highness acknowledged the compliment 
 in set form through Diwan Kirpa Earn, and then the 
 company rejoined the party in the verandah, where the 
 ndch was continued. In the midst of its performance 
 was heard the squeak of a bagpipe, to the no small 
 astonishment of those who were not in the secret of his 
 coming ; and following it appeared our camp sergeant 
 and piper stepping it gaily up the hall to where we were 
 seated. He saluted the Maharaja, and then by his 
 request gave us a performance. His appearance was 
 splendid and, as in its handsome garb his well set-up 
 form paced solidly up and down the hall, we could not 
 but proudly admire all he represented. 
 
 His presence in such a scene was, nevertheless, totally 
 out of place, and even more absurd than our dining 
 without our host ; for it sadly discomfited the fair Kash- 
 miris, whose countenances, instead of curious glances of 
 admiration, depicted only the disgust with which the 
 intrusion filled their hearts. Even the Maharaja, with 
 all his determination to please, could not divest his 
 
A REVIEW OF THE KASHMIR GARRISON. 77 
 
 features of the gloom our friend's Gaelic airs had cast 
 upon them, and signalised his pleasure at their cessation, 
 I trow, more likely than out of compliment to us, by 
 ordering a handsome shawl and a purse of gold to be 
 given to the performer. 
 
 On our return journey from this entertainment we 
 found the sluice gates of the Dall closed to prevent the 
 rising flood of waters entering ; otherwise the garden 
 plots before mentioned as covering the marshy tract be- 
 tween the river and the lake would have been destroyed 
 by the inundation. We consequently walked across the 
 embankment, and proceeded to camp in a boat which 
 had been thoughtfully provided for us on the other side. 
 It was nearly midnight when we reached camp, glad to 
 have done with the passage by the water way, and escape 
 its damp chills and heavy mephitic odours. 
 
 On the 10th we attended one of those military reviews 
 of the Kashmir troops which the Maharaja holds weekly 
 here, on the parade in rear of the Sher Garhi, when 
 residing in this summer capital. We met his Highness 
 as he issued from the gate of the fort, and, accompanying 
 his unostentatious cavalcade, rode down the line paraded 
 for inspection ; and then, turning off to the saluting point, 
 were provided with chairs on the platform from which 
 he viewed the evolutions of his army. 
 
 There were about four thousand infantry, two hundred 
 cavalry, and fifty or sixty wall pieces the size of camel 
 guns upon the ground. The men were equipped in uni- 
 form similar to that of the Indian army, though their 
 arms were decidedly inferior, and the men themselves 
 evidently not selected on the merits of physical efficiency. 
 They were, however, on the whole, a light-limbed, active 
 body of men, generally well set-up ; and they marched with 
 creditable regularity. Dogras and Sikhs, amongst whom 
 
7 8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 were interspersed some Pathans and Hindustanis, com- 
 posed the chief constituents of the force, and a battalion 
 of Baltis, in the extraordinary bonnets and jaunty petti- 
 coats (which display below the knee the neat folds of 
 their leg-bands) of their national garb, formed its most 
 interesting an,d curious feature. 
 
 After the manoeuvres the force marched past the plat- 
 form, in front of which their bands had been massed, 
 and took the routes to their different quarters. The 
 Maharaja evinced no keen interest in the spectacle, but, 
 referring to the services his troops had shared in during 
 the mutiny, pointed to them as but a contingent of the 
 Indian army which held these hills as part of the British 
 Empire for the Empress of India, and as at all times 
 ready for the service of the state. 
 
 It was originally intended that our camp should 
 halt here for eight or ten days to provide our men and 
 cattle with the warm clothing requisite on the march 
 across the passes, as well as to effect certain changes in our 
 camp-establishment, and alterations and improvements in 
 our mule gear and tent equipage, which the march from 
 Murree had rendered advisable. Our wants in these 
 respects had been promptly attended to by the Kashmir 
 officials who, for the sake of convenience and expedition 
 for the city was five miles distant by road had es- 
 tablished a temporary bazar under the trees in the 
 immediate vicinity of our camp, so that the tailoring, 
 cobbling, carpentry and smith- work, &c., required by our 
 party, were at once executed under direct supervision in 
 the booths and workshops that had sprung up around 
 us ; and accordingly on the 14th August I accompanied 
 Colonel Gordon on a farewell visit to the Maharaja to 
 thank him for his attentions to our party, and acknow- 
 ledge the punctuality and assiduity of his officials. 
 
DEPARTURE FROM SRINAGGAR DELAYED. 79 
 
 On the eve of our departure, however, orders were 
 received from our chief at Simla directing the halt of 
 the camp here till his arrival on the 29th of the month. 
 The march was consequently postponed, and we devoted 
 the interval to perfecting the arrangements which had 
 already been made. But the time hung heavily, and the 
 fortnight proved a weary one amidst the fevers and the 
 musquitos of the spot which, after all, was the best site 
 for our purpose the locality afforded. Not even the 
 interest of lessons in Turki, nor the diversion of shooting 
 grebe, coots, and water-pheasants amongst the reeds and 
 weeds of the lake, nor yet the ridiculous rumours 
 gossip brought us from the city, sufficed to enliven our 
 stay amidst such pests ; and finally, when our chief did 
 arrive, the order to march was hailed with joy by us all, 
 only too glad to change our forced inactivity in the 
 alluring shades of Nasim Bagh and its fever poison for 
 the excitements of the road and the pure air of the 
 mountains. 
 
 Prior to our departure from Murree I had been for- 
 tunate enough to secure as one of my personal servants 
 a native of Yarkand who, in 1868, had left his home to 
 make the pilgrimage to Mecca by way of India. His 
 history was a very remarkable one, and may be taken as 
 a type of that of many another who sets out from his 
 remote home in Central Asia to brave the vicissitudes 
 and dangers by land and sea of a journey of which he 
 has no conception other than that it is somehow to carry 
 him to that sacred spot which holds so mysterious a sway 
 over the Muslim mind. 
 
 Haji Casim such was my hero's name was the son 
 of a baker who kept a shop in one of the principal 
 thoroughfares of Yarkand city. He did a flourishing trade 
 under the rule of the Chinese till the Tungani rebellion, 
 
8o KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 filling the streets with bloodshed, violence, and plunder, 
 necessitated his closing his business and secreting him- 
 self and family for very life in the store vaults and 
 cellars under his tenement. The father died during 
 these troubles, and on their subsidence the widow with 
 her children, emerging from their lurking, re-opened the 
 shop. And Casirn now worked the business with his 
 mother, and was a witness of all those eventful changes 
 which the city underwent till it was finally taken by 
 Atalik Ghazi. 
 
 On the restoration of order, and the revival of Islam 
 under the new rule, he took advantage of the favouring 
 opportunity, and with some four or five other members 
 of the family, leaving his mother to mind the shop, 
 joined a caravan of pilgrims who were setting out for 
 Kashmir, on the long journey they were bound, in com- 
 pany with a party despatched by the successful conqueror 
 with presents for the holy shrine at Mecca. 
 
 He and his companions set out on their unconsidered 
 wanderings with what few necessaries their humble state 
 allowed of their collecting laden on three ponies, which 
 also served to alleviate from time to time the fatigues of 
 their weary march. They had, besides, a joint sum of 
 money, hardly exceeding five pounds of our money, to 
 meet the expenses of a journey of as many thousand 
 miles. 
 
 By the time they reached Leh two of their three ponies 
 had succumbed to the hardships of the road, and their 
 carcases were left to desiccate and bleach with the thou- 
 sands of others which mark the traveller's track across 
 those terrible Tibat highlands. "Whilst the other proved 
 such an expense in a country where money was the 
 medium of exchange, and in a land where there was no 
 free pasture, that he was sold to avoid threatened bank- 
 
STORY OF A PILGRIM. 81 
 
 ruptcy, and, instead thereof, to increase their slender 
 means. With their small stock of money thus nearly- 
 doubled, the party made their way to Srinaggar, and 
 thence through the Panjab to Bombay, where they em- 
 barked in a native pilgrim boat with a crowd of others 
 for one of the Arab ports. 
 
 Our Haji's account of his adventures and losses is too 
 long and confused, from his ignorance of the names of 
 many of the places on the route followed, for profitable 
 insertion here. Let it suffice for us to know that he did 
 get to Mecca, and piously performed the prescribed rites 
 there ; that he somehow found himself in Constantinople, 
 and somehow returned thence to Lahore, a veritable pil- 
 grim, a lonely, friendless stranger. His aunt had died 
 in one place, her daughter had disappeared at another, 
 his brother was lost somewhere else, and finally he and 
 his cousin, of about his own age, lost sight of each other 
 in the maze of some great Indian city, and neither knows 
 the other's fate, or did not up to July last year. 
 
 The troubles and perplexities of this doomed little 
 band appear to have commenced at Leh, and tracked 
 their steps in all their perilous wanderings. In one 
 place they were cheated of their money by knaves, in 
 another they were fed by the charity of the pious, and 
 more often they earned their living and worked their 
 way by odd jobs here and there. 
 
 From Lahore Haji Casim found his way to Leh as a 
 mule-driver in the train of a Panjabi merchant ; and, 
 arrived here, he was stopped short at the threshold of 
 his own home by a singular accident. He fell ill by ex- 
 posure on the march, and applied for relief at the 
 Charitable Dispensary established here by the British 
 Government in connection with the office of the Joint 
 Commissioner. The Hospital assistant, Khuda Bakhsh, 
 
 F 
 
82 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 took an interest in the forlorn stranger, and after his 
 recovery provided for him as a domestic servant in his 
 own family. 
 
 Khuda Bakhsh subsequently abandoned the profession 
 for more profitable employment in the Commissariat 
 Department, and hearing of my want, obligingly placed 
 the Haji at my service with the view to his visiting his 
 home. 
 
 During our stay at Srinaggar, with the aid of my 
 books, I found him a very useful assistant in picking up 
 some acquaintance with the language of his country ; 
 whilst, in Kasghar, his services were freely in requisition 
 by most of us. His sudden rise to such prosperity and 
 importance led him into some extravagancies not the 
 least of them marrying a wife and treating her friends 
 to a succession of feasts. But this may be passed as 
 excusable, since he considered it his duty to maintain 
 the dignity of his position as a servant in the Embassy, 
 and in no way detracts from his merits as an intelligent 
 and trustworthy guide. He accompanied me back to 
 Srinaggar, and there meeting Mr Shaw's party going up 
 to Kashghar, he resigned my service to return with his 
 camp to the bride he had left behind him. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE monotony of our last day's stay at Nasim Bagh 
 was agreeably interrupted on the 25th August by a visit 
 to the Maharaja's silk filature. It is an extensive 
 establishment in the vicinity of the Sher Garhi, and 
 gives employment to 400 men, though, as we were 
 informed, there is work enough for four times the 
 number. Babu Nilambar Dey Mukarji, who has the 
 management of the concern, accompanied us over the 
 establishment, and very obligingly explained the entire 
 process of sericulture. 
 
 The industry, it appears, has only been introduced 
 here during the last two or three years on the system in 
 vogue in Bengal, and from the results already achieved, 
 promises soon to be a productive source of wealth for 
 this country, so as in some measure to compensate for 
 the decline of the shawl trade in this ancient seat of its 
 prosperity. 
 
 The spinning-wheels we saw here were worked by 
 hand, but at the larger filature at Raghonathpur, on the 
 shore of the Dall, we were told they are worked by 
 water power. The silk appeared to be of remarkably 
 good quality, with a soft and fine fibre, and, from a cor- 
 respondence on the subject shown to us, some samples 
 which had been sent to London were pronounced by 
 Messrs Durant and Co. as worth from twenty-three to 
 twenty-four shillings the pound. The outturn of silk 
 last year is estimated at two lakhs of rupees, of which 
 
84 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ninety-five thousand are reckoned as profit. For the 
 same period twenty maunds or 1600 pounds of eggs 
 were stored for breeding. One ounce of eggs produces, 
 it is said, forty thousand worms. And these produce 
 120 ounces of silk. We saw the silk reeled in one part 
 of the establishment being woven into lengths in 
 another by the ordinary hand-loom, and were shown 
 some samples of a new fabric for the production of 
 which experiments were still in course of progress. 
 They were a combination of shawl-wool and silk, and 
 seemed durable and warm, but felt stiff and rough. 
 
 From the silk filature we went to the Maharaja's 
 Charitable Dispensary, which stands in a very good 
 position on the river bank, and is under the charge of 
 Dr Gopal Dass, formerly a sub-assistant surgeon on 
 the Indian Establishment, who kindly conducted us 
 over it. 
 
 The institution is managed entirely on European 
 principles, as in our own establishments of the same 
 kind, and is a great boon to the people on whom, in 
 a quiet, unobserved way, it confers unknown benefits. 
 Amongst the patients we saw a case of amputation of 
 the thigh, and another of the leg, both of which were 
 well advanced towards recovery. The records showed 
 that twenty-two other surgical operations of an impor- 
 tant nature, including three of lithotomy, had been 
 performed here during the current year, and all suc- 
 cessfully, except one of the lithotomy cases which 
 terminated fatally. The charity is worthy of every 
 support and encouragement, yet it is rarely visited by 
 the Maharaja or his court officials, though in justice it 
 must be recorded that it is amply provided with 
 European medicines and surgical instruments by him. 
 
 On the appointed day the 29th August a salute 
 
THE MAHARAJA VISITS THE ENVOY. 85 
 
 fired at Srinaggar warned us of the arrival of our chief. 
 We accordingly donned our uniform, and hastened to 
 the Kesidency to welcome him, and pay our respects, 
 and were glad to find him none the worse for his rapid 
 ride from Murree. 
 
 On the next day Mr Forsyth, attended by his staff, 
 paid a ceremonial visit to the Maharaja, which his 
 Highness returned on the following morning. A spa- 
 cious tent and Shahmiydna, or " king in the centre " 
 awning, had been prepared for the reception on the 
 turfy bank overlooking the Dall ; and the slope from the 
 landing up to the tent had been laid with a strip of white 
 calico, on either side of which were ranged our guard of 
 " Guides " to do the honours. Captain Chapman went 
 down to the palace to escort his Highness who, on 
 arrival, was received at the landing by Colonel Gordon 
 and myself, and conducted to the tent, where he was 
 welcomed by the Envoy and Plenipotentiary, under a 
 salute from the guard, and a skirl on the pipes by 
 Sergeant Ehind. 
 
 The Maharaja his eldest son, Miyan Partab Sing, 
 being prevented by indisposition was accompanied by 
 his two younger sons, Earn Sing and Ammar Sing, 
 aged ten and eleven years respectively, and was attended 
 by Diwan Kirpa Earn, and eight or ten other principal 
 officers of his court. The ceremony passed off with the 
 usual formalities and courtesies, and our visitors on 
 departure went to spend the day in the cool retreat of 
 the Nishat Bagh, or " garden of delight," on the further 
 shore of the Dall. 
 
 On the following evening the Embassy was entertained 
 by the Maharaja at a banquet in the Eanbir Bagh. 
 The guests included the European community at the 
 time in the place, and the feast was graced by the 
 
86 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 presence of ladies. The assembly was one for the usual 
 toasts and speeches proper to the occasion, and con- 
 cluded with a handsome acknowledgment by the Envoy 
 of the kindness and hospitality of our princely host. 
 
 With this parting proof of friendship terminated our 
 month's halt at Srinaggar, and on the following morning 
 the 3rd September our camp broke ground, and 
 marched to Gandarbal, at the entrance to the Sind 
 valley, where we camped under the shade of some mag- 
 nificent plane trees such as are only to be found in this 
 country. It is the first village we have come to in the 
 district of Lar (which extends from Manasbal to Sona 
 Marg, and is said to contain a hundred villages and 
 hamlets, few of which, however, contain as many as 
 thirty houses), and on this occasion presented a bustle 
 of activity such as it seldom witnesses. 
 
 Our own camp comprised 103 mules of the fixed 
 establishment, and nearly as many camp followers of 
 sorts. And we employed, besides, eighty-seven hired 
 ponies, and two or three score of coolies. We were all 
 closely packed on the side of the road, between the 
 village and the ridge at the foot of which it lies ; for the 
 land beyond spreads on to the Kashmir plain in a wide 
 stretch of rice swamp and reed marsh, which extends 
 away to the Manasbal lake. 
 
 Around us were grouped, in picturesque disorder, the 
 tents of our Kashmir attendants, and the piles of provi- 
 sions they had collected for our use ; whilst a stream 
 of coolies and baggage-ponies continued through the day 
 to file past, on their way to the stages ahead. The 
 complimentary speech of the Envoy on the preceding 
 evening had evidently flattered the vanity of our good 
 friends, and stimulated their exertions on our behalf; 
 and their service, here renewed, smoothed our way, 
 
MARCH AWAY FROM SRINAGGAR. 87 
 
 stage by stage, till in due course we passed to the pro- 
 tection of our Kashghar allies. 
 
 At a mile or two beyond Gandarbal is the village of 
 Arr, on the bank of a small stream, of the same name, 
 which empties into the Dall at Telbal. It has some 
 paper-mills, worked by water-power, the sound of whose 
 pounders at work reached our camp. The fibre of the 
 wild hemp plant, which grows here in abundance, is 
 the material used, mixed up with old rags, &c. The 
 pulp is merely mashed and washed here, and then con- 
 veyed to the city to be made into paper. Another plant 
 which grows in abundance here, and much more plenti- 
 fully in the Kashmir valley, is the krishun, a species of 
 iris lily, the leaves of which are used for making ropes. 
 
 The evening closed here with the side-eddies of a 
 storm of thunder and lightning, which swept across 
 the plain from west to east, but caused us no further 
 commotion than a securing of pegs and trenching of tent 
 walls in anticipation of the threatened downpour. 
 
 From Gandarbal we marched to Kangan, twelve miles, 
 and camped in a grove of walnut and plane trees near a 
 silkworm nursery. The route at first winds amongst 
 cultivated fields and orchards to the homesteads of 
 Nunar, and further on leads across a high shelf of land 
 which drops precipitously to the bed of the Sind river. 
 We here crossed the stream on a ricketty bridge of long 
 fir poles which were stretched across between two piers 
 built up of loose boulders at the edges of the current, and 
 floored with cross bars of rough split logs. By another 
 similar bridge, beyond the homesteads of Palang, we 
 crossed a tributary stream coming down from the Har- 
 mukh mountain, and then following up the course of the 
 main river reached Kangan. 
 
 After the storm last night, the morning broke with a 
 
88 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 clear, sunny sky ; and, as we passed up the valley, we 
 saw its beautiful scenery to the best advantage wood- 
 land and mountain alike radiant in verdure refreshed by 
 recent showers. Vegetation is luxuriant everywhere, 
 and quite conceals from view the little farmsteads scat- 
 tered along the hill skirt. 
 
 The umbrageous walnut and mulberry clustered about 
 them hardly attract attention amongst the general 
 growth of apricot, plum, and apple trees which over- 
 spread the surface, and conceal from view the little plots 
 of rice and millets and vetches, or the narrow strips of 
 amaranth and buckwheat, which, more than the self- 
 growing fruit-trees, are the cultivator's care. 
 
 The two last constitute an important item of the 
 winter diet of the peasant here. The amaranth seed is 
 consumed in the form of porridge boiled with milk, and 
 is considered a warm and nourishing food. The other is 
 roasted and ground to flour, and then baked in thick cakes 
 mixed with walnut or apricot oil, which in this country 
 are in common use for domestic and culinary purposes. 
 
 Evening closed at Kangan with a storm of thunder 
 and lightning on the hills around ; and next morning, as 
 we followed our path to Gund, a few stray clouds over- 
 head showered their contents upon us, and then, with- 
 drawing to the hill tops, disclosed to our view the 
 glorious scene we were marching through. 
 
 As we proceeded up the winding course of its stream, 
 the hills on either side closed in upon the channel of the 
 Sind river in long slopes of pine and cedar forest which 
 terminate only at its edges. Bright, grassy glades 
 opened vistas through the mass of sombre forest, the ge- 
 nerally dull hue of which was agreeably lighted here and 
 there by foliage of varied form and colour ; whilst rifts in 
 the overtopping clouds now and_again favoured us with 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE S1ND RIVER. 89 
 
 transient glimpses of rugged peaks projecting against the 
 sky, of stupendous banks of bare rock marking the limit 
 of vegetation, and of snow- clad mountain summits form- 
 ing the junction of radiating spurs. 
 
 The air was delightfully fresh and perfumed with the 
 honied scent of a multitude of wild flowers, amongst which 
 the familiar meadow-sweet claimed welcome recognition 
 from its abundance. Our men and cattle partook of 
 its enlivening benefits, and showed by their merry song 
 and buoyant steps that they had already recovered from 
 the fevers and lassitudes of our Srinaggar halt. On our 
 way we passed the village of Terewdn, with Hayan on 
 the opposite side of the river, and four miles on came to 
 Hciri, with Ganjawdn on the other bank. A little further 
 on we crossed the river by a bridge similar to those 
 between Gandarbal and Kangan, and, passing through a 
 wood, crossed some cultivated fields to Sumbal, and 
 beyond the village recrossed the river by a bridge, the 
 span of which is, I think, greater than that of any other 
 we saw on this route. At all events, the vibration was 
 greater and the undulation of the poles unsteadied one's 
 gait in an uncomfortable manner. 
 
 From Gandarbal up to the Nubra valley all these 
 bridges are exactly alike, and consist merely of two or 
 three long fir trunks stretched across between buttress 
 piers of loose boulders built upon either edge of the 
 torrent, and laid above with cross pieces of rough split log. 
 They are called Sanga, and seldom have any side railing. 
 They are only safe to cross on foot, owing to the unsteady 
 motion of the poles being apt to make a horse restive. 
 Laden cattle, too, should only cross one at a time. 
 
 Beyond the Sumbal bridge we passed through a strip 
 of terraced cultivation to Pra"o, and two or three miles 
 further on halted for breakfast a little way short of 
 
90 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Gund, where our camp, going on, was pitched on a ledge 
 overlooking the river distance fifteen miles. The route 
 traversed up to this point, and, indeed, up to Kezin, 
 eight miles further on, is a prosperous though not very 
 populous tract. The peasantry appeared to be comfort- 
 ably off, and their farmsteads well stocked with kine, 
 ponies, sheep, and goats. In most of the villages the 
 bee is hived, and at Pra"o we were presented with a fresh 
 honeycomb for our breakfast. 
 
 From Gund we marched to Shat Gari, fifteen miles. 
 For the first three miles, up to Eevil, the road is difficult, 
 and leads across a steep hill slope in parts of which it is 
 built up against the side of a vertical wall of rock. 
 Beyond Eevil which is a small cluster of farmsteads 
 embowered amidst splendid walnut trees very pictu- 
 resquely grouped together at the entrance of the Gumbur 
 glen, winding up amongst wild hills to the northward 
 it passes over a considerable stretch of cultivation which 
 slopes down to the river in a succession of terraces, and 
 conducts to the village of Kulan. Here it crosses the 
 river and traverses the flat reach on which stand the 
 homesteads of Gwipara and Rezin ; beyond these it 
 recrosses to Gaganger, where we breakfasted under the 
 shade of its walnut trees. 
 
 Onwards from this the road becomes difficult, and lies 
 for about four miles, with numerous ascents and descents 
 en route, along the foot of precipitous cliffs which wear 
 a singularly wild aspect. Kugged ridges top the hills 
 and shoot up in sharp peaks against the sky ; whilst the 
 thinning forests on the lower slopes barely hide the 
 nakedness of their rocks. In many parts the path was 
 obstructed by the debris of slate and sandstone which 
 had fallen from the slopes above, and several loads were 
 thrown in the passage of these obstructions. We were, 
 
MO UNTAIN SCENER Y AT SON A MARG. 9 1 
 
 however, well supplied with coolies to meet such contin- 
 gencies, and no loss or delay occurred. On our return 
 journey this way, the following year, we found this road, 
 which is called Hang Sattu, had been repaired and made 
 easy. Beyond it we crossed the river, and camped on a 
 flowery meadow lying along its bank, under the shadow 
 of a forest- covered ridge which concealed from our view 
 much of the magnificent scenery of the locality. 
 
 At Shat Gari the valley branches off in different direc- 
 tions, and forms an amphitheatre in the hills. Its undu- 
 lating surface is covered with a profuse growth of 
 flowering plants, and its surroundings present some of 
 the finest scenery to be found in Kashmir mountains 
 and glaciers, forest slopes and pasture meadows, with 
 sparkling torrents and gloomy defiles being all combined 
 in one landscape. Shat Gari, the village of eight or ten 
 houses near which we are camped, is said to signify 
 " The seven hills," from the number of peaks that enclose 
 its basin which is more commonly called Sona Marg, or 
 " The golden meadow," from the flowery slopes at its 
 further end, where is the village of that name. 
 
 The rise in this march is considerable. I made it 1848 
 feet by the difference in the boiling point of water, which 
 gave the elevation at Shat Gari as 8506 feet. The change 
 in climate and difference in temperature, too, were very 
 sensible ; the maxima and minima being 78 Fah. and 45 
 Fah. respectively, against 83 Fah. and 53 Fah. on the 
 last day of our stay at Nasim Bagh. 
 
 This is a favourite summer resort of tourists in Kash- 
 mir, and the hills around contain the hunting-grounds of 
 the sportsman. The stag, or barasing, ranges their forests 
 and feeds on the grassy glades that break their thick 
 shades ; the ibex, or Jcel, disports himself on their inac- 
 cessible crags, and roams the pastures on their loftiest 
 
92 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 slopes, where the wild goat, or mdrkhor, keeps him 
 company, and divides the dominion; and the brown 
 bear, or hdputs, lurks in the gullies and ravines ; whilst 
 the monal pheasant hides his bright plumage in the 
 favouring foliage of the woods he inhabits ; and the snow 
 pheasant mixes his less attractive colours with the similar 
 hues of the rocks he lives amongst. In winter this region 
 is deeply covered with snow, and then the few houses, 
 which here constitute the last signs of habitation in this 
 direction, are deserted by their tenants, excepting such 
 as are retained here by the governor for the purpose 
 of keeping open the communication with the country 
 beyond. 
 
 From Shat Gari we marched across Sona Marg and, 
 crossing the river above the village, followed up its 
 course to Baltal " The foot of the pass " where we 
 camped near some log huts which are used as a post 
 stage and shelter for travellers. Distance twelve miles. 
 The Sind river is here joined by a considerable tributary 
 which flows through a picturesque gorge that winds 
 down from the south-east, whilst the main stream coming 
 down from the north-east, and which appears the smaller 
 of the two, is lost to view in the dark, deep chasm of the 
 Zojibal a little way ahead. Vegetation here which is the 
 limit of its luxuriance in this direction is very profuse, 
 particularly in pasture and flowering plants. I collected 
 the seeds of several different kinds, which, with others 
 gathered at various stages on our route, I sent to Dr 
 Hooker at Kew, and Mr Anderson Henry at Edinburgh. 
 
 I remembered this was the spot indicated to me as the 
 natural home of the Mt or " costum," by the carriers we 
 met on the march to Srinaggar, but searched the vicinity 
 of the camp in vain for the plant. Nor could I find 
 amongst the crowd of coolies about us any one who even 
 
PASS FROM KASHMIR TO TIB AT. 93 
 
 knew the name. They were for the most part strangers 
 to the locality, having been collected here from distant 
 parts of the district for the service of this special occa- 
 sion; and though they could not help me themselves, 
 one of them got me a native of the locality from the post 
 huts hard by, who brought me in some specimens from a 
 hill a few miles off. 
 
 Our next stage was to Matayan. Marching next day 
 the 7th September from Baltal, we crossed the Zojibal 
 pass, and shortly after passed from the territory of Kash- 
 mir proper to that of Tibat. We left behind us a beau- 
 tiful country, luxuriant in vegetation ever fresh in the 
 moist atmosphere of its climate, and entered a region 
 in the dry air of which no tree and no herb flourished 
 away from the banks of its rivers and water-courses. We 
 lost the varied and picturesque scenery of limestones and 
 sandstones, with their always pleasing landscapes of wood- 
 land and pasture, and found instead the dreary wastes 
 and wilds of schists and shales, of granites and gneiss 
 rocks, with their interminable monotony of desolation, 
 only varied by repetition of inhospitable glacier. And 
 we parted from a well-favoured people who present, in 
 their comely features and robust frames, one of the purest 
 forms of that diversified family of the Caucasian race the 
 Aryan ; and we met another who as distinctly bear all the 
 typical characters of that great branch of the Mongol 
 stock the Tatar. And with the change we passed from 
 one set of dialects to another from Aryan to Turanian ; 
 and from professors of one religion to those of another 
 from the Musalman to the Budhist. And, finally, on 
 passing from one region to the other we came upon new 
 manners and dresses, different plants and different ani- 
 mals. We found polyandry in place of polygamy, and 
 the bonnet in place of the turban. We found a pasture 
 
94 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 of peculiar herbs in place of the common grasses. And 
 we found the grunting ox and hybrids in place of the 
 familiar bullock and kine. The limit between these 
 two regions of such opposite characters is the water- 
 shed of the Sind and Dras rivers, which trickle away 
 from it west and east respectively. It is an almost im- 
 perceptible saddle-shaped elevation running across the 
 narrow col about five miles beyond the pass ; and, though 
 we found only a few scattered wreaths lying under the 
 shade of its sides, it is for eight months of the year buried 
 deeply under snow. 
 
 The pass itself, however, is the great object of atten- 
 tion here, as it forms the most serious obstacle in the way 
 of uninterrupted communication with the regions to the 
 north. It is called Zoji-la by the Tibetans, and Zoji-bdl 
 by the Kashmiris. The terminal syllable, in the language 
 of each respectively, signifies " hill pass," and the proper 
 name is a corruption of Shivaji or Sheoji, one of the three 
 great Hindu deities. 
 
 The pass is closed to traffic during nearly half the year, 
 and is entirely impassable except to post couriers, and 
 then at peril, during two months. The Envoy of 
 AtalikGhazi crossed this pass last December with extreme 
 difficulty, and lost, so I was informed here, eleven of 
 the coolies of his convoy, who perished in a snow-drift. 
 It is crossed by two roads ; one of these follows up the 
 bed of the river, and passes over the blocks of ice and 
 snow-drift which block the narrow gorge or gap through 
 which it flows ; and the other winds up the steep slope 
 of the hill rising above this gap to the north. The first 
 is seldom used owing to its dangers, and is only practic- 
 able to footmen ; the other is a very fair road, and is kept 
 in repair by the Kashmir authorities. 
 
 We followed the latter route, and at the summit of the 
 
CROSSING OF THE ZOJILA PASS. 95 
 
 pass found the elevation by the boiling point of water to 
 be about 11,400 feet above the sea, and 2118 feet above 
 Baltal. The path is very steep and zigzag up the face of 
 a high cliff which forms one side of the gorge. Our long 
 file of mules got over very well, and without further loss 
 than that of two casks of mess liquor, which went over 
 the side, and were only picked up in the bed of the river 
 below, where, through their stoved-in sides, the limpid 
 waters of the Sind river quickly replaced the Scotch whisky 
 and French brandy which were to have served us through 
 the winter. The descent on the other side is easy, and 
 leads down to the river channel above where it narrows 
 and drops suddenly in the gorge. We crossed to the 
 opposite bank over a mass of hard impacted snow which 
 sloped steeply to the gorge. 
 
 This pass is of historical interest as being the spot at 
 which the Yarkand troops of Sultan Said, in 1531 A.D., 
 defeated its defenders. The circumstance is recorded by 
 the principal actor in the enterprise Mirza Muhammad 
 Hydar in his history of the Mughal Khans of Kashghar. 
 He wrote his book in the " city of Kashmir," or Srinag- 
 gar, in 1544 A.D., and entitled it Tarikhi Eashidi or 
 " The Annals of Eashid," who was the reigning Khan of 
 Kashghar at that time. During our stay in the country 
 I obtained a good copy of this book, and from its pages 
 have derived several interesting historical memorials 
 connected with different parts of the route we traversed. 
 In his account of this campaign, which was undertaken 
 as a ghaza or " crescentade" against the infidels of Tibat, 
 Sultan Said set out from Yarkand in the last month of 
 the Muhammadan year 938, corresponding with April 
 or May of our year 1531, with an army of 5000 men, 
 and crossing the Caracoram, came upon his enemies' first 
 settlements in the Nubra valley. His force marched in 
 
96 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 two divisions, one of which under the joint command of 
 his son Iskandar, and his minister Mirza Hydar pro- 
 ceeded some days in advance, whilst the other under 
 command of Said himself followed in rear. 
 
 Sultan Said suffered so severely from difficulty of 
 breathing in the passage of the highlands on which he 
 subsequently died that his officers, alarmed for his 
 safety, hurried him off to the lower valleys, and des- 
 patched messengers to warn Mirza Hydar of the king's 
 distress. The first division had advanced in their vic- 
 torious career as far as Maryol or Ladakh when they 
 were overtaken by this intelligence ; and Mirza Hydar, 
 immediately retracing his steps, joined his master in 
 Nubra, where he found that the sufferer had quite 
 recovered from his troubles on passing out of the sphere 
 of the causes which produced them. 
 
 After this the invaders spent four or five months in 
 active guerilla with the inhabitants, and overran their 
 thinly peopled valleys, plundering, slaughtering, captivat- 
 ing, and converting till they had devastated the whole 
 country. Winter was now approaching, and it was dis- 
 covered that the country was incapable of supporting 
 their numbers until the return of spring should enable 
 them to retrace their steps across the passes. 
 
 It was consequently decided to divide their force, and 
 seek winter quarters elsewhere. Sultan Said with one 
 thousand men penetrated into the Balti country, which is 
 described as situated between Badakhshan and Bolor, and 
 was received as a guest by its chief, one Bahram Toe. He 
 and his people, it would seem, were Musalmans proba- 
 bly of the heretic Shia sect ; for the Yarkandis of the 
 orthodox Sunni creed treated them in a very un- 
 brotherly fashion, and abused their host's hospitality 
 by turning his subjects out of their houses, killing 
 
WINTER QUARTERS IN KASHMIR. 97 
 
 the men, enslaving the women and appropriating their 
 chattels. 
 
 Mirza Hydar, with the youthful Iskandar and the 
 other four thousand of the force, minus a small detach- 
 ment left in Nubra, set out to make their way into 
 Kashmir. They arrived at the Zojibal pass about 
 November or December and found it deep in snow, and 
 defended by four hundred of the enemy apparently 
 people of Dras. These, however, were soon put to flight 
 by the overwhelming number of their assailants, and the 
 Yarkandis, hurrying on, reached Srinaggar on the second 
 evening, camping only one night midway ;. thus fighting 
 a battle, and marching at least seventy miles within the 
 space of forty-eight hours. 
 
 At Srinaggar they were hospitably received by the 
 king, one Muhammad Shah, who enlivened the monotony 
 of the winter months by celebrating a marriage between 
 his daughter and the Yarkand prince. 
 
 In the ensuing spring the crescentaders issued from 
 their respective retreats. The rigours of the winter in 
 Balti, it would seem, somewhat chilled the fervour of 
 Sultan Said's religious zeal, for he set out forthwith to re- 
 turn to his capital. On reaching the elevated plateaux 
 he was again seized with his former ailment, and, though 
 hurried on by double stages towards the place where the 
 difficulty of breathing or dam is known to cease, he ex- 
 pired midway, only a few miles from the Caracoram pass, 
 just twelve months after he had set out on this ill-fated 
 expedition. 
 
 On his departure from Nubra Said had ordered Mirza 
 Hydar to prosecute the gliaza, and carry the victorious 
 banner of Islam into the very metropolis of the infidels 
 to Aorsang, or Ouchang, or Hlassa itself consequently 
 the Kashmir division set out from Maryol on the enter- 
 
 G 
 
98 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 prise without delay, as the goal of their ambition was dis- 
 tant a journey of two months. The force endured incredible 
 sufferings and losses from cold, privation, and effects of 
 altitude, and after wandering about for two months 
 were compelled to retreat on Maryol before they had ac- 
 complished half the distance to their destination. They 
 now learned of the death of Said, of the revolution in 
 Kashghar, and the accession to the throne of his eldest 
 son, Sultan Eashid, by the murder of Mirza Hydar 's 
 uncle, Sayyid Muhammad Khan who had seized on the 
 government in favour of Iskandar and of the recall of 
 Iskandar with the army, and of the proscription of Mirza 
 Hydar. The winter was now setting in, and the joint 
 commanders decided on sharing what fortune provided 
 together. By deaths and desertions their force had been 
 reduced to five hundred men. With these they seized the 
 fort of Kalasiya or Gala Shiya, and in it held out till 
 spring, subsisting on the ten thousand sheep they had 
 captured on their way down. With the opening of the 
 roads they invaded Bang Shigar, and after ravaging the 
 country for two months finally returned to Maryol, where 
 the remnant of the force dispersed to return as best they 
 could to Yarkand. On the approach of the third winter 
 Mirza Hydar and Iskandar, with their following reduced 
 to fifty men, set out together to seek a safer retreat. 
 By the time they reached the Caracoram their men 
 were reduced to twenty-seven. Of these, four returned 
 with Iskandar to Yarkand, and the rest followed 
 Mirza Hydar on his venturesome journey by an un- 
 known track through Bashgam and Pamir to Badakhshan. 
 And thus ended the Yarkand invasion of Tibat in 
 1531 the first and last from that direction of which we 
 have any record. 
 To resume the narrative of our march, whence we 
 
CHANGE OF CLIMATE AND SCENE. 99 
 
 digressed for this historical memorandum. After cross- 
 ing the Zoji La to the opposite bank of the river-bed the 
 path follows up its course to the water-shed, the eleva- 
 tion of which is, by hypsometric observation, 11,300 
 feet. Beyond it the route passes down the " col," along 
 the gradually growing stream of the Dras river, and over 
 a moorland covered with turf and peat beds down to a 
 tributary from a glacier close on the right. We here 
 first came upon the marmots for which this locality is 
 famous. Further on the road, crossing other tributaries, 
 conducts to Matdyan. Distance 14 miles. There are no 
 trees here, but there is a good deal of cultivation, mostly 
 barley, on the long strip of alluvium which here forms the 
 valley. The change in climate and scene is sudden and 
 complete. The birch and willow, with some juniper, soon 
 cease beyond the water-shed, and then the hills assume 
 that dreary, bare, treeless aspect which is their character 
 throughout the rest of our journey. The air too is sen- 
 sibly drier and lighter, whilst the change in phy- 
 siognomy, dress, and language are no less strange. Dras, 
 13 miles, was our next stage. It is a collection of half- 
 a-dozen hamlets dispersed over the inequalities of a 
 spacious basin in these close set hills, and forms the 
 capital of the Dras district which extends from Zojila to 
 Channagund. In the centre of the basin is a small 
 square fort with a garrison of fifty men, and adjoining 
 it is the tahsil or " collectorate " of the governor of the 
 district. It overlooks a garden surrounded by poplar 
 and willow plantations, whose fresh foliage met the eye 
 agreeably in the midst of the general poverty of the 
 scene, and afforded us a welcome shelter from the sun's 
 rays which here possess an unexpected power, exem- 
 plified amongst our party by several cases of ephemeral 
 fever and headache. The elevation of Dras is about 
 
TOO KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 10,150 feet, and snow lies on the ground for two to three 
 months in winter, to the depth of a foot or more. Some- 
 times it lies for weeks together to a depth of three or four 
 feet, and completely closes the route through this valley. 
 Further on its usual depth diminishes to a few inches at 
 Kargil. Our route led down the narrow winding valley 
 of the Dras river, to whose banks the hills slope direct in 
 a succession of bare uninviting rock, and presented no 
 objects of interest except, perhaps, the prangos called 
 by the natives prangoz which we here first met, and 
 the river-bed itself which where we crossed it by 
 bridge half a mile below the village of Pandras, forms 
 a narrow, furrowed, and scooped channel over an outcrop- 
 ping stratum of green serpentine. It extends for some 
 miles till the river enters the Dras basin. Here we 
 crossed it again to reach our camp ground by one of 
 those log bridges common to this country, and which, 
 for us, had a melancholy interest as the unsteady sup- 
 port from which Mr Cowie an English gentleman tra- 
 velling in these parts some six or eight years ago fell into 
 the river whilst crossing on horseback, and was drowned. 
 On the march we met some small parties of coolies 
 carrying tea on its way to Srinnagar. The loads were 
 packed in oblong bundles sewed up in sheepskins, and 
 were carried on the back in a sort of .wooden saddle 
 worn like a knapsack. The porter carried in his hand a 
 T-shaped stick, on which now and again he supported his 
 burthen to take rest and recover breath. The tea came 
 from Hlassa, and had been conveyed stage by stage on 
 the backs of different sets of coolies, each set only carry- 
 ing across the limit of their own district. At Dras most 
 of the cattle and coolies provided for our camp by the 
 Kashmir authorities were changed. The ponies were 
 hardy, sure-footed, and active little animals, and in our 
 
THE BHOT COOLY. \ iJr 
 
 subsequent experience proved excellent baggagers ; whilst, 
 as for the Tatar coolies, in patient endurance, cheerful 
 service, and few wants, they bear away the palm from all 
 of their class. But their merits are best appreciated at a 
 respectable distance, for they are the least washed and 
 most scented gentry anywhere to be met with. 
 
 The natives of this district are Skid Musalmans pro- 
 fessedly, but in physiognomy resemble the Tatars we 
 come to further on, and with whom they consort freely. 
 Their dress is a compromise between that of the Kash- 
 miri and the Bhot, and but for the turban some of them 
 wear they are not to be distinguished by the stranger 
 from the Bhot, to whose speech their own assimilates. 
 Their complexion, however, is generally fairer than that 
 of the Bhot, and some of them show very distinct traces 
 of intermixture with Kashmir blood. They seem, 
 indeed, to be merely Muhammadanised Tatars forming 
 the connecting link between the divergent Aryan and 
 Turanian types. Few of them understand any but their 
 own language, and they even have different names for 
 their several villages and camping stages to those used 
 for them by the Kashmiris. Thus they call Dras Him- 
 baps ; Matayan Ambuti; Pandras Pran, &c. And the 
 coolies in our camp here amongst themselves spoke 
 different dialects, according to the districts they came 
 from, though they all seemed to understand each other 
 pretty well. I commenced making a vocabulary, but 
 found the diversity at each stage so great that I aban- 
 doned the task as hopeless. During our halt at Leh, 
 however, I collected a few hundred words, and com- 
 paring them with those jotted down on the march found 
 three distinct dialects of the same language were in use 
 on the line of our route. The language of these Tatars 
 as are the people themselves is called Bhot by the Kash- 
 
lee KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 miris. It is entirely different from the Kashmiri and 
 its cognate dialects of Dardistan and Kafiristan, or of 
 Badakhshan and Wakhan, and bears no resemblance to 
 the Turki and Calmaghi spoken in Kashghar. 
 
 From Dras we marched to Thasgam sixteen miles 
 and on quitting camp passed three stone pillars standing 
 on the roadside. They were four or five feet high, and 
 were sculptured with representations of Hindu gods. 
 How they came here, or anything of their history, no- 
 body could tell us. Our route followed the river course 
 down a narrow winding valley with many hamlets and 
 considerable cultivation on the small flats which occupied 
 the turns of the stream from side to side. We observed 
 many stacks of lucerne here called buksuk, and at Leh 
 chhumpo and prangos piled in the roadside fields as 
 winter fodder for the cattle of this country the hybrid 
 between the yak (bos cjrunniens,) and the domestic cow, 
 which is called zho and zhdmo for the male and female 
 respectively. There are several cross-breeds between the 
 hybrid and the parent stocks, but they are not common 
 nor so valued as the simple hybrid. The zho is very 
 enduring and docile, and is preferred in the plough and 
 under the load to the more hardy but restive yak; whilst 
 the zhdmo is said to give a more abundant and steady 
 supply of milk than the common cow, and that on a 
 limited and not very varied diet. 
 
 Our next march was a long and fatiguing one of 
 twenty-two miles to Kargil, where we halted the 12th 
 September. For the first two hours the route leads down 
 the river course, which is here very narrow and rock- 
 bound, and then, after crossing some rough ground, rises 
 to a small flat on which stands the solitary police station 
 of Kharbo. At a mile or two out of camp it crosses the 
 river by a log bridge thrown across to an approaching 
 
ABANDONED GOLD DIGGINGS. 103 
 
 cliff. The passage round the rock to regain the road 
 beyond is very narrow, and dangerous from its position 
 on the brink of a precipice, at the foot of which surges 
 the angry torrent of the river. 
 
 We found here, as at the many similar passages we 
 subsequently crossed on our journey through this terri- 
 tory, a number of coolies stationed to assist our baggage 
 train, and all were passed over without accident. 
 
 Beyond the police station we came to the ruined walls 
 of some huts, which my guide told me marked the site of 
 a hamlet formerly occupied by some gold-diggers who 
 worked in the steep slope of the hill forming the opposite 
 side of the river channel. They had run a gallery some- 
 way into the hill, and used to wash the auriferous soil in 
 the river with profit till, one day the loose earth sub- 
 siding buried a number of their men, and the accident 
 being looked on as an interposition of Providence, the 
 enterprise was abandoned, and the colony dispersed. 
 
 From this we descended and ascended a succession of 
 spurs abutting on the river, which on the opposite side 
 receives the clear blue waters of the Shingo as a tribu- 
 tary to its own turbid stream, and rising up to the high 
 bank of granite boulders on which Channagund or, as 
 the Tatars call it, Piliskimbo stands, alighted for break- 
 fast while the baggage filed past. 
 
 Eesuming our route we came, at two or three miles, 
 to the junction of the Thangskam river with that of 
 Dras, and, mounting over a rough promontory of gneiss, 
 followed up its course, leaving the Dras river away to 
 our left, and after three miles of rough road came to 
 Kargil. The opposite bank from the Dras river upwards 
 is lined with villages which top the thin strips of fields 
 and orchards built up in terraces from the river's brink, 
 and extend all the way up to Powen opposite Kargil. 
 
104 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Between Channagund and Kargil there is neither cul- 
 tivation nor habitation on the route we followed. The 
 road is very rough and broken, and when we passed was 
 crossed by the debris of two mud avalanches which had 
 burst out from the gullies above after unusual rain some 
 two months ago. One of them where it fell into the 
 river was about 250 yards across, and in its descent on 
 the authority of my guide, a native of Kargil swept 
 away forty head of cattle and the three shepherds 
 tending them. 
 
 Kargil is a very picturesque spot at the junction of 
 the Sum and Paskyum or Wakha rivers, whose united 
 streams form the Thangskam. It is a considerable vil- 
 lage spread over the well wooded slopes which overlook 
 the noisy waters-meet below, and the flourishing culti- 
 vation of Powen on the opposite shore. 
 
 It is the capital of the district of the same name, which 
 extends from the junction of the Thangskam with the 
 Dras river to the Photola pass, and has a fort and collec- 
 torate. The latter is situated at the top of the village, 
 and comprises some neat and commodious buildings, the 
 shady terraces in front of which accommodated our camp. 
 
 The fort commands the road at the junction of the 
 rivers, and is situated on an isolated boulder bed in the 
 stream of the Surii river which rushes past on each side 
 with ceaseless din. It communicates with the shore by 
 most rickety bridges, supported in spans upon unstable- 
 looking piles of boulder and brushwood. 
 
 Here we saw a grand collection of the people of the 
 district, who had been assembled for the service of the 
 camp, and found a strange mixture of Budhist and Musal- 
 man together, and apparently quite indifferent to the pre- 
 judices of creed which reign so supreme in the country 
 we had left behind. Indeed, the country so far as we 
 
POLO AT KARGIL. 105 
 
 have come on this side of Kashmir shows no monuments 
 betokening the predominance or even the cultivation of 
 either one religion or the other, and neither masjidsmd zia- 
 rat, norgonpa and chhorten meet the eye to tell of Musal- 
 man or Budhist devotee. But in the crowd of seven or 
 eight hundred men gathered about our camp the mixture 
 of the two was very evident, and indicated the existence 
 here of both creeds as on a neutral ground. The people 
 are all alike called Bhot, though many amongst them are 
 Musalmans of the despised heretic or SMd sect ; and they 
 all present a very marked physiognomy of the Tatar 
 type. I saw many faces which elsewhere would have 
 been pronounced as Chinese. 
 
 In the afternoon of our halt here the people of the 
 place got up a game of polo for our amusement, and more 
 for their own. It is the national sport of this country, 
 and every village has its level strip of polo ground care- 
 fully kept for the practice of this exercise. The display, 
 however, we witnessed in the native home of the game 
 was a poor affair compared with what one sees in the 
 countries of its adoption. The keen zest and enjoyment 
 of both horse and rider, however, made amends for the 
 want of speed and dexterity which one sees exhibited 
 amongst ourselves, and the clumsy horsemanship was 
 covered by the merry good-nature and docility of 
 the rider and his little steed. 
 
 On the conclusion of the game some of the men exhi- 
 bited their equitation by picking a rupee off the ground 
 whilst riding past without quitting the saddle. It was 
 no great feat from the back of a pony no bigger than an 
 English donkey, and whose pace was curbed to that of 
 the proverbially obstinate creature to whose height I have 
 compared his. The sport afforded a deal of merriment, 
 however, amongst the crowd of spectators, owing to the 
 
io6 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 laughable efforts made by some, and the awkward tumbles 
 of others in their eager efforts to clutch the prize ; and 
 was followed by a general scramble for handsful of 
 coppers thrown amongst the crowd, a struggle which 
 called forth a boisterous activity, wonderful to say, un- 
 marred by a single jar of ill-temper. 
 
 Indeed, as our further acquaintance with them proved, 
 these people possess a simplicity and geniality of disposi- 
 tion seldom to be met with, and are, according to their 
 standard, a thriving and contented community. The 
 crowd of them assembled here from all parts of the dis- 
 trict were warmly clad and well nourished, and appeared 
 generally comfortably off for men in their position. 
 
 It was here we first met the Tatar costume with which 
 our subsequent journey made us more familiar. Most of 
 the men wore the Bhot bonnet, or tipi, and carried a sheep 
 or goatskin slung across the back. The bonnet is a mere 
 bag of some strong woollen or goat's hair texture, and 
 hangs jauntily on one side of the head which fills its 
 opening, with the queue coiled in its interior or hang- 
 ing down the back. For the Bhot wears his hair in the 
 old style plaited into a tail, the length of which he is not 
 too proud to increase by the artificial aid of braided wool. 
 He is fond of ornament too, and decorates his bonnet 
 with a bunch of flowers plucked from the weeds growing 
 amongst his crops, or with the bright marigold which he 
 patronises in the shelter of his homestead. He wears 
 rings of gold or silver wire, strung with beads of red 
 coral and green turquoise, in his ears, and carries a big boss 
 of amber or agate suspended as a necklet charm on his 
 breast. The mantle of sheep or goatskin, called hyugor, 
 is worn slung across the back by a cord which crosses 
 the chest obliquely over one shoulder. It is cured with 
 the hair or wool on, and is used as a protection for the loins 
 
DXESS OF THE BHOT PEASANT. 107 
 
 against the cold winds of the country. The people of 
 Kafiristan which, from what I have heard of that country, 
 is a somewhat similar mountain region to this, wear a 
 mantle of the same kind which, from its usual colour, is 
 called siydh post, or " black skin," by their brethren con- 
 verted to Islam ; and they are by them, consequently, 
 distinguished from other pagan tribes by the appellation 
 siydh post Kafir, or "pagans of the black skin." This 
 term has been strangely misunderstood and rendered as 
 siydh posh, or " clothed in black," a term which is far more 
 appropriately applicable to the indigo-dyed dress of the 
 Afghans themselves, or to us, or any other people who 
 wear clothes of a more or less dark colour, than to the 
 mountaineer of Kafiristan, whose usual dress is a woollen 
 home-made stuff of the natural hue, arid not the gro- 
 tesque costume I have sesn represented in a photograph 
 of a reputed Kafir in his national dress. 
 
 The rest of the dress of the Bhot peasant is very sim- 
 ple. A loose shirt of coarse cotton is covered by a long 
 frock of thick and strong woollen material. They are 
 bound round the waist by a leather belt, over which pass 
 the folds of a long scarf whose ends hang over the loose 
 trowsers ; and these, like the scarf, are of the same texture 
 as the frock. Coarse woollen socks cover the feet, w r hich 
 are farther encased in clumsy shoes of felt and leather 
 patch- work, or in boots of sheepskin worn with the wool 
 inside ; whilst the legs are protected by the folds of a long 
 woollen bandage, ornamented with an edging of varied 
 colours. From his belt hang the several indispensable 
 items of his travelling equipment, or indeed of his mo- 
 mentary requirements of ordinary life. His single-bladed 
 knife, carried in a leather sheath, hangs on one side with 
 a flint case which seems all brass binding; and a pouch-bag 
 for tea and tobacco, and odds and ends, with his bright 
 
xo8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 iron pipe, hangs on the other. Whilst in the capacious 
 interior of his fob are stowed away his bag of parched 
 barley-meal, or as often a lump of its dough half-stewed 
 by the heat of his body, and the wooden bowl from which 
 he eats it. Suspended obliquely across his back is what 
 looks like a quiver, but our peaceable Bhot carries neither 
 bow nor arrow, nor other weapon of war, and his suspi- 
 cious looking cylinder of wood, fluted and chased with 
 patterns of simple design, is only his tea-churn. 
 
 From Kargil the road crosses the river in front of the 
 fort by three or four log bridges which are connected by 
 a line of embankment, and rising out of the hollow for 
 four or five miles leads across a high undulating tract of 
 gravel which occupies the angle between the two rivers, 
 and then descends into the Paskyum valley. 
 
 The successive reaches on either shore as the river 
 winds down the valley are occupied by flourishing little 
 hamlets ; these are surrounded by their corn fields and 
 plantations of willow and poplar, and present a pleasing 
 picture of prosperity amidst the bare rocks around. 
 
 Beyond them the valley contracts suddenly at a gorge 
 (on the cliffs to the right of which the remains of stone 
 parapets surmounted by the ruins of a fort attract 
 notice, as evidences of some conqueror's destructive 
 work), through which the road passes over some very 
 rough ground. The path is very narrow and overlooks 
 the river, as it scoops its way through a narrow passage 
 in the serpentine rocks, up to Lotsum, a village of thirty 
 or forty houses. 
 
 We alighted here for breakfast, and then resuming our 
 route followed up the river course, crossing its stream 
 six or seven times by bridges, through a contracted, tor- 
 tuous, and wild defile of bare rocks of serpentine, con- 
 glomerate, chlorite and schistose shales which close in 
 
B UDHIST RELIGIO US B UILDINGS. 109 
 
 upon the water channel in a confused succession and 
 no order. The path had been repaired and cleared of 
 stones, &c. for our journey, but in parts was very-narrow 
 and difficult. We found a number of coolies posted all 
 along the route at the difficult spots where the path had 
 been built up across clefts in the shelving rocks, or where 
 it wound round a projecting bluff, or lay across a bridge 
 to aid our cattle in case of accident. 
 
 At about eight miles from Lotsum the defile widens 
 into a more open valley in which stands the village of 
 Shargol. We camped near it on a turfy reach in a bend 
 of the river. Distance, eighteen miles from Kargil. 
 
 Here we came upon the first monument of the Bud hist 
 faith we had yet met in our march, and from this onwards 
 until we passed on to the uninhabited wastes of the Tibat 
 highlands, we saw no trace of any other creed. It was 
 a mane pJidne built on the bank overlooking our camp, 
 and was nothing but a broad wall of loose-set stones ; its 
 measurements were ninety-three paces long, eight paces 
 wide, and four feet high. On the north side of the wall, and 
 exactly midway, was a square slab of stone set upright 
 in a covered recess, and carved in very low relief with 
 figures of Budh and his priests. On each side of it was 
 a slab similarly set, and covered with writing chiselled 
 on its surface. The broad top of the wall in all its sur- 
 face was thickly strewed with a multitude of undressed 
 stones, flat boulders, and slabs of slate, each of which was 
 carefully inscribed with an unvarying formula of letters 
 lightly chiselled on the surface. The writing was read 
 to us by a Budhist priest as dm mane padme horn, and 
 was said to be the Budhist' form of invoking the Deity. 
 
 We subsequently saw several others of these mdne 
 phdne, and one at Leh nearly half a mile long. The 
 inscribed stones set on the top are deposited by the laity 
 
no KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 for whom the priest or lamma does the writing to pro- 
 pitiate the Deity for the souls of defunct relatives, for 
 protection against evil, for favour in some enterprise, or 
 for the attainment of some desire or other of which in 
 their variety the Bhot mind is as susceptible as that of 
 more tutored peoples. The mane is held in reverence by 
 the people, and in passing is always kept on the right 
 hand. 
 
 Our next march to Kharbo was fourteen miles. The 
 first part of the route was up a well cultivated valley, the 
 fields of which, sloping down to the river in wide terrace 
 slopes,were stacked with the new-cut corn, or waving in 
 yellow crops of wheat and barley ready for the sickle. 
 
 At the entrance to the valley we passed under the 
 Gonpa or "monastery" of Mulbe, one of those extraor- 
 dinary cliff-perched habitations which in this country 
 form so characteristic a feature in the landscape, and 
 further on stopped to examine an isolated rock, standing 
 by the roadside mid- valley, which caught the eye at a 
 distance by the bright drapery fluttering in the breeze 
 from its summit. 
 
 On the north face of the rock is carved the gigantic 
 figure called Chamba, which Dr Henderson has photo- 
 graphed ; and at its base stands a little hut in which are 
 kept the paraphernalia for his periodical service. On its 
 summit are fixed two poles, each of which is topped by a 
 bell-shaped mitre or copper cap ; beneath the cap hangs 
 a white calico petticoat of three flounces, trimmed with 
 a deep border of red cloth. This figure, according to 
 Cunningham, only dates from about 1620 A.D., when 
 Budhism was restored in the country after its suppression 
 in the beginning of the century by the Muhammadan 
 ruler of Iskardo. There is a similar figure, also called 
 Chamba, on an isolated rock near the village of Diggar, 
 
DESERTED VILLAGE. in 
 
 which we saw on our return journey ; but the poles with 
 the mitre and gown were absent. In both the figures 
 are perfect, and are said to have been concealed from the 
 Muhammadan invaders from Kashmir and Iskardo by 
 building up the face of the rock with a wall of stone and 
 plaster of mud, fronted by a hut as if the residence of a 
 recluse. In both localities the remains of this device 
 are still traceable on the face of the rock. 
 
 Beyond the Chamba figure, continuing up the valley 
 through a succession of corn fields and hamlets with 
 their outlying chhorten, we turned away from the W&kha 
 river, and proceeding up a dry gully winding amongst 
 bare schistose slopes, topped by banks of conglomerate 
 and ridges of stratified limestone, crossed the Namika 
 pass, about 11,900 feet high by aneroid indication, and 
 descended by a long slope to the valley of the Shitang 
 river, which flows north towards Iskardo. 
 
 We here turned to the right, and following up the 
 course of the river in a south-east direction passed along 
 a fertile tract similar to that we had left on the other 
 side of the pass, and camped at Kharbo. Here the ele- 
 vation by hypsometric observation is about 11,350 feet. 
 This is an apparently recently built village at the base 
 of a precipitous cliff on the very summit and topmost 
 ledges of which are the ruins of a former village. Even 
 the chhorten here appear quite new, and the coating of 
 glistening mica clay with which they are whitewashed 
 wears all the freshness of recent application. The envoy 
 told me that, when he passed this way three years ago, 
 the upper village was inhabited, and we were informed 
 by villagers that it was deserted two years ago, owing 
 to a heavy fall of snow breaking in the roofs. 
 
 Our march on this stage was a most interesting one to 
 me from the more declared character of the living Bud- 
 
ii2 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 hism amongst which we found ourselvesa creed and 
 polity I had heretofore only been acquainted with 
 through its relics so plentiful amidst the ruins of Yusuf- 
 zai. The village of Takcha, which drew attention across 
 the valley as we approached camp, piled up as it is 
 Budhist fashion on precipitous projections of an isolated 
 cliff detached from the ridge behind it, forcibly re- 
 minded me of many a similarly situated town the ruins 
 of which still top the bare crags and uneven summits of 
 the treeless ridges that indent the Yusufzai plain. 
 
 Qur further progress through this country enabled me 
 to compare the living form of the faith here with its 
 extinct remains there, and my imagination peopled 
 afresh with their ancient tenants the ruined cities of 
 Takhti Bahi, and Eani Gatt, of Sawul Dher, and Sahri 
 Bahlol, and many others. But how different the picture 
 of the past from the reality of the present, I shall have 
 to tell farther on. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FBOM Kharbo we marched to Lammayuru, fourteen 
 miles. The road leads up the defile over a succession of 
 knolls of conglomerate rock, and at about the fifth mile 
 crosses the river by a spar bridge to the little village of 
 Hanadku. Beyond this the river comes down from the 
 Kanji valley through a deep and dark cleft in the ver- 
 tical cliffs of the slaty mountains to the right of the 
 road, and where it debouches on the Kharbo valley is 
 joined by a thready rivulet which drains the long slopes 
 of the Photo La range ahead. 
 
 We followed up the main channel of this latter stream, 
 and by an easy, gradual ascent rose to the crest of the 
 Photo La pass, where is a conspicuous chhorten. I 
 alighted here to take the elevation by the boiling point 
 of water, and found it about 13,670 feet. The view 
 from this spot is extensive, and singularly monotonous in 
 the repetition of its dreary aspect. In whichever direc- 
 tion the eye is turned it is met by the same unvaried 
 prospect of long slopes of crumbling schist, topped by 
 serrated peaks of the vertical strata of slate the more 
 prominent in their dark shades against the snow lodged 
 on the ledges between them and backed by towering 
 ranges of perpetual snow. No valley intervenes to 
 break the interminable maze of mountain ridges, no 
 forest appears to gladden the prospect, nor is a vestige 
 of pasture traceable to mitigate the rough sterility of 
 the scene. 
 
 H 
 
ii4 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 The only object of interest in the near landscape and 
 it needs be looked for, so little discernible are its consti- 
 tuent elements in the dull uniformity of colour and 
 shade pervading the prospect is the monastery of Lam- 
 may uru, whose mud-coloured huts and weather-worn 
 chlwrten are dimly traceable in the dark shadows at the 
 bottom of the descent down which our route lies. 
 
 Descending the gully, we approached this extraor- 
 dinary habitation in the solitude of these inhospitable 
 and rugged mountains, and camping on some terraced 
 slopes under the shadow of two cliffs on whose topmost 
 summits the monastery is perched, found our attention 
 for the moment diverted from the prompted contempla- 
 tion of those mysterious causes which influence reason- 
 ing man in the election of his mode of life here to us 
 so strangely and strikingly exemplified by the more 
 immediate bustle of the no less strange scene that sur- 
 rounded us. 
 
 The limited area of the shelving little basin, bordered 
 above by its lines of mane and rows of chhorten, was 
 covered with a confused crowd of docile Bhots, obstre- 
 perous yaks, and frisky ponies ; and was strewed in 
 characteristic disorder with piles of firewood, stacks of 
 fodder, and sacks of corn ; all of which, with other sup- 
 plies, had been collected here for the use of our party. 
 
 The scene of plenty and activity in the still solitude 
 of this barren spot was probably as rare a sight to its 
 phlegmatic inhabitants as was that of such a party as 
 ours amongst them, and the red garments of the Lammas 
 moving amongst the crowd testified to their having made 
 the occasion one for a holiday. 
 
 During the afternoon, Captain Chapman and I went 
 up the steep in rear of the cliff to explore the Gonpa or 
 Lammasary on its summit, and at the top of the ascent 
 
THE LAMMAS OF LA MM A YUR U. 115 
 
 were cordially welcomed by some very jovial looking 
 priests, whose shaven crowns and rotund figures barely 
 concealed by their loose gowns and covering mantle 
 spoke of very comfortable fare ; whilst the heavy sen- 
 sual expression of their features, and merry mood of 
 mind told that the life of the Buddhist monk is not one 
 so entirely of privation and vigil as the solitude of his 
 situation and poverty of his country, apart from the 
 proper duties of his profession, would lead one to expect. 
 Our obliging friends very good-naturedly conducted 
 us through the intricate mazes of their dwelling, and 
 without the least prejudice or hesitation introduced us 
 to the mysteries of their " sanctum sanctorum." This 
 was a succession of three low-roofed, dark chambers, the 
 obscurity of which was dimly lighted by the flames of 
 half-a-dozen cotton wicks, or spiles, stuck upright in as 
 many pods of butter, set in little brass bowls which were 
 ranged in front of the idols. These last were supported 
 against the wall on a raised planking, and enshrouded by 
 hanging curtains of embroidered wool and silk drapery, 
 and were but indistinctly observable in the obscurity of 
 their mysterious retreat. The idols bore very much the 
 look of common Hindu deities, though they represented 
 a different mythology, and on the shelf in front of them 
 lay a number of the lingam and yuni emblems roughly 
 modelled out of lumps of barley-meal paste. We were 
 here received by the head Lamma, and half-a-dozen 
 others all arrayed in full canonicals, and standing in a 
 semicircle with their instruments of music ready in 
 hand. And at a nod from our attendants they assailed 
 us with a most diabolic confusion of sounds which, within 
 the close walls of their temple, produced none of the 
 more appropriate impressions we subsequently expe- 
 rienced under different conditions. The walls of one of 
 
n6 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the chambers are painted with pictures representing 
 episodes in the lives of particular deities whose morality 
 is exhibited in a vicious form, whilst the shelves of an- 
 other are piled with carefully folded manuscripts replete 
 with Buddhist lore. 
 
 From these we passed out through a rough little 
 doorway on to a small open court which was nearly 
 filled by a circular tope surmounted by a chhorten, and 
 from its parapet looked down the straight drop of the 
 cliff on which it stood on to our camp below, and across 
 the narrow valley on to the gravelly slope of the oppo- 
 site hill on which near its base was set the Buddhist 
 prayer, Om mane padme hon, in gigantic characters 
 formed of bright white pebbles. 
 
 We then entered some other low and narrow cham- 
 bers which appeared to be the dormitories and refec- 
 tories of the monks, and in one of them found two nuns 
 engaged in working up some meal into dough for the 
 evening repast. They were hard-featured bony-looking 
 creatures, and seemed to be the drudges of the establish- 
 ment. They did not cease their work even to turn and 
 gaze upon us as we passed. These chambers, like the 
 others appropriated to the service of their gods, were 
 mean and dirty hovels, and led by a wood staircase 
 down to some similar chambers full of stable litter, and 
 evidently the stalls of the ponies, cows, and goats of the 
 monastery. The view from the windows of the upper 
 rooms looked on one side up the gully we had come 
 down, and on the other down a dismal defile that lay 
 before us ; whilst in front it was faced by the blank array 
 of bare gravel and clay banking up the foot of the hill 
 that closed the valley on that side, and in rear was over- 
 looked by the rugged heights of a hill similarly desolate 
 and bare. A more tiresome and stupefying prospect is 
 
LIFE IN A LAMMASAR Y. 117 
 
 not to be conceived, and is, doubtless, coupled with the 
 weary monotony of their existence, one cause of the dis- 
 reputable lives the monks lead. For during nearly half 
 the year they are doomed to idleness, shut up in their 
 inaccessible retreats by the frosts and snows of winter. 
 
 There are twenty monks (lamma) and eight nuns (kimi) 
 attached to this monastery (gonpa). They appear to be 
 a happy community, and by no means discontented with 
 their lot. Our guides showed us some malt liquor pre- 
 pared from the huskless barley of this country. It is 
 called chhang, and is the daily drink of the monks who, 
 under its influences, get comfortably fuddled and fat. 
 A spirit is also distilled from the same malt, and is only 
 used on special occasions when the community is per- 
 mitted to revel in drunkenness. Their superior is always 
 appointed from Hlassa, but the rest are recruited in the 
 country, the second son of every family being dedicated 
 to the priesthood. These lay priests, if I may so style 
 the Bhots, who are thus dedicated to the church, wear 
 the lamma dress, but pursue the ordinary avocations of 
 life till called to the cloisters, according to the require- 
 ments of their church, when they must renounce the 
 world, and assume the celibate life of the monk. With 
 the nuns the monastic life is optional, and apparently 
 is only adopted by the friendless and homeless. 
 
 The monasteries are supported by the people, and 
 governed by the Dalay Lamma (whose seat is Hlassa) as 
 the head of the faith, through subordinate Lammas ap- 
 pointed by him. The priesthood thus provided for pass 
 life with less of its cares and troubles than fall to the lot 
 of most mortals, and by all evidences their service in the 
 church is none of self-denial, nor of pious devotion to 
 the pure doctrine enunciated by their great lawgiver. 
 
 On the contrary, it is a vain repetition of meaningless 
 
n8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 formulae, and the degraded worship of images, without 
 discipline of mind or body. And it flourishes here 
 without a rival amongst a people steeped in the grossest 
 ignorance and most timid superstition. A people who, 
 in every change in the elements, and every accident of 
 daily life, see the intervention of an offended deity, or 
 the malignity of an evil spirit ; and whose whole anxiety 
 is to appease the one, and avert the other through the 
 mediation of their priests who are the only depositories 
 of their mental culture. This institution of the priest- 
 hood, however, coupled with that of polyandry which 
 obtains amongst this people, is not without its benefits ; 
 and, perhaps under the existing conditions, owes its 
 endurance to its adaptation to the requirements of the 
 country. And the two together are probably the forms 
 of polity best suited to the existence of the popula- 
 tion as a peaceable, well ordered, and industrious com- 
 munity. 
 
 It is the custom for the brothers of one family to 
 have a single wife in common, and for the children to 
 take the name and obey, as head of the family, the 
 eldest husband. By this means, and the transfer of so 
 many to a life of celibacy in the monasteries, the popula- 
 tion is kept down to a proportion which the country is 
 capable of supporting. For the only parts of it which 
 are habitable are the narrow valleys through which its 
 rivers flow, a.nd the little nooks in the mountains which 
 are watered by their torrent tributaries. 
 
 The population of the Ladakh province of Kashmir, from 
 this place to Nubra, is roughly estimated at 30,000 houses 
 or, reckoning seven per house, 210,000 souls. And after 
 passing through the country, that figure seems to me to 
 represent fully the number of mouths it is capable of 
 feeding. 
 
B UDH2SM AND POL YANDRY. 1 1 9 
 
 Consequently it would seem that polyandry and 
 Budhism, each subservient to the other, and both to the 
 requirements of the locality, are practically the institu- 
 tions best suited to the country, and owe to this cause 
 their survival of the Mahommedan propaganda which 
 have been established, and flourish in the more produc- 
 tive countries to the north and south. 
 
 Otherwise it is not easy to account for the failure of 
 the crescentade from Yarkand in the sixteenth century, 
 nor for the cessation of the Mahommedan conquerors of 
 Kashmir in their career of victory and conversion at 
 the frontier of the country. Their polygamous institu- 
 tions, and more expansive polity, if forced upon the 
 country, must have produced a hard struggle for bare 
 existence, and endless forms of internal violence and 
 disorder would have come into operation to keep down 
 life to a supportable limit. 
 
 As it is, under the existing institutions, the population 
 is kept not only within the limit capable of supporting 
 life in the country, but of living as a peaceful, happy, 
 and well-ordered community amongst whom violent 
 crime is a rare offence, and litigation happily at a 
 minimum. Such being the case, we may pardon the 
 harmless superstition of the people, and weigh gently 
 the faults of their priests. 
 
 We left Lammayuru to its solitude and gloom early 
 next morning in pursuit of our route. The sky was 
 dull and overcast with a lead-coloured stratum of cloud 
 which increased the sombre hues of the mountains, and 
 intensified the dismal shades of the deep cleft defile 
 through which we set out from camp, the while affording 
 us a view of the country in a most depressing and melan- 
 choly form of its aspect. 
 
 Our path led down between some lacustrine banks of 
 
120 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 fine clay into a deep, and dark, winding defile, over- 
 looked by some isolated pillars of gravel which stood 
 sentry-like on the steep slopes at its upper end, and 
 which by their tabular tops, inclined to a plane parallel 
 with that of the slope on which they stood, bore evi- 
 dence of the considerable wearing away of the soil 
 around them. 
 
 It then crossed from side to side following a thready 
 little stream, fringed with the coltsfoot and crowfoot 
 and other plants delighting in a moist soil, through a 
 succession of clefts in the rock ; and traversing steep 
 slopes of loose disintegrated slate by a soft unstable 
 track which looks down upon tremendous precipices 
 below, and up at stupendous heights above, finally 
 brought us to the bottom of the gully where it joins a 
 defile through which flows a clear blue stream coming 
 down from the Zanskar hills to our right. We went 
 down this tortuous defile by a carefully built path along 
 the river's banks across the slopes of rock and debris 
 which form them, and crossing the stream by spar 
 bridges two or three times en route emerged into the 
 more spacious valley of the Indus, here called Singhe 
 Khababs, on whose opposite bank is seen the high road 
 from Ladakh to Iskardo and Gilgit. My guide, here 
 pointing to the sandy and gravelly slopes of the Zanskar 
 stream where it joined the Indus, informed me that the 
 people of Iskardo were in the habit of coming here every 
 spring to search for gold brought down by the first 
 meltings of the winter snow. 
 
 The Indus here flows between overshelving banks of 
 conglomerate and gravel, amongst which are imbedded 
 masses of rolled granite resembling the great boulders of 
 the same rock which strew the surface along our route, 
 at the foot of the slate and schist slopes which bound 
 
RECEPTION BY SHOT VILLAGERS. 121 
 
 the valley on either side. Its stream presents a turbid 
 and boisterous current rolling noisily over the rocks 
 obstructing its way. 
 
 At a mile or more from Khalsi, we crossed the river by 
 a spar bridge thrown across a gap in the hard blue slate 
 over which it here flows, and passing through the little 
 fort which occupies the rock at the farther end joined the 
 high road to Iskardo, or as often pronounced Skardo. 
 Like that on the opposite bank, it is a broad track over 
 the hard gravelly ground, strewed with rolled blocks of 
 granite, which forms the strip of land between the river 
 and the bounding slopes of slate arid schist debris. 
 
 Near the entrance to the village are some mane and 
 chhorten, and many of the latter are observed dotting 
 the surface on the outskirts of the village. They are 
 the monumental receptacles of the ashes of defunct 
 Lammas and lay Buddhists of distinction, and are set 
 around the village limits in the belief that the souls of 
 the departed still take an interest in the scenes of their 
 earthly life, and protect the precincts of their former 
 habitations by their direct intercession with the gods. 
 Our farther progress through the country showed a 
 similar disposition of these tokens of Budhist faith to 
 be the, general rule. That is to say they are built on 
 the roads leading into the villages, or. on eminences sur- 
 rounding them. 
 
 At the entrance to Khalsi our party was received by 
 nearly the whole of its inhabitants assembled, in separate 
 groups of men and women, on the roadside. They 
 were headed by a Lamma who was busy turning a 
 prayer-wheel which he held in his hands, and as we 
 approached they all bowed low and saluted us with 
 the usual jo-jo, according to Bhot custom. The envoy 
 bowiog his acknowledgments our party went on, and 
 
122 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 left the good-natured crowd to stare at the cavalcade 
 following in our train. 
 
 This is the village which, on the orthography of the 
 author then quoted, I have before mentioned under the 
 name of Gala' Shya as the winter quarters of the Yar- 
 kand army on their return from the disastrous attempt to 
 invade this sacred seat of the Budhist faith in the six- 
 teenth century. The fort itself is now a barely-distinguish- 
 able ruin. Its remains are seen a mile or so further up 
 the river, beyond a deep ravine which intervenes between 
 it and the village, perched on an isolated rock which 
 commands the passage at a narrow bend of the stream. 
 It is called Balo Khara by the Bhots, and is said to have 
 been demolished some thirty years ago by Zorawar Sing, 
 the Sikh general who conquered this country for the 
 Maharaja Gulab Sing. And the present little fort com- 
 manding the Khalsi bridge was built in its stead by 
 Diwan Hira Sing, the Maharaja's first governor of the 
 annexed province. Beyond the ruins the road goes 
 over some rough ground, obstructed by a confused 
 jumble of rocks of varied colour and composition, which 
 tumble down the slopes into the channel of the river 
 itself. There is greenish gneiss, mottled pudding-stone, 
 and black lava mixed amongst masses of bluish lime- 
 stone, ash-grey schists, and pebble conglomerate all 
 within a course of a few miles ; and then the path re- 
 turns to a gravelly bank, covered with granite boulders, 
 similar to that left .at Khalsi. On this strip of drift, 
 which occupies a bend in the river channel, stands the 
 village of Snurulla with its walnut trees and apricot 
 orchards, and gravelly fields of corn. Distance from 
 Lammayuru, eighteen miles. 
 
 We camped on some fields between the village and 
 the river bank, and halted the next day 17th Septem- 
 
A VALANCHE OF STONES. 123 
 
 ber weatherbound. A steady, soaking drizzle set in 
 soon after our arrival on the ground, and continued with 
 little intermission till the following evening ; whilst the 
 heavy clouds overhead we had set out with closed 
 around in the form of a dense nimbus which concealed 
 all from view beyond a few hundred yards. This wet 
 weather, despite its discomforts and gloom, proved very 
 useful and interesting in unfolding to us a fund of in- 
 formation on the physical phenomena of the country, 
 which might otherwise have remained unthought of or 
 unnoticed by us. The rain here, whilst it showed us 
 one of the dangers to which travellers in this country 
 are subject, and explained (what we had seen all along 
 the road without understanding their true meaning) how 
 they are avoided, also illustrated the manner in which 
 the mountains are gradually disintegrating, and ac- 
 counted for those long unbroken slopes of debris which 
 are the peculiar feature of their ranges. 
 
 Whilst occupied in the shelter of my tent my atten- 
 tion was repeatedly attracted by a swift rumbling sound 
 which suddenly ended in a rapid succession of loud 
 crashes, not unlike the discharge of musketry. I several 
 times rose and looked out across the river, above whose 
 bank we were camped, at the long slope of the hill 
 opposite, and from which the sounds proceeded, but could 
 see nothing to account for the strange noises. At length, 
 whilst gazing in search of some moving object on the 
 dull spread of bluish-grey ground facing me, I caught 
 sight of a great block of rock rolling down the steep. 
 It bounded from two or three projections in the line of 
 its descent, and breaking off fragments by the concus- 
 sion took them along with increased speed till, one after 
 the other, they all plunged from the bank amongst the 
 boulders in the river, and there ended their wild career 
 
i2 4 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 with a succession of loud reports like the bangs of a 
 number of guns. Meanwhile the loose particles of slaty 
 debris down which they had come, thus set in motion, 
 kept up a rattling noise till their progress was stopped 
 by the resistance of heavier pieces below them. This 
 subsidence of the debris, though very declared by its 
 sound, was not easily discerned by the eye ; and it was 
 not till I had w^atched several large detached stones roll 
 down that I actually saw the debris itself in motion. 
 
 The alternate frosts and heats to which these rocks 
 are subjected, for both in their degrees are high within 
 the revolution of night and day, crack and fissure their 
 strata in all directions, and the wind playing upon 
 these gaps blows away loose particles, and thus widens 
 the rents. Then rain, or the stream of melting snow 
 from above, washes away some supporting dust or grit, 
 and the detached mass rolls headlong down the steep, 
 as described. 
 
 Not unfrequently such blocks of rock are set in motion 
 by the step of the wild sheep whose tracks are seen in all 
 directions on the hills of this country, scoring the slopes 
 with their chequered lines ; though what they can find to 
 eat is not apparent, for the hills areas bare as a picked bone. 
 We saw none of these animals on the line of march, but 
 were assured that they swarmed on the hills in our route. 
 This is probably true, judging from the similarity of the 
 hills to those on which we did find them subsequently. 
 
 These stone avalanches, if they may be so termed, are 
 of constant occurrence amongst these hills after rain, and 
 during the period the winter snows are melting away; and 
 they are one of the most dreaded dangers the traveller in 
 this country has to face, for it is not always that a river, 
 as here, interposes to protect him. And hence it is that 
 the Bhot never thinks of camping in the open in these 
 
THE RA VEN AND ROCK MARTIN. 125 
 
 valleys, as he is wont to do on the wide plateaux of the 
 highlands, but always takes shelter in the cavern of 
 some secure bank, or scoops out, or walls in, some ready 
 hollow under the lee of any firm rock, as we saw so often 
 on our route. Further on in our journey we passed many 
 spots where we found the defiles obstructed by these 
 dangerous missiles, and had cause to congratulate our- 
 selves that there were neither melting snows nor showers 
 of rain at the time of our passage. 
 
 From Snurulla we marched to Saspol, eighteen miles. 
 Our route lay up the valley along the right bank of the 
 river, and crossed several bluffs projecting upon it. On 
 descending one of these we saw a raven hunt and kill a 
 rock martin close upon our path. The little thing was 
 sailing gaily to and fro under a vertical cliff, when its 
 huge black enemy swooping down from above terrified 
 it so with his pursuing hoarse croak, that after a vain 
 effort to escape the poor martin lost control over its 
 wings, and fluttering aimlessly was at once clutched by 
 the monster who alighted on a rock beside us, and forth- 
 with tore his tender prey asunder, I had a small stick 
 gun in my hand, and reining up fired a charge of No. 10 
 shot at the raven, but, though only six or eight paces off, 
 he flew away unhurt with his prize. 
 
 In the latter part of this march vegetation begins to 
 revive. The tamarisk fringes the water-courses with the 
 dog-rose, and the rock-rose, or "cistus," sprawls its 
 abundant foliage over the stony surface, whilst the 
 ephedra hides the rocky inequalities with its bristly 
 sprouts. Some small hamlets, too, appear on either side 
 of the river, perched upon high boulder banks sepa- 
 rated by deep ravines. 
 
 As we rode on to our camp-ground at Saspol we were 
 greeted by a full choir of the Lammas of the place. 
 
126 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 They stood in a row a little off the road, and gave us a 
 performance on their instruments ; whilst the women of 
 the place, decked out in their best attire, and ranged in 
 a line along the roadside, saluted us with a low bow and 
 the usual jo-jo. We received a similar mark of welcome 
 at every place we came to on our onward journey through 
 Ladakh, though the Lammas did not always appear in 
 such grand form as here. There were eight of them, all 
 dressed alike in the red robes and high bonnets of their 
 order, and playing upon the instruments peculiar to their 
 craft. The character of the music was as strange and 
 unique as the appearance of the performers, and strikingly 
 in accord with the surroundings of the scene. 
 
 The beat of the drums and clang of the cymbals in no 
 degree lessened the initial bray of the trumpets, nor 
 marred the soft, sad airs of their final notes. Indeed, 
 the combination was admirably harmonised, and the 
 strong tones with which the music commenced floated 
 away to the silent hills in soft echoes prolonged by 
 the plaintive airs that followed them. 
 
 The trumpets are awkward-looking instruments from 
 six to eight or nine feet long, and curved like a cow 
 horn. The lower part rests on the ground, whilst the 
 performer, standing or seated, plays on the mouth-piece. 
 His practice consists of a succession of jerky blasts 
 which gradually diminish in force and duration till they 
 sound as soft trills which, in turn, lapse into plaintive 
 strains of peculiar pathos, and again swell into sonorous 
 and solemn sounds which are borne away on the air, 
 and prolonged in its vibrations. 
 
 The character of this music is altogether peculiar, and 
 unlike anything I have heard anywhere else. Its solemn 
 melancholy notes, heard floating off from some lofty cliff- 
 perched monastery, waken up the silent solitudes of the 
 
STALK A HERD OF GAZELLES. 127 
 
 mountains with the only sounds appropriate to their 
 nature ; and they are re-echoed from their stern frowning 
 heights in response to the long, soft, plaintive lays that 
 follow them in a manner that strikes the ear as perfectly 
 agreeable to the scene. 
 
 Shortly after our arrival in camp Mr Johnson, the 
 Maharaja's governor of Ladakh, came in from Leh to pay 
 his respects to the envoy, and detail the arrangements 
 he had made for the escort of the embassy to the fron- 
 tier. He here joined our camp and accompanied it to 
 Shahidulla, himself with untiring energy and devotion 
 making all the arrangements for carriage and supplies 
 on the journey, and with a success we little anti- 
 cipated. 
 
 Our next march was to Nimmo, fourteen miles. After 
 marching an hour over some rough ground similar to 
 that before passed, and crossing a lively little torrent 
 from the hills on our left, we turned away from the 
 river bank, and riding on to a wide gravelly plain, sepa- 
 rated from it by a ridge of hill, crossed a corner of it, 
 and regained the river further on. 
 
 This undulating plateau is called Bazgo thang or the 
 " Bazgo Plain," and is the first open bit of ground we 
 have seen since crossing the Photo La. It is an arid 
 waste with hardly a blade of vegetation to vary the bare 
 nakedness of the soil. We found a herd of seven or 
 eight gazelles grazing at the hill skirt away to the left. 
 The envoy and I dismounted to stalk them, but, as the 
 ground offered no cover, our wary game, after a brief 
 survey and right judgment of our intentions, verified 
 by a long shot from each of us as they made off, went 
 across the plain to a valley beyond, in which, as we 
 followed a little way in pursuit, we discerned a bright 
 spread of cultivation around the villages of Tarutze and 
 
128 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Ling. They are watered by the rivulet which we crossed 
 on our way to this point. 
 
 From the plateau we descended to the Bazgo hollow ; 
 it is a fertile and populous tract in this region of sterility 
 and solitude ; and picturesque in the clusters of its Bud- 
 hist monuments and neatly built dwelling-houses, amidst 
 a general spread of fields and fruit-trees which extend 
 away up amongst the hills to the north as far as the vil- 
 lage of Neh. Owing to its sheltered situation Bazgo is 
 reckoned the warmest winter residence in Ladakh. It has 
 a large shahran or "polo ground," which, as its neglected 
 state betokened, is now rarely used the taste for the 
 sport having declined here with the downfall of the 
 native rule, only to linger awhile in the more remote 
 Dras and Kargil districts. The good people of Bazgo, 
 who assembled on the roadside to do honour to the 
 envoy as his cavalcade rode past their dwellings, appeared 
 to be a thriving and happy community. The Bhot 
 ladies who graced the ceremony with their presence had 
 evidently bestowed unusual attention to their toilet on 
 this rare occasion, and presented an array of Tatar 
 beauty and fashion we nowhere else saw to such advan- 
 tage ; whilst the natural simplicity and modesty of their 
 demeanour, coupled with the goodwill of their salutation, 
 evinced their care to produce a good impression upon 
 the stranger. 
 
 Their dress is remarkable, and like everything else in 
 this strange country apparently well adapted to its re- 
 quirements and the habits of the people. The long frock 
 and girdle sash, and the trowsers differ little from those 
 worn by the men. The material and the pattern are 
 much the same, but the colour and finish are different ; 
 and in their choice the fair ones display their proverbial 
 good taste. Dark colours or black relieved by an edging 
 
BHOTMO TOILETTE. 129 
 
 of red or blue are those usually seen, and they set off to 
 the best advantage the ornaments the Bhot beauty is so 
 fond of; and not the least important of them the ample 
 sheepskin mantle, which, next to her head-dress, is her 
 special pride and care. 
 
 This is an oblong rug of sheepskin, loosely slung be- 
 hind by a band of braid passing obliquely across the 
 bosom, and ornamented at the edges of the fleece by a 
 broad border of particoloured patchwork. It serves as 
 shawl, wrapper, and bedding, as occasion requires ; and 
 it is always worn out of doors as a protection for the 
 back against the cold winds of the country. 
 
 But the head-dress is the most peculiar object of attrac- 
 tion amongst the strange fashions of the Bhotmo toilette. 
 The hair, parted in the centre of the forehead, is plaited 
 over the crown into two broad fillets, which are prolonged 
 as lappets hanging down the back by means of braided 
 wool adjuncts. The two fillets are united along the 
 middle line by a mixed row of couries, bits of red coral, 
 agate, turquoise, malachite, and gold coins, according to 
 the means of the wearer. These ornaments are some- 
 times seen studding the fillet so closely as to conceal the 
 hair, and form a sort of plated shield to the head. 
 Amongst the wealthy they are of finer quality, and look 
 well, but as commonly seen they form a repulsive-look- 
 ing medley suggestive of torment to the wearer ; for, 
 when once made up, they are seldom undone for months 
 together, or may be years. 
 
 The side tresses are arranged in puffs over each ear, 
 and kept in form by a patch of black fleece and braid, 
 which covers the ears and temples, and looks somewhat 
 like the blinkers of a coach horse ; and hanging from 
 the ears below their edges are strings of large beads of 
 glass, or coral, or turquoise, &c. 
 
 I 
 
130 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Besides these the Bhot woman wears a necklace of 
 similar ornaments, and large wristlets of a single bit of 
 white conch, and in addition a chatelaine which hangs 
 from her girdle and is loaded with white bosses of conch, 
 or strung with couries, and beads of agate and turquoise ; 
 all conspicuous by their swinging against the dark ground 
 of her frock. 
 
 And yet, as if not already sufficiently decorated to 
 the taste of their partner lords, the comely ones, or those 
 who consider themselves so, add to the charms of their 
 personal adornment the improvement of the complexion 
 by the process called shogholo. This consists of smear- 
 ing the cheeks and forehead with the juice and seeds of 
 the ripe berry of the belladona plant which grows here 
 as a weed amongst the cultivation. Much pains are 
 bestowed with the aid of a little hand mirror and pencil 
 of wood in arranging the bright yellow seeds effectively, 
 and the result is that the face appears sprinkled with 
 grains of gold, and sparkles with a/ rich brightness which 
 could only please the Bhot accustomed to nothing more 
 varied than the monotonous shades of slate and granite 
 rocks. 
 
 At Nimmo, the Indus receives a considerable tributary 
 from the Zanskar valley, which lies to the south of some 
 snow-topped mountains bounding the valley on the op- 
 posite side. In the angle of junction is a wild waste of 
 gravel and conglomerate, the heat radiated from which 
 in summer is said to render Nimmo a very hot residence 
 during that season ; whilst in winter the cold is so severe 
 that the river is crossed on the ice. 
 
 It is to the effect probably of these combined causes 
 the clear rays of a powerful sun, and the bright glare 
 from wide -spread snow, both acting in an unusually dry 
 and rarefied atmosphere that the Bhot, I mean the 
 
ARRIVE A T LEH. 1 3 1 
 
 common Bhot who is exposed to the weather, owes his 
 peculiar complexion. It is not the clear dark colour of 
 the people of India, however varied its shades from the 
 ruddy glow of the Afghan to the olive hue of the Hindu, 
 or from the sallow tinge of the hill- tribes to the black 
 skin of the outcast races of the peninsula. Nor is it 
 the light colour of the people of Tartary, with its lesser 
 range in variety from the dingy yellow of the Chinese 
 settlers to the pink and pale of the Andijani conquerors. 
 
 It is a dusky, muddy brown of very much the same 
 colour as the mountain region he inhabits ; so much so, 
 that he is often not distinguishable from the ground, un- 
 less his movements attract attention. Many times on 
 the march I was struck by this fact on suddenly coming 
 upon little groups of coolies seated on the road side, 
 whom I did not distinguish from the rocks and soil 
 around till close upon them ; and this not only in the 
 deep denies of the Indus tributaries, but also on the 
 wide plateaux of the Caracoram range.. 
 
 The chiefs, and priests, and women of the wealthier 
 classes have much the same sort of turbid yellowish- 
 brown complexion, though in them it is less pronounced 
 than in the poorer classes. Amongst these it is shown 
 in full force by the poor peasant women who perform 
 the labours of agriculture, &c. ; and they are the most 
 hideous and repulsive creatures I have anywhere seen. 
 
 From Nimmo we marched to Leh nineteen miles 
 and halted eight days to complete arrangements for the 
 passage of the Caracoram. Our route led along the skirt 
 of some granite hills over an undulating gravelly tract 
 which gradually widens into the Ladakh basin or valley. 
 
 At about half-way we descended to the river channel. 
 It here presents a wide bed through which the Indus 
 winds its way amidst patches of cultivation and pasture. 
 
132 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 On the left of the road, under the granite rocks, is a 
 succession of lacustrine banks of fine clay which slope 
 down to the basin in four or five steps. They end on a 
 narrow pass in the rocks below the Phitok GOD pa. This 
 is a Lammasary which looks over the valley from the 
 summit of a high rock on the river bank, and to the 
 right of our path. 
 
 As we rode past the Lammas appeared on the terraces 
 of their elevated abode, and gave us their benediction in 
 full band. From this we set our faces up the long 
 gravelly slope at the top of which stands Leh piled up 
 the hill sides in the fashion of the country. The valley 
 is a deep circular basin crossed midway by the Indus, 
 along whose course are several villages and much cul- 
 tivation. For the rest the land slopes steeply from both 
 sides to the river, and presents a wide surface of gravel 
 and stone, for the most part waste. At the foot of the 
 hills to the south are the villages of Stok -and Matha 
 with their orchards and fields ; and at the foot of those 
 on the north are the town and fort and suburbs of Leh, 
 the capital of the country. 
 
 On the outskirts of the town the envoy was welcomed 
 by a deputation of the principal merchants of the place, 
 and his arrival was announced by a salute of fifteen guns 
 from the fort, whilst a company of its garrison was 
 paraded on the roadside to receive him with military 
 honours. Further on he was met by Mr Shaw, the 
 British Joint-Commissioner, who conducted him through 
 the town to the Kesidency, in the garden of which our 
 camp was pitched. 
 
 During our stay here, our followers and cattle were 
 equipped with the warm clothing which the foresight of 
 our chief had ordered to be prepared against our arrival. 
 Each man was provided with a coat and cap lined with 
 
WARM CLOTHING FOR THE PASSES. 133 
 
 sheep or lamb's skin, and boots lined with the same fur, or 
 else thick felt. And each of our riding horses and baggage 
 mules was covered with a strong blanket Kned with felt. 
 
 The experience the envoy gained on his former 
 journey to Yarkand was not lost on this occasion, and 
 it was in no small degree that the success of our passage 
 across those inhospitable highlands of the Caracoram 
 was owing to the admirable arrangements made by him. 
 Our followers and cattle were what we depended on to 
 serve and transport us in the time of need, and it was 
 necessary to maintain them in a state of efficiency. Our 
 followers and escort were consequently mounted, and 
 our baggage transported on the carriage provided by the 
 Kashmir authorities as far as the frontier. By this 
 arrangement our men and cattle arrived at the frontier 
 in a state of efficiency to meet contingencies, instead of 
 worn and broken down by the hardships of the worst 
 part of the road. And the wisdom of these precautions 
 was exemplified by our first experiences beyond the 
 Kashmir territory. 
 
 Our stay at Leh was enlivened by an excursion to the 
 southern side of the valley to visit the Hemis Gonpa, 
 eighteen miles, distant on the hills to the south of the 
 river, and to have a day's shooting on the hills beyond 
 Stok. Colonel Gordon, Captain Chapma^, and I set 
 out together for the monastery, which is the largest and 
 wealthiest in the country. It is situated at the top of a 
 singularly wild and solitary glen, frowned on at every 
 turn in its winding course by some overhanging bluff of 
 sombre conglomerate or gneiss. The silence here as we 
 followed the steep path, looking for the first glimpses of 
 the now familiar signs of the Lamma's retreat, was 
 oppressive ; and it was not till we had come in full view 
 of its white walls, shining against the dark ground of 
 
134 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the towering masses of rock behind, that our ears were 
 greeted by the melancholy music which floated on the 
 air from their lofty terraces. 
 
 The view of the monastery from below is wonderfully 
 picturesque, and altogether unique of its kind. The 
 white walls with their dark squares of window and 
 door, and thick red lines of coping, from which project 
 here and there poles topped with the bushy yak's tail, 
 spread over the cliffs tier above tier and, with great 
 masses of bare rock protruding amongst them, appear 
 isolated in the very crowd of their assemblage. 
 
 The vast rocks in their front and rear meet at a deep 
 narrow gorge beyond them in a mass of sombre shades 
 quite appalling in the grave monotony and naked- 
 ness of their forms a monotony and nakedness alto- 
 gether unrelieved by the deep down strips of poplar 
 and willow plantations that stand on the banks of the 
 little rill they conceal by their thick growth. 
 
 The buildings of this monastery cover a considerable 
 surface and form a small town. In many respects the 
 architecture, even to that of the out-offices, resembles 
 what is still traceable in the Budhist ruins of Yusufzai, 
 particularly in those known as Takhti Bahi. In these 
 ruins, with the exception of those near Babozai, there 
 are no traces to show how the houses were roofed ; but, 
 from the resemblance of the structure of their walls, 
 staircases, chambers, &c., to what is now seen in the 
 monasteries of this country, it is probable they too were 
 of similar construction, particularly since the two locali- 
 ties are equally poor in timber trees. 
 
 In the exception above noted, I saw in 1865 a 
 chamber covered by a self-supporting roof in perfect 
 order, and composed entirely of square tiles with bevel- 
 led edges, the pressure of which against each other kept 
 
A DAY AT HEM1S GONPA. 135 
 
 them from falling. This was evident in spots where 
 the plaster had fallen off in the roof itself, but was more 
 plainly seen by the relics of the broken roofs of adjoin- 
 ing chambers. 
 
 Here the roofs are flat, and supported on rafters laid 
 *with lath and brushwood and earth. And they have 
 a parapet coping of one to two feet thick, formed of 
 brushwood fascicles cut straight across, and laid with 
 the ends thus trimmed projecting six or ten inches 
 beyond the wall. These ends look much like those of a 
 bundle of lead pencils in arrangement, and are usually 
 stained with red ochre or similar colour. 
 
 The Hemis Gonpa is said to contain 800 monks and 
 nuns. We saw nothing like that population in the 
 place, though the accommodation is sufficient for a much 
 larger number. We were informed that snow lies here 
 for nearly three months every year, and that for five the 
 people are shut up in their cells owing to the cold. 
 Stores of grain, and flesh, and fuel, &c. are laid up in 
 autumn, and amongst other supplies 500 sheep are 
 slaughtered, and the flesh dried for the winter use of this 
 monastery alone. 
 
 Our guides led us through the principal parts of the 
 monastery, and from one block of houses to another, 
 through narrow passages and up flights of steps, with the 
 prayer- wheel meeting us at every turn. Here we found 
 it spinning on the hand of a sedate Lamma, squatted 
 solemn and silent in some solitary corner. Further on 
 it was revolving under a thin jet of water, and elsewhere 
 it was fixed in niches of the walls for the passer-by to 
 turn as he went past, or it was stuck on some pinnacle 
 for its wings to catch the moving breeze, and record so 
 many more prayers of praise to the Almighty. At length 
 we were conducted to a court in which a company of Lam- 
 
136 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 mas presently entertained us with a pantomime perfor- 
 mance, the subject of which none of us understood. It 
 was a very grotesque spectacle in imitation, we were 
 told, of Chinese devil dances. The designs on the rich 
 silken robes of -the monks were evidently from the 
 Celestial Empire. Most of the masks represented the 
 heads of wild animals, and there were some of ogres and 
 demons. These last, however, were the devices most 
 common on the embroidery of the robes worn by the 
 actors. There were some twenty or thirty of them alto- 
 gether, some of whom had been assembled here for the 
 occasion from the monasteries of Tiksi, Math a, and Stok. 
 
 Their performance consisted of a wild sort of dance 
 round a flag staff in the centre of the court of the 
 principal temple ; and we witnessed it from the roof of 
 a verandah facing a flight of steps at the entrance of 
 the temple. The actors issued from the hall of the 
 temple, headed by two portly Lammas in gorgeous silk 
 robes (their appearance reminded one of the knave of 
 cards), who took up a position opposite the musicians 
 beforehand seated in the verandah below us whilst the 
 rest, a troop of goblins, griffins, stags, boars, tigers, &c., 
 &c., running down the steps, ranged themselves in a 
 circle round the flagstaff, from which floated streamers of 
 different colours. 
 
 The musicians now commenced some very lively and 
 discordant music, and the dancers, at once set in motion, 
 began to caper, and whirl, and fling their limbs about, 
 the whole circle the while keeping its form and revolv- 
 ing round the centre pole. The bright colours of the 
 loose mantles, covered with monstrous figures of flying 
 dragons all eyes and teeth, of skulls and bones, of 
 forked-tongue griffins, &c., with the huge masks of ogres 
 and wild beasts all mixed together in a wild commotion, 
 
INTERIOR OF BUDHIST TEMPLE. 137 
 
 formed an absurd melange, and with the noise of drums 
 and trumpets, produced a perfect pandemonium, to the 
 tumult of which the actors contributed by now and 
 again joining in a chorus of unintelligible sounds. The 
 performance concluded suddenly by the 'flight of the 
 company up the steps down which they had come, back 
 to the great hall of the temple from which they had 
 emerged. 
 
 We presently followed them into their " sanctum," 
 and were shown its mysteries, which were hidden behind 
 hangings of richly embroidered silk. There were three 
 principal halls hung with these screens, and each con- 
 tained a number of deities, before whom were burning 
 little wicks set in butter, just as we saw at Lammayuru. 
 Some of the walls were piled with bundles of books on 
 which the dust lay thick in reproof of their neglect; and 
 others were covered with a multitude of paintings, often 
 the representation of the same individual. 
 
 Amongst the number I recognised several from their 
 resemblance to the sculptures excavated at Takhti Bahi, 
 and elsewhere in Yusufzai. Particularly one supposed 
 to represent Budh. It had a smooth face with a 
 placid expression, and the head, the hair of which was 
 gathered in a top -knot at the crown, was backed by a 
 glory circle. The figure was seated cross-legged. An- 
 other was the portrait of some ancient king, whose head 
 was adorned with a tiara of jewels of exactly the same 
 pattern as those seen on some of the sculptures above 
 mentioned. 
 
 Various animals and birds were also represented on 
 the walls and hangings, and amongst them I recognised 
 the sacred stork and the ostrich, though how this last 
 came amongst them is not very intelligible. In these 
 paintings I saw none of those historical tablets or domestic 
 
138 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 scenes so common amongst the ancient sculptures, nor 
 the variety of race type that is traceable amongst them ; 
 and was altogether disappointed in the architecture and 
 fittings of the temple, as well as in the character of the 
 art displayed within its walls. 
 
 During the years from 1861 to 1866, when with the 
 Corps of Guides at Murdan, I excavated several of the 
 Budhist ruins in the neighbouring parts of Yusufzai, 
 and collected some hundreds of sculptures which, prior 
 to my departure, were sent to the museums at Lahore 
 and Peshawar. They represent a great variety of sub- 
 jects, and several distinct races, and in an artistic point 
 of view are of very different degrees of merit, as if the 
 work of different periods. Amongst these sculptures 
 were many which are supposed to represent remarkable 
 events in the life of Budh, much after the same fashion 
 that we picture those in the life of Christ. But I saw 
 nothing here, either in the form of sculpture or paint- 
 ing, that bore any resemblance to these, though in the 
 fifth century, when Fa Hian journeyed this way, 
 Ladakh, in common with Yusufzai, was a flourishing 
 seat of Budhism. 
 
 The high art, showing the cultivated talent of Greece, 
 which is in Yusufzai illustrated in such varied forms, is 
 nowhere traceable in this country amongst those charged 
 with the special protection of Budhism, even if it ever 
 did exist here in past times to the same degree of ad- 
 vancement as it did there, which, considering the nature 
 of the country, and its sparse population, is not very 
 probable. 
 
 Besides, from what is known of the history of the 
 country imperfect as it is it would appear to have 
 escaped those assaults of Islam which, in the tenth and 
 eleventh centuries, laid waste the more accessible 
 
DECAYED STATE OF BUDHISM. 139 
 
 regions around it, with a destructive fury the traces of 
 which are still seen in the ruins that cover their surface. 
 
 Daring the ascendancy of the Mughal Empire, this 
 country appears to have enjoyed undisturbed, under the 
 tolerance characteristic of that rule, the possession of its 
 ancient faith. And in the anarchy which, during the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, dismembered the 
 Chaghtay kingdom, of which it formed a part, it would 
 appear to have remained more or less isolated in the 
 preservation of its own laws and institutions. For 
 the restoration of Islam, on the reconstruction of the 
 Chaghtay kingdom by Toghluc Tymur in the middle of 
 the fourteenth century, did not advance beyond its 
 former limit at Khutan ; whilst the succeeding absorp- 
 tion of his kingdom into the empire raised by his 
 cotemporary and survivor, the Amir Tymur Lang or 
 Tamarlane, in the last quarter of the same century, 
 effected no more in Tibat than did the rule of his pre- 
 decessor in Mugholistan. 
 
 The death of Tamarlane was again the signal for in- 
 ternal dissensions, and, in the revolutions attending the 
 partition of his empire, Kashghar rose into an independent 
 kingdom as the heritage of the Mughal Khans, descend- 
 ants through Toghluc Tymur of the Chaghtay sove- 
 reigns. Their rule, however, was so disordered and 
 weak, through internal discords and contentions as much 
 as through the political influences of the Tymuride 
 government in the adjoining regions to the west, that it 
 soon fell into the hands of a powerful family of the Dogh- 
 lat tribe, which, since the time of Changiz, had enjoyed 
 certain ranks and privileges as military governors of the 
 several divisions of the Kashghar state. And finally, the 
 government was usurped, in the last quarter of the 
 fifteenth century (1479), by Mirza Ababakar, a descend- 
 
140 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ant of the hereditary Amirs Khudadad and Camaruddin, 
 who figured so prominently in the history of the country 
 under the dynasty of the Mughal Khans. 
 
 He commenced his career as independent ruler of 
 Kashghar by the conquest of Khutan, and made some 
 unsuccessful attempts to subjugate Tibat (which, under 
 native chiefs, had maintained its freedom since the dis- 
 solution of the Chaghtay empire), his incursions being 
 always repelled at the Nubra frontier. His successor, 
 however, in whom the government, in 1513 A.B., was 
 restored to the line of the Mughal Khans, signalised the 
 close of his reign by that invasion of Ladakh which I 
 have before mentioned. It is the first record we have 
 of any attempt to plant Islam on this Bud hist soil, and 
 its disastrous results were repeated on a smaller scale in 
 the beginning of the next century when Mir Ali, the 
 Musalman chief of Baltistan, took Leh, and destroyed 
 the monasteries all over the country. 
 
 He was obliged to retrace his steps to Skardo, his 
 capital, and restore Jamya Namgyal, the native chief 
 whom he had taken prisoner, to the government of his 
 own country. And he immediately restored the ancient 
 religion, and left those memorials of his zeal for the faith 
 which we see in the existing rock-inscribed figures of 
 Chamba which I have already mentioned, and dated on 
 the authority of Cunningham's history of this country. 
 
 We have no other record of Islamite invasion of this 
 country, though it has, since the time of Mir Ali, been 
 traversed by the armies of Musalman allies. When, 
 in 1678, Khoja Afac usurped the government of Kash- 
 ghar from the descendants of Sultan Said Khan, in 
 whom the rule of the Mughal Khans was restored, and 
 sought the aid of the Calmac chief to support him 
 against his opponents, the Ghaldan of Zunghar, coming 
 
MUGHAL INVADERS OF TIB AT. 141 
 
 in answer to this appeal with an army of his Budhist 
 Calmacs, seized the country for himself. And when 
 some years later, in 1685, the members of the Khoja 
 family rebelling were driven out of the country, and 
 some of them fled to Kashmir through Tibat, a force of 
 Zimghar troops called Sarigh or Saigh (Yellow) Calmac 
 in distinction, to the Cara (Black) Calmac of Tibat 
 was sent in pursuit of them to Leh, which they took 
 possession of, the Gyalpo or chief of Ladakh tendering 
 allegiance to the Mughal sovereign in India sought aid 
 of Aurangzeb's governor of Kashmir to expel them. He 
 sent an army of 6000 Musalmans to drive the invaders 
 from the country, which they did, and returned to 
 Kashmir the following season. The Saigh Calmac or 
 Soghpo, as the Bhots call them, however again invaded 
 the country to avenge the conduct of their recalcitrant 
 brethren, and after plundering Leh retired, on the cession 
 of some territory which gave them the country of 
 Eudok. 
 
 After this Ladakh remained in the hands of native 
 rulers till 1720, when it was again invaded by Mir 
 Murad of Skardo who annexed it to his principality of 
 Baltistan ; and it so remained for thirty years. His 
 conquest appears to have been dictated by purely worldly 
 motives, and was free from the religious promptings of 
 Islamite ambition, and the Budhist religion continued 
 to linger in its old home in despite of its neglect under 
 the new regime. And when the rule returned to the 
 Gyalpo or chief of Ladakh, soon afterwards a recognised 
 tributary of Kashmir, it made no effort to revive from 
 the state of decay to which it had fallen, but seems to 
 have continued much in the degraded form we find it 
 under the Hindu government of Kashmir, to which it 
 was finally annexed in 1834. 
 
142 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 From the monastery of Hemis which has insensibly 
 led me off into this historical digression we returned 
 to near Changa on the road to Leh, and there turning 
 off to the left followed a rough ^stony tract at the foot of 
 the hills for six or eight miles up to Matha, where we 
 arrived at dusk just twelve hours after we set out 
 and joined the camp of the envoy. 
 
 Next morning I accompanied Captain Chapman, and 
 the camp sergeant, on an excursion after some wild sheep, 
 of the kind here called Shapti, which had been marked 
 down on the hills to the south of Matha and Stok. We 
 set out at 6 A.M., and turning up a glen above the vil- 
 lage followed up a more or less frozen stream trickling 
 down its winding channel for some ten miles or so, and 
 then rose up to a high moorland which formed a basin 
 in the hills. The greater part of the glen was thickly 
 wooded with willow, poplar, and tamarisk trees, amidst 
 which grew the rose and the currant, whilst the moor- 
 land, which rose up in long slopes to the snow, was 
 covered with tufts of artemisia and a caryophyllous 
 plant here called burtsi. We found some cattle and 
 sheep grazing here, and in the centre of the plateau, near 
 a deep ravine, came upon some shepherds' huts where 
 a horribly ugly and dirty old Tatar gave us a drink of 
 sour milk out of a wooden bowl which was as unwashed 
 as himself. 
 
 Our party had dispersed in the glen up various gullies 
 in quest of game, and we all met a little beyond these 
 huts. On comparing notes we found we were equally 
 empty handed thus far, and set out on our way across 
 the moor towards a pass in the hills closing it on the 
 opposite side. When near the top of the rise we came 
 upon a herd of thirty or forty wild sheep, which, watching 
 our detour in different directions to stalk them, set off in a 
 
A DAY AFTER WILD SHEEP. 143 
 
 stampede down the slopes, and away to the opposite side 
 of a deep gully, only one of their number falling to the 
 steady aim of the sergeant. As the day was now well 
 advanced, we continued our way to camp down a long 
 winding defile, without a stick of vegetation along its 
 stream or elsewhere, and at 6 P.M. joined the envoy's 
 camp at Stok. 
 
 In our ramblings we came upon the snow pheasant, or 
 rdmchaJcar of the Kashmiris, and the blue pigeon of 
 these mountains. We returned to Leh next day after 
 beating up a willow plantation near Stok, and making 
 a poor bag of the blue hare of this, country. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 OUR arrangements at Leh being completed, and intima- 
 tion of the Sayyid Ya'cub Khan's departure from 
 Murree with the staff of Turkish officers he had brought 
 with him on return from Constantinople having been 
 received, the Embassy set out from Leh in pursuit of 
 its route on the 29th September. Our first march was 
 seven miles to the huts, called polu, at the foot of the 
 ascent to the Khardong pass which overlooks Leh from 
 the north. At about half-way the road passes beyond 
 the terraced fields of Shankar Gonpa and the hamlet of 
 Ginglis, and leads across two ancient glacier beds, and the 
 moraines marking their sides and angle of junction, up to 
 a winding gully the top of which is occupied by a small 
 glacier mass. 
 
 We camped in this gully at the foot of the pass. 
 Its elevation is about 14,900 feet, or 3400 feet above 
 Leh. The view across the valley at the Kanari range, 
 which separates Zanskar from Ladakh, is very fine, and 
 presents an extent of snowy scenery which we nowhere 
 saw to such advantage on our farther route. At this 
 place we got a mild foretaste of the cold that was in 
 store for us, for during the night the thermometer fell 
 to 15 F., whilst a cutting south wind swept over the 
 camp with a penetrating force, such as we fortunately did 
 not experience on more exposed situations. 
 
 In the morning we made the ascent of the pass, and 
 going down a long slope on its other side, camped on the 
 
ASCENT OF KHARDONG PASS. 145 
 
 gravelly fields of the Khardong village, distance fifteen 
 miles. This pass, like that of Diggar on the same range 
 farther round to the east of Leh, is very steep and difficult, 
 and upwards of 1 7,000 feet high. I stopped nearly half an 
 hour at the crest of the pass to observe the indications of 
 the instruments I had with me. A strong cold wind was 
 blowing at the time, and though we were under the lee 
 of a rock, and raised low walls of snow round them, it 
 was not easy to protect the instruments from circling 
 eddies of cold air. I found the same difficulty at all the 
 high passes, and, unless the operation is conducted with 
 the greatest care, am inclined to trust more to the indi- 
 cation of a good aneroid than to those of a hastily set up 
 barometer, or the results shown by the hypsometer. 
 Under these conditions, it is always difficult to keep the 
 tube of the barometer steady, and one seldom has leisure 
 to wait long enough to allow the mercury to recover 
 from the vibrations thus communicated to it. Whilst 
 with the hypsometer the tube itself immediately above 
 the boiler is so chilled by the cold air, that the steam 
 .which blows from it not only does not properly heat it 
 but itself gets chilled, as well as the mercury it raises in 
 that part of the tube of the thermometer which is exposed 
 to the air for the purpose of reading the boiling point ; 
 and hence it is that the mercury is seen to range up and 
 down five or six-tenths of a degree before it gives a 
 steady reading. These and other effects of a varying 
 atmospheric influence account for the difference in the 
 observations recorded by different individuals at the 
 same spot, and even by the same individuals at different 
 times. 
 
 At the Khardong Pass the barometer stood at 15*464, 
 the aneroid at 15'58, and the hypsometer at 181*4 F., 
 with the temperature of the air at 28 F. The Khar- 
 
 K 
 
146 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 dong range runs from north-west to south-east, and 
 separates the valley of Ladakh from that of the Shayok 
 river. It is composed of gneiss and granite, the debris 
 of which obstructs the path on both its sides with sharp 
 angular rocks. 
 
 The ascent being too steep and high for our cattle, 
 their loads were transferred to yaks called by the 
 Bhots dong of which hardy creatures some four hun- 
 dred or so had been provided for the purpose. We our- 
 selves also made the passage on the backs of these 
 useful but ungainly brutes, whilst our camp followers 
 were mostly borne over upon their riding ponies.; 
 
 The dong is a steady and sure animal at these great 
 heights, notwithstanding the pranks some of them are 
 apt to play upon the stranger. He is led by a rope 
 attached to a wood ring which passes through the 
 division of the nostrils, and moves with a slow, easy, 
 riggling sort of gait, rising or descending over obstruc- 
 tions with very little jar. They pant distressingly, and 
 grunt unpleasantly much, even making allowance for all 
 they may be entitled to say. They stop to take breath 
 repeatedly, and each time munch the snow, if they don't 
 also dash off to one side for a roll in it. 
 
 The descent of the pass on the further side was very 
 steep and difficult, across the slippery surface of a small 
 glacier, down to a pool at the foot of the drop. Many of 
 our followers were affected by the elevation with head- 
 ache, nausea, and giddiness, so that several tumbled off 
 their ponies and grazed their cheeks and hands upon the 
 rocks and ice. 
 
 At the pool we mounted our horses and passed down 
 a gently sloping gully to some polu huts on a small 
 turfy flat. We alighted here for breakfast whilst the 
 baggage passed on, and were the while assailed by the 
 
MARCH IN A FALL OF SNO W. 147 
 
 shrill calls of the marmot protesting against our intrusion, 
 or perhaps that of the yaks which had been here let loose 
 to graze. I observed that these strange animals the yaks 
 instead of eating the rich peat turf in the bottom of 
 the gully, spread themselves over its rocky slopes to 
 nibble the stunted herbage growing along the snow line. 
 
 Continuing our route down the slope, we passed 
 tributary gullies on the right and left, with their upper 
 parts blocked with glaciers, and, descending a moraine 
 bank, came upon the mane and chJiorten which an- 
 nounced our approach to camp, which we presently 
 reached at 4 P.M. The baggage did not all come in till 
 two hours later, having been eleven hours on the road. 
 Much to the credit of Mr Johnson and his Bhot 
 assistants the march, which is one of no ordinary diffi- 
 culty, was got over without accident or delay. 
 
 The sky had been overcast and menacing all day, 
 but towards sunset cleared somewhat, and the moon and 
 stars shone climly as we went to bed. In the morning, 
 however, we aAvoke to find the ground covered with two 
 or three inches of snow, and our camp obscured in a 
 fog. Our departure was delayed till nearly nine o'clock, 
 when we set out in a thick fall of snow. Our route led 
 north-east down the slope of the high beach on which 
 Khardong stands into the boulder bed of its river, where 
 we passed out of the snow. 
 
 The stream flows between high banks of gravel and 
 conglomerate, which rest on rocks of gneiss and mica 
 slate. They are fissured by deep gullies which, to- 
 wards the river, present long slopes of loose debris. 
 The moisture at the top had overweighted this, and 
 loose stones were continually rolling down across our 
 path, and kept us on the alert to avoid them. Our 
 coolies showed the greatest alarm, and hurried along 
 
148 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 under the shelter of bushes and rocks as fast as they could. 
 A whole shower of these rolling stones shot over my head 
 whilst passing under a ledge of rock. The coolies about 
 us immediately crouched into the shelter of the bank, 
 and I reined up with them, and then followed them in 
 the scamper across the open bit of ground ahead. I 
 heard of no accident to any of our party from these 
 dangerous self-propelled missiles. At about four miles 
 from camp the rivulet passes through a narrow gap be- 
 tween perpendicular cliffs of a light-coloured crystalline 
 limestone, and beyond it widens into the bed of the 
 Shayok river. 
 
 Its course is thickly set with a brushwood of myri- 
 caria, and tamarisk, and rose, and buckthorn, and is 
 crossed three or four times on little rustic bridges propped 
 on piles of turf and boulder. We crossed the Shayok 
 on horseback, with the water well up the saddle-flaps, 
 and then stood to see our little army of followers come 
 over with the baggage. The passage was effected by all 
 in a crowd together very expeditiously, and without 
 accident, though the stream was fully eighty yards 
 across. We then went down the bank a little way and 
 camped at Satti distance seven miles. 
 
 Next day we made a short stage of seven miles down 
 the valley to Tint, a few miles beyond which the Nubra 
 valley joins that of the Shayok opposite the villages of 
 Diskit and Hundar. The valley is an open river channel 
 between bare hills of schist and granite and gneiss. 
 The river flows in a broad stream upon a broader bed of 
 pebbles and boulders, and is flanked by an interrupted 
 strip of alluvium on either bank. The alluvium is 
 covered with small jungle patches of buckthorn, and 
 tamarisk, and myricaria, interspersed amidst the culti- 
 vated fields of the little hamlets which here and there 
 
THE NUBRA VALLEY. 149 
 
 enliven the scene and complete the picture of its pros- 
 perity. 
 
 From Tirit we marched to Tagar, seven miles. At 
 half way we left the Shayok, and went up the course of 
 the Nubra river to Tagar, where we camped under the 
 shade of some large trees near the village. Amongst 
 the more common apricot, willow and poplar, I recog- 
 nised the elm and the elseagnus. The river runs in 
 divided streams over a wide bed of shingle and sand, on 
 which are island patches of buckthorn and myricaria 
 brushwood. The aspect of the valley is much the same 
 as that of the Shayok in this part of its course ; but the 
 opposite bank to that on which our route lies slopes 
 steeply to the river, and is scored with a water-line 
 which marks a flood of the Shayok in 1859. 
 
 We passed two or three little villages " en route " with 
 a good deal of cultivation about them. The outskirts 
 of the village lands are marked by numerous latoli to 
 warn off intrusion by evil spirits. The latoh is a round 
 pillar four or five feet high, and is usually built up of 
 mud and stone on some commanding eminence or rock. 
 On its top is fixed a thick bundle of twigs from which 
 stand up long poles, to the tops of which are tied whisps 
 of yak-tail; whilst the faggot of twigs itself is stuck 
 about with the horns of the wild sheep. 
 
 The principal crop grown here is barley of the husk- 
 less variety, called grim or nas. It is the staple diet of 
 the Bhot, and much in demand by caravans journeying 
 this way. For their benefit also the lucerne is grown in 
 hedged-about plots, and let out at so much a head for 
 cattle let in to graze. The meal of the roasted barley 
 called sattu in India and snomphe here is, with the 
 solatia of tea and tobacco, the only food of the Bhot on 
 the tramp. For a long march he fills a wallet of kid- 
 
150 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 skin with it, and slinging it across his Lack sets out per- 
 fectly independent of inn or hotel. When hungry he 
 sits down at the edge of the first rill he comes to, and 
 filling the koray or " wooden bowl " with the flour, adds 
 a little water, and with a very dexterous use of his 
 fingers mixes it into dough, without ever the loss of a 
 grain of the precious meal, which he next manipulates 
 into morsels, and eats with a relish and satisfaction 
 quite reproachful to more dainty mortals. The fondness 
 of the Bhot for this simple food is as great as his attach- 
 ment to the koray (which is veritably his constant bosom 
 companion, for it is never out of his fob, but when in 
 use as a drinking bowl, or dough trough, or porridge 
 pan), and even in these populous parts he makes it the 
 chief constituent of the more varied fare the homesteads 
 furnish. 
 
 At this place our camp was overtaken by Mulla Artoc, 
 a messenger of Sayyid Ya'cub Khan to his master at 
 Kashghar, to warn him of his return with the embassy. 
 This man left Constantinople on the 14th August, and 
 after a few days' stay in Egypt landed at Bombay, 
 whence he travelled by rail to Lahore, and thence by 
 horse to this, where he arrived this afternoon the 3d 
 October. He went on next day towards Kashghar, 
 whence after some days he was sent back by Atalik 
 Ghazi as the bearer of letters of welcome to the envoy, 
 and his own kinsman the Sayyid, and met us at Sanju 
 on the last day of October. 
 
 From Tagar we marched to Panamik, twelve miles, 
 and halted there the 5th of October. In about an hour 
 we came abreast of Churasa on the opposite side of the 
 river. It is the residence of the former chiefs of the 
 Nubra district, and has a small palace, fort, and monas- 
 tery ; all very picturesquely perched on some rocks pro- 
 
HOT SPRINGS AT PANAMIK. 151 
 
 jecting towards the river from the range of hills behind, 
 and conspicuous objects on the landscape their white 
 walls shining brightly above the green spread of vegeta- 
 tion below and against the bare rocks of the back- 
 ground. 
 
 Further on the road crosses a turfy hollow, white with 
 soda efflorescence. We were informed that 3000 maunds 
 of this salt had been collected here this season for the 
 Kashmir market. It is used by the Tibatans to improve 
 the colour and draw out the flavour of their tea. Copper 
 is found in several spots of this and the Shayok valleys. 
 The ore is worked in the vicinity of Churasa, and there 
 affords employment to a dozen families or so. I was 
 shown some specimens of the ore found in the Shayok 
 valley. It contained some nuggets of the kind called 
 " peacock ore," mixed up with crude sulphate of copper. 
 
 Beyond this little soda plain, and about a mile short 
 of Panamik, we came to some hot springs at the foot of 
 the hill on the right of the road. They issue on the 
 surface at several spots on the slope of a high bank of 
 gravel and grit the debris of the gneiss rocks above 
 which here rests upon the base of the hill, and are 
 divided into two groups by a ridge of the same debris 
 some eighty yards across. They steam where they issue 
 on the surface, and trickle in thready lines down the 
 slope, depositing a white encrustation of sulphate of lime 
 which has a decidedly tart taste. On some of the 
 pebbles at the points of issue I found a deposit of sul- 
 phur. I took the temperature of the largest stream at 
 different points, and found it 155 '5 F. at a little pool 
 at the point of issue, 146 F. at 8 paces off, 124 F. at 
 20 paces, and 90 F. at 70 paces. Another stream close 
 by was 167 F. at the spring-head. All the little 
 streams of the group to the west are conducted by a 
 
iS2 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 single channel, 14 inches wide and 3 inches deep, into a 
 couple of tanks which are enclosed by walls divided into 
 two bathing compartments ; whilst adjoining is a small 
 hut used as a shelter by the bathers. 
 
 These baths are much resorted to by the natives and 
 by travellers from Yarkand, and are said to be very effi- 
 cacious in the cure of chronic rheumatism and syphilis. 
 There is a similar set of springs in the hill-side at Chang- 
 lung, the next stage from this. I found the tempera- 
 ture of three of the upper springs to be respectively, 
 140 R, 172 R, and 174 R, at the point of issue, and 
 of three of the lower ones, 163 R, 169 R, and 170 F. 
 One of the upper springs issued in a small pool under 
 the lee of a great block of gneiss imbedded in the sur- 
 rounding grit and debris. The pebbles in the pool were 
 yellow with a coating of sulphur, as was the calcareous 
 deposit on its sides, and a deep subterranean rumbling 
 was heard repeatedly as of the explosion of pent-up air. 
 There was a bathing hut here also as at the Panamik 
 springs. 
 
 During our halt at Panamik our yaks and cattle were 
 changed for fresh ones, which had been collected here 
 for us, and then we went on twelve miles to Changlung, 
 a poor hamlet of eight or ten houses scattered amidst a 
 little oasis of leafless trees and patches of stubble the 
 ultima thule of habitation in this direction. It is a 
 wretched little place at the foot of the Carawal Dawan, 
 and stands isolated in the midst of a long strip of gravel 
 and sand with nothing but bare rocks around. In its 
 winternakedness and solitude it represents to the traveller 
 a foretaste of what lies ahead, and interposes mercifully 
 as a link between the haunts of man and the regions of 
 blank desolation beyond. And well do I recollect the 
 joyful satisfaction with which on our return journey we 
 
THE CARAWAL DA WAN. 153 
 
 looked down on this very spot from the crest of the hill 
 above. Its humble cabins were concealed by a summer 
 foliage, and set around with a bright carpet of young 
 crops which to our eyes, wearied by the endless wastes 
 of the plateaux we had traversed, seemed a perfect para- 
 dise, and we welcomed the sight as a meet emblem of the 
 civilisation we had regained. 
 
 We marched from Changlung on the 7th of October, 
 and camped at Tutyalac twelve miles. The baggage 
 went ahead at 7 A.M., and we followed, after an early 
 breakfast, two hours later. The morning was clear and 
 frosty, and the sky without a cloud. Our path led by 
 a steep zigzag up the face of a high range of granite 
 hills close above the village, and as we set out we saw 
 the crowd of our cattle and followers slowly toiling 
 up the steep like an army of ants. At the foot of the 
 rise we mounted the yaks awaiting us, and under the 
 guidance of their leaders, threaded our way through the 
 long row of their more heavily weighted fellows, and their 
 less sturdy companions in such toil the mules and 
 ponies. At the top of the steep there is a small ledge 
 of flat land, and then another rise to the crest of the 
 pass. 
 
 From this ledge we got a magnificent view of the 
 mountains to the south. The air was extremely clear 
 and light, and the lofty snow peaks, shooting up against 
 a blue sky, stood out with a clearness that revealed 
 more fully the vast extent of the glaciers around them 
 at this distance the glare of their fresh coating of snow 
 glittering harmlessly. 
 
 Beyond the ledge the rise is more gradual up to the 
 Carawal Dawan, or " Outpost Hill." It is the first 
 Turki name we have met, and but an empty memorial 
 of the Yarkand invasion by Sultan Said, the memory of 
 
154 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 which is thus unwittingly perpetuated by the merchants 
 from that country, for the Bhots here, as elsewhere on 
 this route, have their own names for the several localities, 
 and call this spot Hlasgya. But it bears about it other 
 memorials of weightier import than its mere name to 
 those who frequent it nowadays, and which by their 
 silent testimony tell of the suffering and loss of life this 
 inhospitable region claims as its right. The relics that so 
 plentifully strew the surface here are merely a foreshadow- 
 ing of what lines the whole route down to Sanju on the 
 other side of the barrier between Hind and Tartary. 
 
 Around the stage huts on the top of the pass I found 
 skeletons and bones of horses and yaks in every stage of 
 decay, and amongst them some human bones. And on 
 our camp ground at Tutyalac we found amidst the mass 
 of similar relics the bodies of two unknown men too 
 far decayed to distinguish between Bhot and Yarkandi, 
 or Kashmiri and Panjabi. 
 
 I stopped at the crest of the pass to take the eleva- 
 tion, which I found to be about 14,550 feet. Whilst 
 watching the hypsometer my guide called attention to 
 an eagle soaring overhead, and as my rifle it was a 
 Henry Express was close at hand resting against a 
 rock, I raised it for an aim. Just at this moment the 
 eagle turned his eye full on the weapon, and instantly 
 the ball (aimed at his body) went through it. He came 
 down with a tremendous thud, and that was all. 
 
 The meek undemonstrative Bhots about the spot 
 seemed quite unconcerned, and expressed no surprise 
 unless by wonderful prescience they knew it was a lucky 
 hit at a shot which would have sent an Afghan into 
 ecstasies of delight. No ! So great is the difference in 
 their character, that where the Bhot stood still and 
 gaped stupidly, the Afghan would have applauded and 
 
A LUCKY SHOT. 155 
 
 not rested till he had examined the weapon inside and 
 out, and ended by asking me to give it to him. The 
 bird measured 106 inches in the stretch of the wings, 
 and 49 inches from beak to tail tip to tip. 
 
 From the crest of the ridge the path led across a steep 
 slope of loose shifting gravel down to a deep and rocky 
 boulder bed, through which rolled noisily a tributary of 
 the Nubra river, which we had yesterday crossed at its 
 junction with it on the march to Changlung. We now 
 crossed it again by a rickety spar bridge the last of those 
 shaky but welcome aids to the traveller on this route of 
 torrents and rocks, and the final effort in this direction 
 of man to overcome the impediments of nature and 
 passing up the opposite bank, camped on a level flat imme- 
 diately under the glacier from which the torrent issued. 
 
 Tutyalac as the Bhots pronounce the Turdi AyMc or 
 "Enduring Pasture," of the Turki traveller on this route 
 is merely a camp stage on a small turfy moorland in the 
 midst of the wildest of mountains, which in their rugged 
 nakedness foretell the treeless character of the region 
 beyond. The Bhots call the place Pangdongtsa, which, 
 so far as I understand, means the " Pleasure Ground of 
 the Yak," and if so, his tastes assuredly differ from 
 those of most creatures. 
 
 The billowy surface of the glacier was encumbered by 
 a thick coating of rocks and stones impacted in its icy 
 grip, and, as the moon cast its reflected light into this 
 isolated hollow, shone with a silvery lustre, well set off 
 by the dull shades of the encircling rocks, and heightened 
 in effect by the glorious purity of the snowy peaks stand- 
 ing sentinel-like around. 
 
 Our baggage did not all come up till past five o'clock, 
 and as the successive batches of yaks came up, they 
 were relieved of their loads and let loose to wander over 
 
156 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 their "pleasure ground." In the morning when I rose 
 to record the readings of my instruments, the minimum 
 thermometer under the shelter of my tent verandah 
 registered 11 F. I observed the Bhots, lasso in hand, 
 clambering up the hill-slopes after their unruly beasts, 
 and watched them catch one by one by a dexterous 
 throw of the lasso. This was quite enough for the yak. 
 He stood directly the rope struck the horns, and with 
 its end tied to his nose-ring, was led down prisoner for 
 the day's task before him. 
 
 From this we marched to Brangtsa eighteen miles. 
 It is a small collection of stone-wall enclosures to pro- 
 tect the traveller and his cattle from the icy blasts that 
 blow down from the glacier pass above, and looks down 
 upon the broad bed of the Shayok river, which we here 
 come upon again, as it sweeps eastward with that grand 
 bend it makes round the mass of hills we have crossed 
 from Changlung. 
 
 Our baggage began moving out of camp at six A.M., 
 and we followed two hours later. The path wound 
 from north to east and back to north, through a narrow 
 defile bounded by lofty granite mountains, whose peaks 
 were laden with perennial snow, and whose gullies were 
 blocked with glaciers large and small which sloped 
 down on either side of the pass, and presented a scene 
 of wildness and grandeur that is rarely witnessed. 
 
 The uneven surface on either side of our rough path 
 was strewed in the utmost confusion with a profusion of 
 rocks and angular blocks of stone, which were barely 
 concealed by the snow everywhere covering the ground ; 
 whilst the ceaseless din of the streams pouring over 
 them from all sides produced a confusion of sounds which 
 the noise of our coolies and cattle did not drown. 
 
 After two and-a-half hours we came to a small flat 
 
THE GLACIERS OF SASER. 157 
 
 where the defile bulges, and found a camp ground called 
 Sar-thang, where is a pool at this time frozen over. At 
 this spot Mr Johnson had very thoughtfully collected 
 supplies, in case our camp was unable to effect the pass- 
 age of the glacier beyond, and we took advantage of its 
 convenient accommodation to alight for breakfast. Cap- 
 tain Chapman availed himself of the opportunity to pho- 
 tograph the scene, and despite his difficulties with 
 freezing chemicals produced not the least interesting of 
 the many memorials of our journey which he has by 
 means of that process brought away. The elevation at 
 this spot is about 15,725 feet, and the cold most pene- 
 trating, though the thermometer only indicated 24 F. 
 The air was clear, though some clouds were floating over 
 the mountain tops, and an icy wind blew against our 
 faces with cutting force. We were, however, well pro- 
 tected with wraps of all sorts, and the exposed portions 
 of the face were anointed with a glycerine paste which 
 proved very useful in saving the skin from chapping. 
 The glare from the snow throughout the pass was almost 
 blinding, and it was impossible to face it with the naked 
 eye. We ourselves were all provided with spectacles, as 
 were most of our camp followers as part of their kit, but 
 the unfortunate Bhots were left much on a par with 
 their cattle to shift for themselves. 
 
 Some of them had goggles much of the same form as 
 ours, and very neatly made of black hair, with a hole in 
 the centre of the gauze opposite the pupil. The majo- 
 rity, however, had none, and supplied the deficiency 
 by whisps of hair which they plucked from the bushy 
 tails of their yaks, and fastened loosely across the eyes. 
 Onwards from Sarthang the path winds amidst sharp 
 rocks and moraine banks under the shadow of an im- 
 pending glacier whose steep slope against the hill 
 
158 KASHMIR AND KASEGHAR. 
 
 threatens momentary destruction, and then passing into 
 a narrow groove between the wall of a vast glacier on one 
 side, and the sharp gneiss rocks strewing the base of the 
 hill on the other, slopes down to a spot where the glacier 
 presents a huge split which is occupied by a small pool 
 thickly frozen over. 
 
 This spot appears to be the watershed of the defile, for 
 the end of the glacier which here for some six miles fills its 
 hollow slopes away from either side of the split. Beyond 
 this split the path rises on the top of the glacier itself, 
 and for three miles or so leads over its surface. About half 
 way along the glacier I took the elevation under the lee, 
 of a great block of stone that had rolled on to it from 
 the heights above, and found it to be about 17,270 feet. 
 
 The passage in this part of the pass is always hazardous, 
 owing to the fissures and crevasses in the ice being more 
 or less concealed by snow. We found the glacier com- 
 pletely covered with a wavy coating of soft snow from 
 one to two feet deep. Mr Johnson, however, had 
 tracked out a safe but very narrow line along its border 
 with the aid of his Bhots and yaks. 
 
 He gave me an interesting account of the process, in 
 which it seems a remarkable instinct of the yak is exer- 
 cised more than the intelligence of his Bhot master. 
 Before essaying the passage of the glacier it is customary 
 to drive a drove of ten or twelve yaks across to ascertain 
 the route. These in their way sagacious animals, when 
 urged up the side of the glacier crowd together for a con- 
 sultation on its edge, and after a good deal of grunting 
 one of them takes the lead, the others following in single 
 file. The leader with his nose down on the snow sniffs and 
 grunts his way cautiously, and when tired falls back for 
 the next in the line to take up the lead, and so on, till 
 land is reached on the other side. The Bhots follow 
 
INSTINCT OF THE YAK. 159 
 
 the track of their brutes, and erect little pillars of snow 
 here and there along the route by way of guide, in case 
 of mists or snow obscuring the track. 
 
 By this simple means we effected the passage in safety, 
 though numbers of our cattle floundered in the pitfalls 
 on either side the track. After packing up my baro- 
 meter and other instruments, I attempted to overtake 
 my companions who had gone on, and in passing a file 
 of our followers, doubled up in their wraps like a bundle 
 of clothes on the top of their ponies, lost the track, and 
 floundered into some pitfall full of loose snow on the side. 
 My sudden downfall created such a commotion in the 
 line that, when I extricated myself, I found three or four 
 others struggling with their cattle in the loose snow on 
 which they could get no firm footing. 
 
 Beyond the glacier we descended the bank of a mo- 
 raine, and passed beyond the snow on to the firm slope 
 of the hill, which led us down the gully to where the 
 Brangtsa huts are, on a ledge overlooking the bed of 
 the Shayok below. The elevation at these huts is about 
 14,330 feet. It was past 9 P.M. before the last of our 
 baggage arrived at Brangtsa, and we knew that the pas- 
 sage had been effected without loss or serious accident. 
 
 This most difficult of mountain passes is called Saser, 
 and is the Sakri pass mentioned in the Tarikhi Rasliidi. 
 It is a dangerous pass in summer owing to the avalanches 
 and rocks that crash down the slopes on either side, as 
 well as owing to the sudden rise of its numerous torrents 
 by the giving way of some obstructing barrier of rock or 
 ice. It is safest in the winter season, when rock and 
 glacier alike are riveted fast to their holds by the bonds 
 of hard frost. And for the successful passage by such a 
 party as ours on this occasion, as on that of our return 
 this way, we are indebted to the liberal arrangements of 
 
i6o KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the Kashmir authorities, and the unsparing devotion of 
 Mr Johnson. He had, on this occasion, provided 250 
 loading ponies and 60 riding ponies, and about 400 yaks, 
 with quite a small army of Bhot coolies for the trans- 
 port of our camp and supplies, and thus saved our own 
 cattle a very trying ordeal. And to the complete equip- 
 ment of our men and cattle, provided by the foresight 
 and judgment of the envoy, we owe it that none of us 
 suffered materially from the exposure in this frightful 
 pass, the gaunt carcases and skeletons in which stare 
 ominously at the traveller from every turn of the path. 
 Amongst them was found the body of a man supposed 
 to be a Yarkandi, but I heard of none of our party being 
 left as a relic to add one more to those so plentifully 
 marking the route through the pass. As it was, our 
 cattle came over numbed and bedraggled with icicles 
 which weighed down their tails and manes, and jangled 
 strangely to their efforts to shake them off, whilst our 
 hardy and patient coolies in their scanty and tattered 
 coverings braved everything on their sattu (barley meal) ; 
 aad on arrival in camp, with wonderful contentment 
 fortified themselves against the morning's task with re- 
 freshing draughts of tea, as squatted around the cheerful 
 blaze of their little camp fires they chased away fatigue by 
 merry conversation. They kept this up so long as the 
 limited allowance of fuel lasted, and then huddling to- 
 gether over the embers went to sleep, with the moonlight 
 sky for their covering, and the noisy murmur of the Saser 
 rivulet for their lullaby, in a temperature of 6 F. 
 
 At this place our camp divided. The baggage under 
 the escort of Mr Johnson proceeded by the direct route 
 over the Dipsang plateau towards Daulat Beg Uldi, 
 where we were to join them by the Kumdan route. 
 Our party consisted merely of the envoy and his officers 
 
THE KUMDAN GLA CIERS. 1 6 1 
 
 with a light following in charge of our tents, as the 
 route was very correctly reported impracticable to our 
 camp. 
 
 Our next stage, therefore, was to Kumdan, ten miles. 
 We descended to the bed of the Shayok, and following 
 up its stream, which winds in a broad shallow channel 
 upon a wide bed of shingle and pebbles, for two hours, 
 crossing it eight or ten times en route, came to a gla- 
 cier lying right athwart the valley which runs in a 
 north-west direction. We here entered a narrow lane 
 between vertical walls of white marble rocks on one side 
 and bottle green glacier on the other, and for one hour 
 went up its stream, crossing from side to side in continual 
 succession over narrow ledges of the ice, and through the 
 water, by breaks in it, alternately hugging the rock, and 
 sliding against the smooth glacier, till finally we emerged 
 upon the valley beyond ; and then, going on for a mile 
 or so, we camped on a raised beach of shingle under a 
 sheer w^all of white marble, and in full sight of another 
 great glacier only a few hundred yards ahead. 
 
 The spot was evidently an unfrequented one, for it 
 was entirely free of those constant skeletons which mark 
 the camp stages in all this region ; whilst the shingle 
 was so loose that it was impossible to fix a peg in it, 
 and our tents were in default kept up by weighting the 
 ropes with big stones. 
 
 The glacier ahead of us is seen winding down a long 
 valley of which it fills the hollow just like a solid river, 
 and at its top, many miles away to the west, rises a very 
 remarkable peak the most prominent in all the land- 
 scape. The advance of this glacier obliquely across the 
 valley, by closing its passage, produced that inundation of 
 the Indus in 1842 which proved so destructive along its 
 course down to Attock. The other glacier left behind us 
 
1 62 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 crosses the valley at right angles, and must have struck 
 the opposite side with great force, for I noticed that the 
 rocks were crushed and powdered in some parts, and 
 had masses of the glacier still adhering to them pro- 
 bably ever since their separation from the main body by 
 the passage forced through by the pent-up waters. It 
 was the projection across the valley of this glacier, and 
 the sudden giving way of its barrier, which produced 
 that inundation of the Indus in 1859 which destroyed 
 the Nowshera cantonment by a reflux of the waters of 
 the Kabul river at Attock a catastrophe which I hap- 
 pened to witness from the opposite shore. 
 
 Our next stage was to Gyapthang, eight miles. The 
 passage of the glacier ahead is wider and easier than 
 that passed yesterday, and leads into a wide, shallow, 
 pebbly, and shingly bed, which spreads away to the north 
 on to an undulating plateau which it drains by several 
 convergent channels. The route by this way is not practic- 
 able in summer, owing to the sudden floods from the 
 melting glaciers at the head waters of the Shay ok further 
 on. We crossed it now several times girth deep, and with 
 distress to the cattle by reason of the drift ice floating 
 on the current bruising their limbs. At Gyapthang we 
 camped amidst a crowd of horse, and ass, and yak ca'r- 
 cases and skeletons in every stage of decay. They filled 
 the sheltered hollows on the river bankhollows to which 
 we were driven for protection from the blighting south 
 wind, which swept up its wide channel with a force and 
 persistence that explained what the bones told us. I 
 here found our messman had set up his pots and pans 
 under the shelter of three or four carcases, and re- 
 monstrated with him on his carelessness in not selecting 
 a more suitable spot. " Where shall I find a better ? " 
 he replied despairingly. " The whole place is full of 
 
EFFECTS OF RAREFIED ATMOSPHERE. 163 
 
 them." And really lie but spoke the truth, for I went 
 around and found no place clear of these horrid remains. 
 Fortunately for travellers, the air here is so dry that the 
 carcases do not putrefy, but simply desiccate without 
 poisonous odour, and thus, whatever the other hardships 
 of this region, they are at least saved this evil. 
 
 These remains are to be counted by the thousand on 
 this route, and tell of a woeful loss of life. They are 
 the witnesses of many years, and side by side are to be 
 seen the bleached hides of nobody knows when, and the 
 fresh carcase of but yesterday, with others in interme- 
 diate stages during a period of perhaps only a dozen years. 
 
 At this place we came upon the tracks of the wild 
 yak, and Colonel Gordon went off in quest of them, but 
 without success. It was at this spot that Mirza Hydar 
 (the author of " Tarikhi Eashidi ") parted from his com- 
 panion, the Prince Iskandar of Yarkand (as I have 
 before mentioned), and set out on his adventurous jour- 
 ney by unknown paths to Wakhan ; and it was on the 
 mountains just beyond this probably at the headwaters 
 of the Shayok that lie shot the monstrous wild yak on 
 which his party subsisted during the three days of their 
 perilous journey to the inhabited valley of Edshgum, as 
 he" 1 so graphically describes a valley which, under the 
 name of Warshgum, now has for us a peculiar interest 
 as the death place of the adventurous and high spirited 
 explorer Hay ward. 
 
 The elevation at Gyapthang is about 15,150 feet, and 
 its effects tell uncomfortably on both man and beast. 
 We had felt the disagreeable effects of a rarefied atmo- 
 sphere more or less all the way from the Carawal 
 Dawan, but here they became more pronounced, and 
 affected a larger number of our party. Availing myself 
 of Dr G. Henderson's experience on his journey across 
 
1 64 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 this region in 1870, I had provided myself with a large 
 supply of the salt he found so useful, and with very 
 satisfactory results, as our further progress proved. I dis- 
 tributed little bottles of this chlorate of potash amongst 
 the members of the embassy, and such of the followers 
 as needed it, and from my own experience can testify to 
 its value in mitigating the distressing symptoms pro- 
 duced by a continued deprivation of the natural quan- 
 tum of oxygen in the atmosphere. The large proportion 
 of oxygen contained in the salt probably supplies to 
 the blood what in these regions it fails to derive from 
 the air, and thus restores through the stomach what the 
 lungs lose. Whatever the explanation of its action, 
 however, there is no doubt of its efficacy in relieving 
 the dreadful nausea and headache produced by the cir- 
 culation of an inefficiently oxygenated blood, and no 
 traveller ought to venture across these passes without a 
 supply of this simple remedy in his pocket. 
 
 From Gyapthang we marched to Daulat Beg Uldi, 
 fifteen miles. The route goes up the river a little way, 
 and then crossing a wild tract of gravelly hillocks, drops 
 into a tributary channel. From this it rises on to a 
 wide and bleak plateau, which forms the table-land of 
 the Caracoram range. On this plateau we camped, 
 under the shelter of a gravelly bank that limits the bed 
 of the stream which flows down from the Caracoram 
 pass, whose range of black gravel and shale, as the name 
 imports, rises in the fulness of its nudity and desolation 
 right before us. 
 
 As we turned away from the main stream of the 
 Shayok, we left behind us a magnificent panorama of 
 glacier scenery, but a touch of the cold wind streaming 
 off from it made one shiver, and think what it must be 
 in winter. Yet a month later this will be the route 
 
CAMP AT DAULUT BEG ULDI. 165 
 
 preferred by the venturous traders who travel this way, 
 owing to the severity of the dam on the Dipsang route. 
 Away to the left, at about six miles off, the Shay ok is 
 lost in the vast field of glaciers from which it issues. 
 These come down in three main lines from the north- 
 west, west, and south-west, and unite in one great mass, 
 which fills the wide plain into which the river bed here 
 expands. They appear like rivers set solid in a coating 
 of purest white, and slope down for twelve or thirteen 
 miles from the foot of the lofty snow peaks whence 
 they start. And where they meet they present a vast 
 sea which appears as if suddenly frozen solid in the 
 tumultuous foam of its clashing waves ; for here the 
 glacier is thrown into a confusion of billowy projections 
 formed by the crashing of the ice under the lateral 
 pressure of the solid streams meeting from opposite 
 directions. 
 
 At Daulut Beg Uldi we were rejoined by Mr Johnson 
 with the main camp. He lost two of his ponies in 
 crossing the Dipsang plateau (our first losses), but 
 brought all his followers over in safety. The Dipsang 
 plain is the highest part of this plateau, and swells up 
 to the south of our position, closing the view in that 
 direction. We crossed it on our return journey, as I 
 shall have to mention in its proper place. 
 
 The elevation at Daulut Beg Uldi is about 16,000 
 feet. It is a singularly desolate and bleak plateau, at 
 this season bare of snow, but set about by low ridges 
 and mounds of loose shales, from 18,000 to 20,000 feet 
 high, on which last year's fall still lingers in thin 
 patches. A very destructive wind is said to blow over 
 this region at times. Fortunately we escaped it, and 
 had only to put up with the evils of a half ration of our 
 wonted supply of oxygen. 
 
1 66 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Many of our party here were quite prostrated, and 
 appealed to me for relief. " My good man/' I said to 
 each as he gave way to the overpowering feeling of 
 careless despair, " your case is no worse than my own, 
 or that of a dozen others about you. Here ! Take this 
 salt and put a pinch of it in your mouth now and again, 
 and just put your head on a stone and lie still till the 
 bugle sounds the march." There was nothing more to 
 be done. Perfect rest of mind and body I found were 
 the best remedies, though not always attainable. Even 
 when quietly seated writing, I found my pen every now 
 and again jerked forward by an involuntary sudden 
 gasp to fill the chest and raise the load pressing it. And 
 worse, just as I was going to sleep in the hopes of for- 
 getting the pain that racked my head, and the nausea 
 that well-nigh floored me, I was started up by a sense 
 of immediate suffocation. A few deep but unsatisfying 
 gasps and a reeling giddiness brought my head on the 
 pillow again to doze dreamily awhile, only to start up 
 afresh and go through the same process over again, and so 
 on till the bugle bade me rise. The exertion of dressing 
 a luxury I henceforward carefully denied myself till 
 we got down to a dressing level well-nigh finished me, 
 and it was as much as I could do to mount my horse. 
 I ate about three drachms of chlorate of potash on the 
 way up, and at the crest of the Caracoram felt quite 
 well, and alighted to take the altitude. It was thus 
 that I, and many others of our party, passed this 
 wretched time on the plateau of the Caracoram. 
 
 I was much amused in the midst of these very un- 
 pleasant symptoms by the querulous grumbling of a 
 hardy Afghan, who allowed his sufferings to gain the 
 better of his self-control. He had joined our party in 
 Kashmir as a mule driver, and came to me here in a 
 
THE EFFECTS OF DAM. 167 
 
 very woebegone state, complaining of his head, and 
 stomach, and limbs, and in fact was dissatisfied with 
 everybody and everything. A frame of mind excusable 
 under the circumstances. " I always gave you people 
 credit for undoubted wisdom," he said ; " but what on 
 earth has brought you to this God-forsaken country, 
 which even these mean Bhots don't care to inhabit ? " 
 " Come ! " I said, "you ought not to complain, for you 
 are accustomed to hills in your own country, and should 
 feel quite at home here." 
 
 "You are perfectly right, sir," he replied. "We 
 have hills in our country, and proper hills too, with 
 trees on them, by the blessing of Providence. They are 
 ten times higher than these miserable mounds of gravel, 
 and we go up and down them without the smallest dis- 
 comfort or trouble." 
 
 " Well, my good fellow," I interposed, "so much the 
 greater reason for your going up and down these small 
 heights without making such a fuss." 
 
 "It is not the height I complain of," he continued. 
 " It is the cursed air of the place. Everybody knows 
 it's poisoned, and what I ask you for is its remedy. 
 There must be something in all those bottles there 
 (pointing to the medicine chest) to counteract it." 
 
 I gave him some of the salt and enjoined rest, and 
 he went off to his place, saying, tf Yes ! I'll take this, 
 and, please God, it will cure me. But this dam is a 
 poisonous air, and rises from the ground everywhere. 
 If you walk ten paces it makes you sick, and if you 
 picket your horse on it, it spurts from the hole you 
 drive the peg into, and knocks you senseless at his heels. 
 What else can you expect of such a place ? Did not 
 Daulut Beg die here ? " 
 
 Daulut Beg Uldi " The Lord of the State died," is 
 
1 68 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the eloquent record of an interesting historical event 
 which singles out this spot from the broad monotonous 
 waste of this lonely and inhospitable region to per- 
 petuate its memory by the impress of a name foreign 
 to the locality, and only suggestive of its character by 
 its expressive termination. This appears to be in accor- 
 dance with a predilection x>f the Yarkandis for designat- 
 ing the more fatal parts of the regions they occupy, by 
 the names of those notable personages who may have 
 perished on them. And thus we find isolated spots, 
 otherwise nameless, entitled with a designation com- 
 memorative alike of a close to the career of some impor- 
 tant individual, and of the ominous character of the 
 locality. Such are Rahman Uldi, Marjan Uldi, Culan 
 Uldi, and others. 
 
 The Daulut Beg who has given this spot its name 
 was the Sultan Sa'id Khan Ghazi, who acquired the 
 final distinctive title so honourable to Musalmans by 
 the Ghaza or " Crescentade " upon Tibat in the pro- 
 gress of which he died as I have before related on the 
 authority of the " Tarikhi Eashidi." 
 
 From that interesting and most valuable record of 
 the history of the Mughal Khans of Kashghar, I derive 
 the following brief account of this Sultan Sa'id who, 
 after passing the Sakri or Saser glaciers on his return 
 homewards, was hurried on in a moribund state across 
 the Dipsang plain to expire on the spot indicated by 
 the royal title of the Mughal Khans a title which is 
 still borne by the present Capchac ruler of the country 
 in the Persianised form of Bedaulat. The new associa- 
 tions of the spot, too, are not without a mournful 
 interest to us ; for it was on the passage of the fatal 
 Dipsang plateau, from the opposite direction, that our 
 lamented comrade, Dr F. Stoliczka, succumbed to the 
 
HISTORY OF SAID KHAN. 169 
 
 hardships of the elevation, and at Murghi, on its hither 
 side, closed too soon a life of invaluable benefit to the 
 cause of natural history and geology. 
 
 When Wais Khan was killed somewhere near Isigh 
 Kol on the upper course of the Chui river in action 
 against the troops of Mirza Ulugh Beg of Samarcand, 
 he left two youthful sons named Yunus and Eshaii 
 Bogha. They were immediately set up as rival claim- 
 ants of the throne by opposite factions of the nobles. 
 Those who adopted the cause of Yiinus, then a boy of 
 twelve years, took him to Ulugh Beg to enlist his favour 
 on his behalf, but he sent the young Mughal prince out 
 of the way to his father Shah Eukh at Herat, where he 
 was placed under the charge of a noted scholar of the 
 times one Sharifuddin Ali Yazdi to be educated. 
 He remained there for twelve years till the death of his 
 tutor, and then went to reside at Shiraz in Persia, till 
 his recall to his own country twelve years later. 
 
 Eshan Bogha in the meantime floated about on the 
 waves of anarchy till he was finally cast aside amongst 
 the Kirghiz and Calmac on the north-east borders of 
 the country. But during the period of anarchy in 
 Kashghar, he so repeatedly raided the Tashkand and 
 Farghana territories, that Abii Sa'id Mirza recalled 
 Yiinus from his exile, and set him to recover the 
 government from his brother, and reduce the divided 
 Mughals to order. 
 
 Yiinus found the country divided amongst a number 
 of rival rulers of whom he could make nothing, and 
 after repeated disasters, finally succeeded in establish- 
 ing himself at Tashkand as a protege of Samarcand, 
 and with only a doubtful authority in Kashghar, still 
 divided amongst rival chiefs. 
 
 On his death, Yunus left two sons, named Mahmud 
 
i yo KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 and Ahmad. Mahmud succeeded his father at Tashkand, 
 where he had grown up in his court ; whilst Ahmad, 
 separating from his father, established himself on the 
 shores of Isigh Kol as ruler of the nomad Kirghiz, and, 
 by his reckless destruction of life, acquired the historical 
 title of Alaja, " The Slayer." 
 
 He made an unsuccessful attempt to wrest Yarkand 
 from Ababakar, and then went to the support of Mahmud 
 at Tashkand, who was hard pressed by the Uzbaks under 
 Shahibeg Khan or Shaiban. Both brothers, however, 
 were defeated, and Ahmad, retreating to Acsu, died 
 there that same winter, 1453-4, whilst Mahmud betook 
 himself to the steppes to try and secure the government 
 of the nomads. He failed, however, and after five years 
 of varying fortunes returned with his family to Tash- 
 kand, and sought the protection of Shaiban. But that 
 conqueror, considering him a source of mischief, summarily 
 executed him and all his family by drowning them in 
 the river. 
 
 Ahmad left seventeen sons, of whom Mansur was the 
 eldest, and with Sa'id, Khalil, Ayman and Babajac, 
 figured most prominently in the events of the country ; 
 whilst Chin Tymur, Bosun Tymur, and Tokhta Boca 
 and other sons joined Babur in India and disappeared 
 from their native land. 
 
 With this introduction we come to the career of Sul- 
 tan Sa'id. At the age of fourteen years he accompanied 
 his father when he went to the aid of Mahmud. In the 
 fight that ensued he was wounded in the hip, and taken 
 prisoner at Akhsi ; but in the following year he was 
 liberated, and taken by Shahibeg to Samarcand, as a 
 noble attached to his court. Shortly after, however, 
 when the Uzbak chief set out on his campaign against 
 Khiva, Sa'id effected his escape to Mugholistan, and 
 joined his uncle Mahmud, who was then at Yatakand. 
 
HIS ESCAPE TO KABUL. 
 
 171 
 
 From this he proceeded to join his brother Khalil, who 
 ruled the nomad Kirghiz, and stayed with him four years. 
 During this period, Mahmud on one side and Mansur 
 on the other contested the government in the steppes 
 with the other two brothers. Finally, Mahmud relin- 
 quished the game, and retired to Tashkand to meet the 
 fate mentioned ; whilst Mansur, finding the field aban- 
 doned, drove his younger brothers out of the country, 
 and subjugated the Kirghiz to his own authority, trans- 
 porting their principal camps to Jalish and Turfan. 
 
 Khalil and Sa'id now followed in the track of their 
 uncle, but only arrived at Akhsi to hear of his death, 
 and to be themselves arrested. Khalil was summarily 
 executed by Jani Beg, the uncle of Shahibeg, for an 
 attempt to escape. Just after this Jani Beg was thrown 
 from his horse and injured his head, and Sa'id being at 
 this juncture brought before him for his orders he gave 
 him his freedom. 
 
 Sa'id at once collected his few followers, and disguis- 
 ing themselves as darveshes, students, and merchants, 
 set out with them from Andijan across the mountains 
 to Caratakin and Badakshan, where he sought shelter in 
 the little fort of Zafar, near the present Panja, and re- 
 ceived such hospitality as its owner, Mirza Khan, could 
 afford. For he had been deprived of the fertile valleys 
 to the west by the Uzbaks, and of the highlands to the 
 east by Ababakar, and now led an isolated existence 
 amongst the heretic shias of the place, struggling for the 
 bare necessaries of life. 
 
 After a stay of eight or ten days, Sa'id and his fifteen 
 companions set out in miserable plight, with barely a 
 blanket each to protect them from the cold, for Kabul, 
 and on arrival there he was well received, and taken 
 into service by Babur. He stayed here three years, and 
 
172 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 on the death of Shahibeg at Marv, in action against 
 Shah Ismail of Persia, he accompanied Babur in his 
 attempt to secure Samarcand. 
 
 As soon as Babur had taken Cunduz he sent Sa'id 
 with some other nobles to secure Farghana, which, on 
 the downfall of Shahibeg, had been seized by Sayyid 
 Muhammad Khan, the governor appointed by Yunus. 
 And on arrival there, in 1510, he assumed the govern- 
 ment from him. On the defeat and flight of Babur from 
 Samarcand, Sa'id continued to hold Farghana, and in the 
 spring of the following year set out to visit Casim Khan 
 (son of Jani Beg), the chief of the nomad Cazzac, with 
 a view to effecting an alliance with him on terms of 
 equality. His efforts failed, however, and after enjoying 
 a brief indulgence in cumis on the free spread of his 
 native steppes, he returned to Farghana to wait events. 
 Meanwhile he repulsed an attempt made by Ababakar 
 to annex the province. But on the return of the Uz- 
 baks two years later, and the fall of Tashkand to their 
 hordes, Sa'id retired from Farghana to Mugholistan, and 
 from there, whilst the Uzbaks under Suyunjuk were 
 ravaging Andijan, he made a descent upon Kashghar, 
 where Ababakar's frightful oppression had rendered him 
 hated. 
 
 Sa'id drove Ababakar out of the country, and after a 
 campaign of three months, mounted the throne at Yar- 
 kand in 1513. In the ensuing winter he met his brother 
 Mansur at Acsu, and recognising his rights of primo- 
 geniture, consented to share the country with him ; 
 Mansur ruling over the eastern half from Acsu to Khamil 
 or Camol, and Sa'id over the western half up to Andijan. 
 
 In the following winter, Sa'id essayed to make good 
 his authority over Andijan, but on arrival at the frontier, 
 finding his troops unequal to the task, he diverted his 
 purpose to a hunting excursion on the upper course of 
 
SHARES KASHGHAR WITH HIS BROTHER. 173 
 
 the Narin, and returned to his capital in the summer. 
 He next turned his attention to his southern frontier, 
 and set out on a campaign to convert the pagan Sarigh 
 Uyghur who occupied the country between Khutan and 
 Khita. His intemperate habits, however, frustrated his 
 pious resolves, and he was brought back from Khutan 
 in a stupid state of drunkenness, whilst his troops over- 
 ran the country of the pagans for two months without 
 ever meeting one of its inhabitants. 
 
 Following this he was called upon by the Uzbaks to 
 restrain the inroads of his Kirghiz upon the Tashkand 
 frontier, and sent his infant son Eashid with Mirza Khan 
 (my author) to settle these unruly nomads. He failed 
 to do so, and in the following year, Sa'id himself carried 
 an expedition up to Isigh Kol, and dispersing the Kirghiz 
 returned to Yarkand, leaving Eashid to hold the country. 
 
 He next, in 1518, made an expedition into Badak- 
 shan to support the authority of his governor, whom he 
 sent to hold the country as part of the possessions he 
 had conquered from Ababakar ; and on his return thence, 
 in the summer of the following year, he went to Acsu to 
 meet his brother Mansur, and arrange for the restoration 
 of the place from the state of ruin to which it had fallen 
 after its plunder by Ababakar ; and on this occasion 
 recognised Mansur in its government. 
 
 Two years after this he again went to Mugholistan to 
 check the inroads of his Kirghiz upon the Uzbak bor- 
 ders, and in the midst of his troubles and intemperance, 
 was seized with a fit of remorse for his misdeeds, and 
 proposed to abdicate in favour of Ayman, the maternal 
 brother of Mansur. The priests, however, interfered to 
 dissuade him from this purpose, so he returned to his 
 capital, and established Ayman in the government at 
 Acsu. 
 
174 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Then, in 1523, he again made an expedition into 
 Badakshan to seize the country from the retiring Uz- 
 baks, but finding it already in the possession of one of 
 Babur's sons, and the passes behind him closed, he win- 
 tered there, and in the spring returned home re-annexing 
 the eastern half of the country to Kashghar " for ever." 
 
 On his return from this expedition he was once more 
 called to the aid of Eashid in Mugholistan, who was now 
 pressed by an invasion of the Calmac. When Sa'id 
 arrived at the Narin river he heard of the death of Suy- 
 unjuk in Andijan, and the confusion of the Uzbaks, so 
 he immediately turned off to recover Andijan. He seized 
 Uzkand by coup, and, the people opening its gates, he 
 took possession of Andijan, and annexed the province 
 to Kashghar. 
 
 Sa'id now returned to Kashghar to rest awhile from 
 his labours, and, in the interim, in 1527, sent Eashid 
 and Hydar on a ghaza against the Jcqfiristan of Bolor 
 between Badakhshan and Kashmir. The crescentaders 
 appear to have found the savage infidels more than a 
 match for them, and returned without having effected 
 much, though Mirza Hydar gives a most interesting 
 account of their customs and country. 
 
 On return from this expedition, Eashid was appointed 
 Governor of Acsu, and six months later Sa'id set out on 
 that campaign against Tibat which I have before men- 
 tioned. 
 
 His biographer (Hydar) says he was a mild and just 
 prince, and during the last years of his reign led a 
 strictly religious life ; and with a curious illustration of 
 what his idea of the import of the words are, adds 
 that under his rule the country flourished, and peace 
 reigned from Khamil to Farghana I 
 
 From Daulat Beg Uldi we marched to Brangtsa, 
 
THE CARACORAM PASS. 175 
 
 twenty-two miles. The track goes north-west up the 
 course of the stream we camped on, and along the base 
 of the Caracoram range, over a loose soil of gravel and 
 earth up to the pass, which we reached in three hours. 
 The rise is gentle except at the pass itself, where it is 
 sudden and steep, but short both in the ascent and 
 descent. At the foot of the pass, on the hither side, is a 
 saddle-shaped watershed across the valley, which divides 
 two tributaries of the Shay ok ; that to the east drains 
 Daulat Beg plateau, and that to the west joins the mass 
 of glacier we passed yesterday on quitting Gyapthang. 
 
 The elevation of the pass is about 18,300 feet, and 
 affected our men and cattle severely. Several of the 
 former tumbled off their ponies from the giddiness pro- 
 duced, and some fainted. My own servant fell three 
 times, and the hospital dresser was carried over insen- 
 sible, but they recovered themselves on reaching the 
 lower ground on the other side. Two of our baggage 
 ponies died on the pass, and two others soon after reach- 
 ing camp. Previous to leaving Leh all the loads had 
 been weighed and reduced to an uniform scale of 160 
 pounds for each animal ; this had been wisely fixed as 
 the limit of their burthen, and the drivers were mounted 
 on other cattle. 
 
 Even with these light loads our hired cattle laboured 
 greatly and moved slowly ; and the mules of our fixed 
 establishment, though led over unladen, suffered from 
 the cold and elevation. My own horse, a strong Kabul 
 galloway, though choosing his own pace, showed signs 
 of great distress. His whole body shook under me from 
 the violent action of his heart, and he swayed so un- 
 steadily from side to side, that near the top I dismounted 
 through fear that he would roll down the hill with me. 
 
 On the other side of the pass we went down a loose 
 
176 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 shingly drainage gully similar to that on the south, and 
 camped at the Brangtsa stage, which is merely a collec- 
 tion of stone walls like the enclosures and huts called 
 Polu on the other side of the Saser pass. As at the 
 other camp grounds on this high land, the surface here 
 was encumbered with carcases and skeletons of beasts of 
 burthen ; and on the way down we passed the bodies of 
 two men. The head of one of them was brought to me, 
 but I found it in too recent a state for preservation. 
 
 The Caracoram range is here the true watershed be- 
 tween the affluents of the Tarim on the north and the 
 Indus on the south, and on each side is supported by a 
 table-land of swelling plateaux of very similar character 
 as to elevation, soil, and blank desolation. 
 
 Our tents did not come in till six P.M., and were put 
 up with the aid of our invaluable Bhot coolies in a fast 
 fall of snow, which commenced soon after we reached the 
 ground. 
 
 Next day we marched to Actagh twenty-five miles. 
 The route leads down the wide shingly bed of the Actagh 
 river, a tributary, or rather one of the sources of the 
 Yarkand river. It drains the broad undulating slopes 
 that spread away to mountain ridges on either side, and 
 at Actagh, which is merely a stage at the foot of a cliff 
 of white clay, forms a single stream. 
 
 We set out at 9 A.M. as the snow ceased to fall, and 
 found the inequalities of the country and its wide sweeps 
 of plateaux, which we saw to advantage on the return 
 journey, were wonderfully concealed by the bright glare 
 of the fresh coat of snow that covered the surface. 
 About half-way we alighted for breakfast at the Wahab- 
 jilga stage, where supplies had been laid down for us in 
 case we camped here ; but owing to the inclement 
 weather, it was decided to push on and get out of this 
 
THE KANJUD ROBBERS. 177 
 
 inhospitable region as quickly as possible ; so whilst we 
 rested under the shelter of the walled enclosures here, 
 the baggage pushed on to the next stage. It was 9 P.M., 
 however, before the last of our baggage reached the 
 ground. 
 
 At Wahabjilga the river passes through a narrow pas- 
 sage in an outcrop of slate rocks, between approximating 
 ridges which here contract its valley, and then again 
 flows through a wide shallow channel as before. At this 
 place we found several of the " black horned " larks seek- 
 ing the shelter of the walls, and started a hare which had 
 sought protection under one of the stones lying about. 
 And a little further on, as we resumed our route, Mi- 
 Johnson shot an antelope loitering on the flank of our 
 column. 
 
 On approaching camp we were met on the road by 
 our comrades of the advance party, who had come to join 
 the envoy here, whilst Captain Biddulph went on to ex- 
 plore the sources of the Caracash river, prior to joining 
 us at Shahidulla. 
 
 Captain Trotter and Dr Stoliczka were so metamor- 
 phosed in their travelling wraps that we did not at first 
 sight recognise them, and, as they were unexpected, were 
 puzzled to know who the two horsemen appearing from 
 behind a projecting bank, and advancing so boldly upon 
 us from the opposite direction could be, till the welcome 
 voices of their greeting assured us without doubt of their 
 identity, and removed even the semblance of veracity from 
 the circumstantial statements of the Srinaggar gossips, 
 who had indicated this very spot as the scene of our dis- 
 comfiture at the hands of the banditti of Kanjud, whose 
 natural propensities, according to those " gobemouches," 
 had been stimulated against us by the bribe of a sum 
 large enough to buy their whole country. 
 
 M 
 
178 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Our own disguise must have proved no less strange to 
 our friends, or their inquiry addressed in Hindustani to 
 a passer-by would not have elicited from the camp ser- 
 geant, " I am not a native, sir. They are all coming 
 down the road." 
 
 We were well met, however, and glad to find that 
 our worthy comrade, and since lamented friend, had 
 recovered from the extremity of his sufferings on the 
 Dipsang highland. We compared notes of our respec- 
 tive experiences, and congratulated each other on our 
 robust appearance and ruddy complexion an unnatur- 
 ally heightened colour suffused with a tinge of darkness 
 entirely foreign to the healthy glow, which for me had 
 its own meaning, and told of the combined effects of cold 
 and rarefied air. The elevation at Actagh is about 
 14,450 feet, and a minimum thermometer placed in the 
 open air, Captain Trotter told me, registered a tempera- 
 ture of 24 F. below zero, or 56 degrees of frost. And 
 another minimum thermometer, set under the shelter of 
 the verandah of my tent, registered on the night of our 
 arrival 9 F., and on the following night 15 F. below zero. 
 
 At this place, whilst standing round the camp fire on 
 the morning of our departure, a little landrail appeared 
 at our feet struggling with unsteady gait to reach the 
 embers, whose glow had drawn it from its hiding amongst 
 the stones around. The luckless little wanderer was 
 caught up by Dr Stoliczka at the very edge of the fire, 
 and preserved from self-immolation on this lonesome spot, 
 to adorn with the rest of the natural history collection of 
 this embassy the shelves of the Calcutta museum. 
 
 We halted a day at Actagh with a light camp only, 
 intending to double up the next two stages into one, 
 whilst the baggage and main camp went on by the 
 regular marches. The prophesied Kanjudis belied the 
 
FROZEN SNIPE ON THE WILLOW PASS. 179 
 
 Srinaggar tattlers, and gave us a time of undisturbed rest, 
 and in fact, were nowhere to be heard of in the neigh- 
 hood. We resumed the route next day and found a 
 change of horses at the Chibra camp-ground, whence our 
 baggage, with the exception of a few broken-down 
 cattle, had gone on in the morning. We alighted here 
 for breakfast in a little boulder-strewed hollow, the 
 rough surface of which was encumbered with gaunt 
 skeletons and broken carcases tossed about in spectre- 
 like forms. 
 
 The elevation here is about 16,650 feet, and the spot 
 one of the most inhospitable on the broad waste of this 
 fearful table-land. The whole route from Actagh was 
 marked at almost every step by the remains of perished 
 cattle, and what with the cold and the dam was one of 
 our most trying marches. And I blessed the envoy's 
 sound judgment which saved us a night of misery on 
 this dismal spot. 
 
 Beyond Chibra a little way we entered the snow again 
 we had left it behind us half way between Wahabjilga 
 and Actagh and passing up an easy gully very gradu- 
 ally rose to the crest of the Sugat Dawan or " Willow 
 Pass " (though there is not a bush of the kind or any 
 other within miles of the place), which is about 17,500 
 feet high. On the way to the pass I picked up a snipe 
 on the snow, and in the gully on the other side another. 
 They were frozen hard as stone in a sitting posture, and 
 th e congealed humours of the eyes looked like pearls. The 
 descent was steep, first over deep snow and then over 
 broken slate, into a ravine winding between banks of black 
 shale. From this the pass led over some high moraine 
 banks of granite boulders, and crossing the slope of an 
 ash grey schistone hill led down to the bank of the 
 Sugat river, where we camped in a brushwood of willo\v 
 
i So KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 and tamarisk a few miles above its junction with the 
 Caracash river distance thirty miles. 
 
 It was here that an amusing adventure introduced me 
 for the first time to our Yarkand allies, of whom we 
 saw so much during our stay in the country. I had 
 lingered at the pass with my instruments, and got belated 
 a mile or two above camp. In the obscurity I missed 
 the track, and got amongst the boulders of the river. 
 My horse stumbled over one of them, and was brought 
 up by his nose upon another, so I dismounted and bid the 
 groom who was with me do likewise and go seek the path. 
 
 Meanwhile I called for a response from the camp by a 
 succession of shouts, but all to no purpose with the noisy 
 brawl of the torrent alongside, till my messenger returning 
 reported no trace of a path, though he had discovered a 
 camp fire a little way down the stream. We accordingly 
 made for it, and after a most awkward progress amongst 
 the boulders whose broad white rotundities shon'e with 
 a deceptive clearness in the obscurity around, now seeming 
 close under foot, and leading to a plunge two or three feet 
 down, and again seeming as far off, and producing un- 
 looked for jars between chin and knee came abreast of 
 it on the opposite side of the river. The flickering 
 flames lighted up a perpendicular rock above them, but 
 revealed no sight of tent or man, and all my shouting 
 produced no answering call. So we plodded on our 
 weary way, tumbling here and saving a tumble there, 
 till we emerged on a turfy beach. On this we regained 
 the track, and were going along merrily amongst the tufts 
 of reeds and patches of j an gal, when four horsemen sud- 
 denly advanced out of another patch ahead, and were 
 immediately upon us in the narrow path. 
 
 " Have you seen our camp ahead ? And is this the 
 way to it ? " I asked in Hindustani, on the chance of 
 
MEET OUR Y ARK AND ALLIES. 181 
 
 their being some of our people looking for stray baggage. 
 In reply I got a deal of very voluble Turki from all of 
 them at once. What it all meant I have not the least 
 idea, but I caught the words " Doctor Sahib," and at once 
 said, " I'm the Doctor Sahib ; shew me the way to camp." 
 
 They held a consultation together, which I interrupted 
 in Hindustani, Persian, and Pushto, assuring them of 
 my identity ; but to no purpose ; they whipped their 
 horses, and shuffled past, muttering some unintelligible 
 jargon amongst themselves. 
 
 The rencontre with these strangers had not enlightened 
 me a whit as to the whereabouts of camp, and I saw them 
 going away from the object of their search, so I mustered 
 what Turki I could at the moment collect and threw it after 
 them. The words had a magic effect, the men at once 
 returned, jumped off their horses, brought one forward 
 for me to mount, and excused their not recognising me 
 in the darkness. 
 
 My stock of Turki was already exhausted, so I fell 
 back upon Persian, and found two of them understood 
 it well, though the mixture of tongues from me at first 
 quite puzzled them. They now produced a torch to light 
 the way, and as they could not blow it into a flame from 
 their tinder, I assisted them with a lucifer. And thus 
 assured that they really had got the " Doctor Sahib/' a 
 point on which the tie of my turban seemed to afflict 
 them with a doubt, we all mounted our horses, and set 
 off afresh. On the way I learned that they had come 
 from Shahidulla to welcome the envoy in the name of 
 Atalik Ghazi to Yarkand territory, and having paid 
 their respects to him on arrival in camp, had been sent 
 by him to look for me ; and under their guidance I soon 
 found myself at the mess tent in the midst of our own 
 party, when the envoy formally introduced me to 
 
182 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Yuzbashi Zarif and Yuzbashi Bahauddin. Ibrahim 
 Khan of the police, who had been sent on in advance 
 from India, here joined the camp to pay his respects 
 and make his report to the envoy. The camp halted 
 next day (16th October), and then went the following 
 morning to Shahidulla, where Captain Trotter and Dr 
 Stoliczka and I rejoined it on the 18th October with 
 Captain Biddulph, whom we met in the Caracash valley 
 on our detour to visit the jade quarries at Balikchi. 
 The elevation of Shahidulla is about 11,200 feet. 
 
 These jade quarries are situated at the base of the 
 Kuenlun range, which here forms the right or north bank 
 of the Caracash river, and are about twelve miles up the 
 stream from Shahidulla. The excavations extend over 
 several small knolls or spurs projecting from the foot of 
 a high range of gneiss rocks, and are all superficial. 
 The spurs are covered with a loose gravelly detritus, 
 beneath which is concealed the rock in which the prized 
 mineral forms veins of very varying thickness, colour, 
 and quality. The diggings are marked by heaps of 
 refuse about them, but show no traces of anything more 
 than superficial excavation. And in the deeper of these 
 the floor was blocked with masses fallen from the roof 
 and sides. The quarries have been abandoned since the 
 overthrow of the Chinese rule over Kashghar in 1863. 
 
 At Balikchi we came upon a herd of six or seven kyang 
 or culdn (wild horse) feeding on the opposite side of the 
 river, and crossed it to stalk them, but they made off be- 
 fore we could get within range. The Caracash valley has 
 abundance of pasture and brushwood, and in its natural 
 vegetation resembles that of Nubra, but it is uncultivated, 
 and uninhabited, except by Kirghiz camps in the pasture 
 season. Its river is a considerable stream, but fordable 
 on a pebbly bottom at most parts during this season. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE envoy halted some days at Shahidulla to await the 
 arrival of Sayyid Ya'ciib Khan who, with his following, 
 was being rapidly transported through Kashmir to over- 
 take us, as it was an important point with him that our 
 party should enter the country under his guidance. 
 
 In the meantime the two Yuzbashis and Mirza Ya'ciib, 
 the latter an umara or " commandant/' attached to the 
 court of Atalik Ghazi, who had been sent here by the 
 Dadkh wah of Yarkand to meet and welcome us, acquitted 
 themselves of their duty graciously, and dispensed such 
 hospitality as the isolated position, and empty condition of 
 the locality admitted of. That national institute the das- 
 turkhwan or " tray of ceremony " (and metaphorically 
 the " table-cloth," only that it is always spread on the 
 floor), was of course the most important of the tokens 
 of welcome, and consequently our appointed hosts every 
 day, just before the afternoon prayers, appeared at the 
 envoy's tent with their array of trays, and invited us to 
 partake of the hospitality provided. 
 
 And we on our part, appreciating the friendly atten- 
 tion, did our duty with a grace which the delicious flavour 
 of the melons, and the welcome sight of the barley sugar 
 "cossacques" with Russian mottoes, rendered easy, de- 
 spite the uninviting appearance of the hard used trays, 
 and their worse treated contents. The former were the 
 common tea trays of our own country, and by their 
 scanty remnants of lacquer, and abundant bruises and 
 
1 84 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 wounds spoke of a long and rough service in the cause 
 of state hospitality. The latter comprised a variety of 
 fruits and sweets which, from the appearance of most of 
 them, had evidently been neglected, and condemned to 
 pass alternately from the saddle bag to the tray, and from 
 the tray to the saddle bag, without even tempting a 
 hungry guest to bestow his favour upon them. Such were 
 the uncracked walnuts and pistachias, the musty jujubes 
 and elosagnus berries, the dried prunes and the drier 
 raisins, and, as an exception, the little green and grain- 
 less raisins, and the sweet almonds mixed amongst them. 
 Such, too, were the various home confections of sugar 
 the curled "dogs' tails," the porous "sugar bubbles/' 
 and the sugar-encrusted almonds, &c. which in their 
 battered state showed proofs of the rough journey they 
 had made to figure before us here, whilst the rock 
 candy, preserved in its neat deal box, stood amongst 
 them proudly in the decoration of its Eussian trade 
 marks and addresses. 
 
 Eound a spread of dainties such as these we daily 
 seated ourselves on the carpet, and with the bismillah of 
 our hosts approved the melons and, under cover of 
 commonplace conversation, cautiously tested the merits 
 of the other candidates for favour, till the allahu akbar 
 released us from further risk of indigestion. 
 
 Here, as the rest of our stay amongst them more fully 
 confirmed, we found that our Andijani or Khocandi 
 hosts were complete strangers to the country they had 
 taken, and knew less of its topography and people as a 
 w T hole than we ourselves did. Yet the boldness with 
 which they singly, or in twos and threes, went about it 
 on the service of Atalik Ghazi, proved the thorough hold 
 they had of it, and the dread inspired by the name of 
 their master amongst the timid and unarmed peasantry. 
 
VISIT TO THE SHRINE. 185 
 
 Shahidulla Khoja, which gives its name to the locality, 
 is a sacred shrine on the top of a bluff which here pro- 
 jects into the close basin formed by the junction of the 
 Sugat and Kirghiz-jangal (on which our camp was 
 .pitched close above the junction) streams with the Cara- 
 cash river, at the point where it turns round the western 
 end of the Kuenlun range. It is a mere pile of stones, 
 and horns of wild sheep and antelopes, &c. upon the 
 grave of some fugitive Khoja from Yarkand, who was 
 killed here by his Khitay pursuers at the time the 
 Chinese conquered the country, a century or so ago. 
 Though his name is lost to them, his memory is vene- 
 rated by the Kirghiz nomads of the locality, who have 
 marked the consecrated spot by a small forest of bare 
 poles topped with tassels of wool and bushy tufts of the 
 yak's tail. 
 
 Musalman travellers passing this way toil up the 
 slope to repeat a blessing over his tomb, and invoke the 
 nameless martyr's intercession for God's protection on 
 their onward journey. The appearance of this shrine, 
 so like those of their own country, was hailed with de- 
 light by our Guides escort, who had not seen so familiar 
 an object since they had left their homes on the Pesha- 
 war frontier, and they trooped up to do their favourite 
 ziarat without the least knowledge of who the object of 
 their blessing was, or how he came to sanctify this 
 lonely spot on the mountains with his martyr blood. 
 It was enough for them to know that the name indicated 
 the spot marked by their revered emblems as the resting- 
 place of a "witness to the faith," and they incontinently 
 went to perform their pious devoirs. 
 
 On the boulder beach under this bluff is a small stone 
 fort named after the locality. It was erected as a pre- 
 cautionary measure by the Ladakh wazir of the Kashmir 
 
1 86 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 government during the disorders convulsing Kasligliar 
 on the overthrow of the Chinese rule there, and was held 
 by a small detachment of his troops for a couple of years, 
 when, on the establishment of the authority of Atalik 
 Ghazi, it was abandoned and taken possession of by the 
 new rulers of the country. It now has a garrison of about 
 twenty-five men to protect the road, and control the Kirghiz 
 of the neighbourhood, and draws its supplies from Sanju. 
 
 The Kirghiz on this frontier of Kashghar territory 
 are reckoned at three hundred tents spread in different 
 camps amongst the ravines, and gullies, and river courses 
 from Kokyar on the west to Sarighyar on the east. 
 They own a few camels and horses, but their principal 
 wealth consists in their yaks, or cutds as they call 
 them, which they employ in transporting caravans over 
 the passes of Sanju Dawan, Kilyan Dawan, and Yangi 
 Dawan, which are more or less impracticable to ordi- 
 nary cattle. 
 
 We saw something of these free and independent 
 gentry during our stay at Shahidulla, and here gained our 
 first experience of life in their acoe or "white house" tents, 
 which were of any colour but that designated by the name, 
 and as battered and worn as one might expect in such a 
 place, if not in such a season. And we were provided by 
 them with such supplies as we required, in a manner which 
 whilst contrasting markedly with our good fare across 
 the absolutely desert region we had come over showed 
 the poverty of the country, and testified to the unsparing 
 exertions which had been made on our behalf by the Kash- 
 mir authorities. We had heard so much on our journey of 
 the eight hundred baggage horses awaiting us at Shahi- 
 dulla, and of the grand officials who were to welcome us on 
 our arrival there with the delicacies and luxuries which 
 express couriers were daily hurrying from the capital to 
 
DEPARTURE FROM SHAHIDULLA. 187 
 
 the frontier, that our expectations had risen far above 
 the mark of our experience, though the reception in its 
 simplicity was none the less friendly and appreciated. 
 
 On the 21st October, owing to the scarcity of provisions, 
 a portion of the camp under Colonel Gordon, accom- 
 panied by Captains Biddulph and Trotter and Dr Sto- 
 liczka, set out for Sanju under the conduct of Yuzbashi 
 Bahauddin, and Kozi Bai the chief of the Kirghiz here ; 
 and on the following day Muhammad Amin, one of 
 Sayyid Ya'ciib Khan's servants, who had accompanied 
 him to India, and returned thence to Kashghar during 
 the summer, arrived in camp with a number of horses 
 for the carriage of his master's and our own camp. He 
 confirmed the intelligence we had before received of the 
 construction of a new set of quarters for the accommoda- 
 tion of the embassy at both Kargalik and Yarkand. 
 
 At the close of the next day Sayyid Ya'cub Khan or 
 Haji Tora as he is called by his own people himself 
 arrived in camp, and was received by the envoy attended 
 by Captain Chapman and myself. He dined with us in 
 the evening, and was accommodated in one of our tents, 
 as his own camp had not come in. He is a well-informed 
 native of Tashkand, and, during a residence of four 
 years at the Turkish capital, has acquired more enlarged 
 ideas on the civilisation of Europe than is possessed by 
 most of his people in Central Asia, and with all displays 
 a freedom from prejudice which is the lot of very few of 
 his countrymen and co-religionists. 
 
 He left Constantinople on the 14th August, and by 
 steamer, rail, and road, via Egypt and Bombay to 
 Lahore and Murree, accomplished the distance up to the 
 frontier of his own country in seventy days including 
 halts. As he well might, he expressed a proper astonish- 
 ment at the feat he had been able to accomplish by the 
 means of travel common to civilised countries, and, 
 
1 83 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 whilst gratefully acknowledging the favour of the 
 British, and the services of the Kashmir government, 
 and the attentions of Captain Molloy who accompanied 
 him as far as Nubra, in forwarding his rapid progress 
 across the mountains, sighed for the organisation and 
 civilisation he had left behind him, and begged us to 
 bear patiently with the poverty and barbarity of the 
 country he was about to conduct us into. 
 
 He gave us some very useful hints, which the en- 
 voy subsequently acted upon with the best results for 
 the welfare of our own party, and the honour of the 
 British name. His following comprised a number of 
 European Turks, and amongst them four military 
 officers and a civilian who rode in his suite. 
 
 Next morning, the 24th October, we bid adieu to our 
 very good friends Mr W. Johnson, the governor of 
 Ladakh, and Mehta Sher Sing, the governor of Islam- 
 abad, who had been appointed by the Maharaja to 
 conduct our party to the frontier. How they carried 
 out the task confided to their charge the previous pages 
 will have indicated, and of the appreciation of their ser- 
 vices by the Indian Government they themselves have 
 had handsome proof. For us it only remains to acknow- 
 ledge with gratitude the many favours received, and 
 none the least that unceasing solicitude which smoothed 
 our path across the highest and most difficult mountains 
 in the world, and even on the desert amply supplied our 
 every want. Here, too, we parted with that little army 
 of Bhot coolies whose willing service and cheerful docility 
 had made them fast allies of our camp followers, though 
 we took on some forty or fifty of them, to help us down 
 to the plains on the other side ; and with them we changed 
 our carriage for such as could be provided by the Kash- 
 ghar officials to supplement our own mule establishment* 
 
ROUTE DOWN THE CARACASH VALLEY. 189 
 
 This last liad hitherto been spared to meet contingencies, 
 and now faced the task before it in a state of efficiency 
 which could not have been expected had its drivers and 
 mules been burthened with the toils of the march from 
 Leh. 
 
 To convey some idea of what they were spared, and 
 to show the nature of the assistance rendered by the 
 Kashmir authorities in the progress of our embassy from 
 Murree to Shahidulla, I may here mention the total 
 number of the cattle and coolies supplied for our ser- 
 vice on this route as I got them from the officials. 
 There were altogether 1621 horses and yaks employed, 
 and 6476 coolies of whom 1236 were dooly bearers. 
 These men and cattle were distributed over the different 
 stages, and kept for about two months on this duty, 
 until the arrival and passage from Murree of Haji Tora 
 and his suite. The average number for each stage from 
 Murree to Srinaggar was forty-two cattle and ninety- 
 two men ; from that on to Leh they were 54 and 324 
 respectively; on to Murgi 135 and 140; and on to 
 Shahidulla 145 and 140. 
 
 Our camp going ahead, we set out from Shahidulla a 
 little before noon with Haji Tora and his suite, and 
 marched to Pillataghach, fourteen miles. The route led 
 down the Caracash river through a narrow winding valley 
 by a very rough and stony track, and across a succession 
 of gullies and moraines which interrupt the line of its left 
 bank between small brushwood patches of the myricaria, 
 hipophoe, hololachne, ephedra, clematis, &c. amongst 
 which is interposed a tufty growth of tall reed grass. 
 
 We soon discovered that neither Kashmiri nor Bhot 
 coolies had been here to mark out the line of road, or to 
 sweep its surface clear of obstructions, and on arrival 
 in camp our farriers had a busy time of it in replacing, 
 
1 9 o KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 from the store of spare ones provided, the shoes cast on the 
 road. At three hours we crossed the Toghra Su, a brisk 
 torrent which, as the name "Straight Kiver" implies, 
 comes down a long straight glen on our left. During 
 summer its passage is difficult, owing to the floods fed by 
 the snow peaks at the top of its valley, and sometimes 
 it is altogether impassable. There is an alternative 
 route up the course of the stream to the Kulik pass, 
 which is reached on the third day. It is described as 
 very difficult, and like those of Kilian and Sanju on the 
 same range, must be crossed on yaks to be obtained from 
 the Kirghiz in the vicinity. On the farther side it joins 
 the road from Kilian to Yarkand. 
 
 At an hour beyond the Toghra Su we came to Cor- 
 ghan or " Fort." It is a solitary mud cabin enclosed 
 within loopholed walls, and stands on the roadside under 
 the lee of a detached rock which lies in the angle of 
 junction of the Kilian river with the Caracash, and on 
 the top of which are the traces of an ancient castle. 
 Across the road in front of it are some small fields of 
 corn cultivation, and on their border we found a scare- 
 crow formed of the head and fore-quarters of a horse 
 stuck on a pole an ominous warning to the traveller by 
 this route. 
 
 A little beyond we crossed the Kilian Su which 
 comes down a deep glen on the left. There is a summer 
 route by this way to Yarkand. The Kilian Pass is, we 
 were told, crossed on the third day, and on the other 
 side is Khitay Tain, a former Chinese outpost. It is at 
 the head of the valley leading down to Kilian. There 
 are fifty or sixty houses of the Wakhi there. They 
 came from Pamir and Wakhan originally, and are said 
 to have been settled there since forty years ago. They 
 
THE SHRINE OF ABABAKAR. 191 
 
 are Shia Musalmans, and speak their own Wakhi dialect 
 and Persian, and do not intermix with the Kirghiz. 
 
 Another hour brought us to our camp ground amidst 
 the jangal on the river bank, in a small hill-locked 
 hollow. On the march we started what was thought to 
 be a levret, but on capture amongst the loose stones in 
 whose interspaces it sought shelter, we found it to be a 
 rat of the lycomis species. 
 
 Our next march was to a spot called Caracoram ten 
 miles. At an hour and a half out of camp we came to 
 a bend of the river round a projecting bluff, and crossed 
 and recrossed it to regain the track beyond. The pas- 
 sage was difficult, and delayed by several of our cattle 
 falling under their loads, and requiring no small exertion 
 to save them from drowning. The current was running 
 strong over a rough boulder bed, and carried a deal of 
 floating ice, which added to the difficulty of our cattle 
 keeping their footing, and in many instances upset them 
 to their confusion. Our drivers and Bhot coolies had a 
 hard time of it in the water in extricating their charges 
 from the peril of their situation. 
 
 In summer this passage is frequently impracticable, 
 owing to the flooded stream. It then becomes necessary 
 to carry the loads by coolies over the bluff itself, and 
 swim the cattle round, as the path is too steep and in- 
 secure for them. About a mile lower down the road 
 quits the Caracash valley, and turns up a narrow glen to 
 the left, just beyond the Mazar Mirza Ababakar. 
 
 This is a small collection of humble graves of the 
 Kirghiz of the vicinity clustered round a more pre- 
 tentious tomb, built like them of the clay and stones 
 of the locality. The Mazar, or "shrine," is decorated 
 with sheep's horns and yak tails stuck on the top of 
 poles set up around the tomb, and is venerated by the 
 
i 9 2 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Kirghiz in memory of the prince who perished here as 
 a fugitive amongst their camps. 
 
 The "Tarikhi Bashidi" contains a very interesting his- 
 tory of this successful usurper, and most savage of tyrants 
 whose name, execrated on the throne, is revered in the 
 grave. Before proceeding to notice the principal events 
 in the career of this remarkable ruler of Kashghar in 
 bygone days, we may here advantageously introduce by 
 way of preface a short account of his ancestors, and 
 cotemporaries on the theatre of his exploits, as derived 
 from the work above mentioned, since it will serve to 
 indicate how largely this country shared in the revolu- 
 tions and anarchies of its neighbours on the west, and 
 explain how its relations with those principalities, con- 
 tinued down to our day, have led to its conquest from 
 that direction. 
 
 The Amir Khudadad, whom I have before mentioned 
 as precipitating the downfall of the Mughal Khans by 
 the surrender of the country ruled by Wais Khan to 
 Mirza Ulugh Beg of Samarcand, was the most noted of 
 the five sons of the Amir Bolaji of Acsu, who rescued 
 the youthful Toghluc Tymur, the heir of Eshan Bogha 
 (not the brother of Yunus of the same name), and grand- 
 son of Dawa Khan, from his exile amongst the Calmac 
 of Ila or Zunghar, and, establishing him on the throne 
 of his ancestors as Khan of Mugholistan, in his person 
 restored the rule of the Chaghtay in its native seat. 
 
 At the age of seven years, Khudadad, on the death of 
 his brother Tolak, was appointed his successor in the 
 government of Kashghar by Bolaji, who, on the part of 
 Toghluc Tymur, administered the government from Acsu 
 and Kucha to Uzkand and Andijan, including Khutan 
 and Yarkand on the south, and Atbashi and Kasan on 
 the north. And he held the post during the campaigns 
 
REVOLT OF THE KIRGHIZ. 193 
 
 of Togliluc Tymur in Mawaranahar against the rising con- 
 queror Tymur Lang. During the revolution following 
 upon the death of Toghluc, the Kirghiz on the Upper 
 Narin, and shores of Isigh Kol, revolted under the lead 
 of their governor, the Amir Camaruddin, who was the 
 brother of Khudadad. His first act on usurping the 
 government was the cold-blooded murder of all the royal 
 family, except only the infant Khizr Khoja, who, with his 
 mother and a few trusty servants, had been rescued by 
 Khudadad, and sent off to the security of the Badakhshan 
 fastnesses. The incursions of Camaruddin, and his law- 
 less nomads, on the Tashkand territories brought no less 
 than four successive campaigns against his Jatta subjects 
 by the armies of Tymur. In the last of these Cama- 
 ruddin, who is described as of such enormous size that 
 a child of seven years could stand in one of his boots, 
 perished, and Khudadad, who had during this period 
 kept together the government of the cities of Acsu, 
 Kashghar, Yarkand, and Khutan, now recalled Khizr 
 from his hiding amongst the shepherds of Lob, whither 
 he had been carried from place to place out of reach of 
 the pursuers tracking him on the part of Camaruddin, 
 and set him on the throne at Kashghar under his own 
 guidance as minister. 
 
 Under his reign, Khudadad was witness of that final 
 campaign by Tymur which devastated the whole country 
 up to the green pastures of Yulduz, and carried away its 
 population to be scattered over the steppes of Mawarana- 
 har, Irac, and Khorasan. Khizr, on his death, was suc- 
 ceeded by his son Muhammad Khan, the dates of whose 
 birth and death are lost in the troubles of the times, and of 
 whose history little more is known than that he was a co- 
 temporary of Ulugh Beg in Mawaranahar, and a bigoted 
 Muslim, zealous in the propagation of the faith amongst 
 
 N 
 
i 9 4 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 his subjects, so habitually prone to lapse into their former 
 idolatry. He, as the "Tarikhi Kashidi" mentions, con- 
 verted the ancient Hindu temple (resembling in the 
 massive blocks of its stone the temples of Kashmir) called 
 Tash Eabat, on the pass to the Chadir Kol, into a for- 
 tified post, to protect his capital from the incursions of 
 the Kirghiz. 
 
 His son, Sher Muhammad, succeeded to the throne, 
 and, even under the wise administration of his maturely 
 experienced minister, found but a life of trouble. His 
 nephew, Wais Khan, rebelled, and with a band of ad- 
 venturers led a Eobin Hood sort of life in different parts 
 of the country ; whilst Ulugh Beg on the west, having 
 annexed Andijan, was striving for the acquisition piece- 
 meal of Kashghar also. 
 
 It was during these assaults upon the frontier that 
 the Amir Khudadad, leaving his son Sayyid Ahmad, 
 who was afflicted with deafness, and an impediment in his 
 speech which rendered him almost unintelligible, in the 
 government of Kashghar, accompanied the camp of the 
 Khan to settle affairs, and protect the border on the 
 northern steppes. During his absence, Khoja Sharif, one 
 of the city magnates, ousted Sayyid Ahmad, and tendered 
 a surrender of the city to Ulugh Beg. On the arrival 
 of the latter' s officers from Andijan, the deposed Sayyid 
 Ahmad retired with his family, and joined his father in 
 Mugholistan. He died there shortly afterwards, and 
 left a son named Sayyid AH, who now became the 
 favourite of his aged grandfather. He was a fine youth, 
 tall, strong, and bold, and without a peer amongst his 
 fellows in intelligence, and proficiency in field sports. 
 
 Whilst here Khudadad received as a refugee a prince 
 of the Tymur family named Mirza Ahmad, who with his 
 sister had fled from the hostility of Shahrukh, the sove- 
 
CAREER OF SAYYID ALL 195 
 
 reign of Herat. Sayyid All fell in love with the prin- 
 cess, and on a promise of marriage when their fortunes 
 mended accompanied the returning refugees on their 
 way homeward. On arrival at Andijan, however, the 
 whole family was seized by orders of Ulugh Beg, who 
 forthwith executed Ahmad, married his sister, and cast 
 Ali into prison at Samarcand. 
 
 A year later, when Ulugh was going to visit his father 
 at Herat, he released Sayyid Ali, and took him in his 
 suite to show Shahrukh a specimen of the sort of men 
 he had to deal with on the frontier. On the march, 
 however, he was so alarmed at the dangerous equipment 
 of his Mughol captive, and had such uneasy doubts lest 
 one of his arrows, the length of which was sixteen palms, 
 should find its way through his own body, that he sent 
 him back from Carshi with secret orders to the jailer at 
 Samarcand to kill him on arrival. 
 
 But Sayyid Ali, suspecting the fate reserved for him, 
 effected his escape on the road, and in the guise of a dar- 
 vesh returned to his grandfather in Mugholistan. Here 
 Khudadad, fearful of the revenge of his pursuers, sent 
 him out of the way to join the robber band of Wais 
 Khan, who was at this time in retreat amongst the Cal- 
 mac of Lob and Katak. He was well received by Wais, 
 who gave him his sister Oron Nishin to wife ; and, as the 
 historian records, Sayyid Ali brought down two stags 
 with his bow for the wedding feast. 
 
 From these grounds Wais and his band shifted their 
 camps to Turkistan, at the opposite extreme of the ter- 
 ritory. The ruler here was Shekh Nuruddin, son of 
 Sarbogha the Capchac. He was at enmity with Sher 
 Muhammad, and therefore welcomed his rebellious 
 nephew, and, by way of cementing an alliance, gave 
 his sister Sikanj Khanim in marriage to Wais. 
 
196 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 The uncle and nephew were here continually at war, 
 till, on the death of the former, the other succeeded to 
 the government. His rule, however, was one of such 
 utter discord, and the Tymuris were getting such a fast 
 supremacy in his country, that Khudadad, now arrived 
 at the ripe age of four score and ten years, disgusted at 
 the obstinacy of Wais, invited Ulugh to take possession 
 of the country. He met the venerable Amir on the 
 upper course of the Chui, and taking him back with him 
 to Samarcand gave him an honourable escort thence to 
 Mecca. From this, having closed a beneficent and un- 
 usually long career with the pious duties so dear to the 
 Muslim, Khudadad went on to Medina, and dying 
 there, was buried in the sacred precincts of the Khalif 
 Uthman's sepulchre. 
 
 On this occasion of Ulugh Beg's visit to the Mughol 
 country, Wais Khan and his nomads dispersed into the 
 trackless steppes ; but on his departure they returned to 
 renew their wonted excursions on the Andijan frontier. 
 This led to the despatch of an army from Samarcand 
 against them, and to the death of Wais in one of the first 
 actions with the enemy. He left two sons, Yunus and 
 Eshan Bogha, whose history I have before alluded to. 
 
 Amongst the nobles who supported the claims of 
 Eshan Bogha to the succession was Amir Sayyid Ali, 
 who, on the succession of Wais to the throne, had been 
 granted the government of Khutan, in reward for his 
 services in the wars he waged against the Calmac. He 
 now, on the establishment of Eshan Bogha as Khan, got 
 permission to recover the government of his ancestors, 
 which, during the fourteen years since the expulsion of 
 his father Sayyid Ahmad from Kashghar, had been held 
 by the Doghlat officers appointed from Samarcand, so 
 far as concerned Kashghar and Andijan, whilst the cities 
 
RE CO VERS GO VERNMENT OF KASHGHAR. 197 
 
 of Turfan and Acsu had fallen into the hands of his 
 brothers and nephews. 
 
 He first seized Acsu held by two of his brothers whom 
 he killed and then attacked Kashghar, but was repulsed. 
 He returned to the assault the next harvest with a like 
 result, and on the third attempt took the city. He now 
 brought Eshan Bogha down from the steppes, and set 
 him on the throne at Acsu, and himself administered the 
 government as successor to Amir Khudadad. 
 
 The Mughol nobles, displeased at this arrangement, 
 dispersed to pursue their own designs, and anarchy soon 
 spread all over the country. Meantime Eshan Bogha 
 invaded Andijan and seized its fort, but was bought off 
 by Samarcand. His incursions on this frontier were so 
 frequent now, that Abu Sa'id Mirza, the successor of 
 Shahrukh in Khorasan, sent his brother Yunus to take the 
 country from him. 
 
 When Yunus arrived in Mugholistan in 1455 with his 
 Khorasan contingent, he was joined by some of the border 
 nomads, and advanced against Kashghar, which was held 
 by the now aged Amir Say y id Ali. Eshan Bogha, who 
 was at the time with his Jatta nomads in the Yulduz 
 valley, at once hurried to his assistance, and the invaders 
 were repulsed with loss. Yunus was now deserted by all 
 his following, and returned to Abu Sa'id in a state of 
 penury, attended only by a single Calmac who was faith- 
 ful to the last, and consented to become a slave that his 
 empty-handed master might approach the king with 
 him as a present. 
 
 Abu Sa'id afterwards discovered this, and liberating 
 the trusty Calmac, sent him to join his master, whom he 
 had once more established on the Tashkand frontier to 
 watch his opportunity for a renewal of the effort to re- 
 cover the throne of Kashghar. 
 
198 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Yunus remained at Banikand till the death of Sayyid 
 Ali in 1457, when he again advanced into Mugholistan, 
 and established himself there till opportunity should 
 present for making a descent upon its capital. Sayyid 
 Ali had left two sons namely, Saniz Mirza by a Jaras 
 wife, and Hydar Mirza by Oron Mshin, the aunt of 
 Yunus. 
 
 According to Mughol custom Saniz, the eldest, suc- 
 ceeded to his father's office. He transferred his residence 
 to Yarkand, and provided for his brother by giving him 
 the government of Kashghar and Yangi Hissar. Hydar 
 was married to a daughter of Eshan Bogha, and his 
 sympathies were consequently on that side ; and on the 
 death of Eshan he allied with his son Dost Muhammad. 
 
 Saniz, on the other hand, favoured the cause of Yunus, 
 and calling him to his aid, with his assistance drove 
 Hydar to quit Kashghar and join Dost at Acsu. Whilst 
 at Kashghar on this occasion, 1461, Yunus married Shah 
 Begum, the daughter of Shah Sultan Muhammad of 
 Badakhshan. She was the mother of his sons Mahmud 
 and Ahmad. Saniz was killed by a fall from his horse 
 after a rule of seven years as a dependent of Yiinus. 
 Hydar, aged seventeen years, on this seized Kashghar, 
 whilst Dost made an unsuccessful attempt to secure 
 Yarkand, whence, however, he carried off the family of 
 Saniz the widow Jamak Agha, whom he married, and 
 her sons Ababakar and Umar, and a daughter. On his 
 return homewards he plundered Yangi Hissar, an act of 
 hostility which sent Hydar over to the side of Yunus, 
 and on arrival at Acsu married his sister to Ababakar. 
 
 Dost Muhammad by his eccentricities, violent temper, 
 and outrageous acts, soon estranged his best friends, and 
 frightened Ababakar to seek refuge with his uncle at 
 Kashghar. He died after a course of seven years of 
 
ANARCHY FOLLOWS HIS DEA TH. 199 
 
 Violence and licence, in 1468, and Yiinus immediately 
 pounced upon Acsu, whence his infant son, Kabak, was 
 carried away to Turfan, whilst the second time widowed 
 Jamak Agha escaped to Kashghar, and became the 
 wife of Hydar, to whom she bore Muhammad Husen, the 
 father of the author of " Tarikhi Eashidi." Yiinus now 
 received the submission of Hydar, and keeping him in 
 the government of Kashghar, himself returned to the 
 steppes of Mugholistan, owing to the aversion of his 
 nomad supporters to the restraints of a city life, and 
 ruled there for several years. 
 
 Meanwhile at Kashghar Hydar's last wife, Jamak 
 Agha, was exerting herself in forwarding the interests 
 of her eldest son Ababakar, who was now grown up a 
 tall and powerful man, and had become a favourite 
 amongst the courtiers on account of his bravery, and 
 skill in the use of the bow. She persuaded Hydar to 
 dismiss his most influential nobles from court, and by 
 one device and another succeeded in detaching his best 
 friends from him, and attaching them to the cause of 
 Ababakar, who soon fled from Kashghar with a following 
 of three thousand of the best men in the country, and, 
 seizing Yarkand, allayed Hydar's wrath by promising to 
 hold the place in subjection to him. He was presently 
 joined by his brother Umar, and they set out together 
 to take Khutan, the government of which was held by 
 their kinsmen, the descendants of Khizr Shah, who had 
 been installed there by his father, the Amir Khudadad. 
 On the way Ababakar, becoming jealous of a possible 
 rival, deprived his brother of sight, and sent him back 
 to Kashghar, and advanced on his enterprise unfettered. 
 His object failed, and he returned to Yarkand to pre- 
 pare for another attempt, in which he carried the place 
 by a piece of treachery which it seems is common to the 
 
200 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 country. The ruler was invited to swear to terms of 
 peace on the Curan, and whilst so engaged was set on 
 and murdered together with his followers. 
 
 After thus securing Khutan, Ababakar subjugated the 
 hill tracts to the south by a succession of excursions up 
 the courses of its several streams, and on his return to 
 Yarkand essayed an expedition against Yangi Hissar. 
 Hydar came out with a numerous rabble to oppose him, 
 but was driven back with discomfiture, and at once 
 called on Yunus to aid him. On his arrival they 
 attacked Yarkand with their conjoined forces, and for- 
 tune again declaring in favour of Ababakar, they were 
 put to flight in disgraceful panic. 
 
 Yunus vowing condign vengeance, retreated to his 
 steppes, and next year, 1479, returned with an immense 
 gathering of his Mughols, and proceeded with Hydar to 
 invest Yarkand with 90,000 men. This army fared 
 worse than the first, and Yunus following the flight of 
 his terrified nomads, was joined at Acsu by Hydar with 
 his family from Kashghar, which, now abandoned, fell 
 into the hands of Ababakar. 
 
 Yunus and Hydar wintered at Acsu, and in spring 
 went to the steppes to recruit their forces for a final 
 attempt to crush Ababakar. In the summer, however, 
 Yiinus was called off into Andijan to mediate between 
 his warring sons-in-law, Umar Shekh (father of the cele- 
 brated Emperor Babur) of Farghana, and Sultan Ahmad 
 of Samarcand, and, entangled in the affairs of these 
 countries, finally established himself at Tashkand; whilst 
 Ababakar, left to himself, consolidated his authority over 
 his conquests from Khutan to Kashghar, and taking 
 advantage of the confusion produced by the Uzbak in- 
 vasion of the western half of Badakhshan, advanced and 
 seized the eastern half of the territory, which he an- 
 
ABABAKAR USURPS THE GOVERNMENT. 201 
 
 nexed to Kashghar. This was twelve years before its 
 conquest by Sa'id. Ababakar also greatly improved 
 Yarkand, which he made his capital, with handsome 
 mansions, and gardens, and strong fortifications. 
 
 Whilst Ytinus was engaged in the politics of Andijan, 
 his son Ahmad, or Alaja, retired to the steppes to possess 
 himself of the rule over the nomads there. Having done 
 this, he in 1499 turned his arms against Ababakar, and 
 seizing Kashghar, wintered there. His attack upon 
 Yarkand in the ensuing spring failed, and he was driven 
 back to the steppes in disorder. 
 
 On the death of Ahmad two or three years later at 
 Acsu, his son and successor Mansur, aged sixteen years, 
 quarrelled with his younger brothers as to the division 
 of the heritage, and one of them appealing for aid to 
 Ababakar he marched against Acsu. Mansur retired 
 before him to the steppes, and the invader, seizing the 
 place, plundered the treasures accumulated by Ahmad, 
 and, dismantling the fortifications, returned to his capi- 
 tal. After this, when Sa'id, returning from Kabul with 
 Babur, was sent to take possession of Andijan, Ababakar, 
 seizing the opportunity of the confusion there, invaded 
 the country to recover it for Kashghar, as part of the go- 
 vernment of his ancestor Bolaji, but he was defeated, and 
 compelled to beat a hasty retreat. He was so enraged 
 at the failure of his troops, that, under the accusation of 
 treachery, he executed more than three thousand of them 
 with most horrible tortures and mutilations. 
 
 On Sa'id's expulsion from Andijan a few years later, 
 he revenged himself on Ababakar by that invasion which 
 gave him the country, and relieved its people from the 
 cruelties of their heartless ruler. Ababakar himself was 
 so mistrustful of the loyalty of his subjects that, on the 
 approach of his enemy, he razed to the ground the 
 
202 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ancient city of Kashghar, and hastily raising the fortifi- 
 cations of the present city a little higher up on the river 
 bank placed a garrison in it, and himself retired to 
 Yarkand with the entire population of the destroyed city. 
 His newly built fortifications were immediately aban- 
 doned to the invaders, and when Yangi Hissar fell 
 shortly after, Ababakar, leaving his son Jahangir to de- 
 fend the place, quitted his capital, and fled with his 
 treasures to Khutan. His son, in place of defending 
 Yarkand, gave the city up to plunder, and fled with 
 what he could lay hands on after his father. 
 
 The one perished miserably, after wandering about 
 the desert mountains of Tibat, abandoning his loads of 
 treasure at the different steeps as his cattle died under 
 their weight, and casting his hidden store of diamonds, 
 and rubies, and emeralds into the torrents across his 
 path, through fear the knowledge of their possession 
 might be the forfeit of his life ; whilst his followers, fore- 
 seeing the end, plundered their charges, and gradually 
 dropped off to share the spoil, and to fish out of the 
 stream the sparkling gems thus cast away. 
 
 Worn with fatigue and hunger, the friendless fugitive, 
 on the approach of winter, sought shelter from the cold 
 blasts of the Caracoram plateau in the hollows of the 
 Caracash valley, where his hiding was betrayed, and he 
 was overtaken and slain at the entrance to the pass we 
 have presently to go over. 
 
 The other, trammelled with the quantity of his plunder, 
 was overtaken at Sanju and consigned to prison, where 
 he was subsequently executed for plotting a revolt. 
 And so ended with father and son the rule of the Amirs 
 of Kashghar, who derived their rank and power through 
 the military system first organised there by Changiz. 
 The author from whom I have drawn so largely in these 
 
CHARACTER OF ABABAKAR. 203 
 
 pages gives a frightful picture of the cruelties and tyranny 
 of this Ababakar Mirza. He killed several of his own 
 children for trivial offences, and condemned his relations, 
 male and female alike, to revolting tortures and deaths. 
 Whilst as to his officers and subjects, their lives, and per- 
 sons, and property were at the whim of his despotic will ; 
 and so great was the terror inspired by his capricious 
 judgments, that the relations of society were destroyed, 
 and no man trusted his neighbour, or child his parent. 
 He organised a system of prisoner gangs, recruited from 
 both sexes of the people on frivolous pretences, for the 
 purpose of exhuming the treasures buried under the 
 ruined cities in the desert. Many thousands were thus 
 employed during all seasons under a most rigorous dis- 
 cipline ; and the stores of wealth and gems thus collected 
 were hoarded in his treasury, to be finally cast away in 
 the torrents of the mountains. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding this character for cruelty, trade 
 flourished during his reign, and Islam prospered. Its 
 law, in fact, was taken as his guide, and made to suit 
 his will, under a system which the priests very soon 
 learned that they dare not resist, except at the price of 
 life, or torture worse than death. 
 
 Such is a short summary of the history of the man 
 who, four hundred years ago, seized the western half of 
 Kashghar to convert its soil into a garden for himself, 
 and its people into the slaves of his will ; and who, after a 
 rule of nearly half a century, ended his career as a hunted 
 outcast on the spot which has drawn us from the path 
 of our journey for this historical digression. 
 
 At Mazar Ababakar Mirza the road quits the valley 
 of the Caracash, and turns to the left up a tortuous gully, 
 which winds down from the north with the drainage of 
 the hills about the southern slopes of the Sanju Dawan. 
 
204 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 We found the path through it very steep, narrow, and 
 rough, and difficult of passage, owing to the repeated 
 crossings of its torrent, which was at this time a solid 
 mass of ice, smooth and slippery as ice is known to be. 
 After ascending about two hours we came to a landslip 
 which blocked the gully, and clambering over its great 
 angular masses, and sharp edged fragments, at a few 
 steps beyond passed on into a turfy lane which lay dark 
 and gloomy before us between high walls of perpendicu- 
 lar rock. This is Caracoram camp ground. It is a tight 
 strait in the mountains, and is between two and three 
 hundred yards long by fifty or sixty wide. We crowded 
 our camp on the narrow strip of turf which edged the 
 little stream that trickled from side to side down its 
 slope, and during our short rest here experienced in a 
 new form the incidents and hazards of travel amongst 
 these mountains. 
 
 The character of the ascent from the river up to this 
 spot is peculiarly wi]d and dismal. Yet it is a mild 
 representation of what the morrow showed us further on. 
 The mountains rise up aloft in overwhelming heights of 
 the blankest nudity, and their rugged rocks frown upon 
 the narrow clefts that wriggle down amongst them, with 
 a look of menace which the masses of fallen debris that 
 here and there choke the passage, and everywhere en- 
 cumber it, tell the nature of. The unmitigated asperity 
 which meets the eye from every side is oppressive by its 
 very monotony. There is no variety in the aspect of the 
 scene, nor any vista that opens out a prospect of escape 
 from its toils. It is schist, and shale, and gneiss on all 
 sides, and everywhere equally bare, and equally repul- 
 sive. The sense of isolation produced by the vast moun- 
 tains closing in upon the traveller, step by step, as he 
 progresses, warns him against delay upon their crumbling 
 
APPROACH TO SANJU PASS. 205 
 
 precipices, whilst the streams, fast becoming solidified in 
 their rough beds, speak to him of the rigour of the 
 advancing season, which has already destroyed what 
 scanty vegetation found soil enough to sprout on, and 
 tell of at least one cause of the sufferings of the caravan 
 cattle driven this way. 
 
 This freezing of the watercourses on the higher ele- 
 vations is not the least of the causes which destroys the 
 cattle in such numbers on this route. Added to their 
 other toils these doomed creatures have often to journey 
 a whole day without water, for though their drivers can 
 melt enough ice to cook their own tea, they have not the 
 fuel to dissolve any for their cattle till they reach the 
 larger streams on which the camps are usually pitched. 
 At this Sanju Pass there are stages on either side of the 
 ridge, where, in the depth of the winter, no water is 
 procurable for the cattle from this cause. 
 
 Our cattle had a very toilsome journey this day, and, 
 though the distance was only ten miles, did not all 
 arrive in camp till seven o'clock, when darkness fell 
 upon the scene with a gloom befitting the occasion. 
 Our stay at Shahidullah had exhausted the resources of 
 that thinly peopled locality, and the passage of our 
 advance camp by this route a few days before us had 
 reduced the limited stock of fuel and fodder stored here 
 to a minimum. Consequently for the first time on our 
 long march we were put on " short commons." For- 
 tunately our cattle had been well cared for, and spared 
 as much as possible on the march to the frontier, and 
 were now in the best condition to face such a temporary 
 hardship, though it but ill fitted them to cope with the 
 difficulties the morrow brought upon them. 
 
 The elevation of this place is about 12,050 feet, and 
 the cold was severe, though the thermometer under the 
 
206 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 verandah of my tent only registered 10 F. During the 
 night we were disturbed by the combined effects of this 
 frost, and the wind sweeping through the gap we occu- 
 pied. The dark, and absolutely straight walls of rock 
 which rose on either side of us were split and fissured 
 with a succession of explosive sounds that jarred ungrate- 
 fully on the ear, to be followed by the crash of falling 
 fragments overbalanced from their insecure lodging above 
 by the force of the wind. Some of these fragments re- 
 bounding from the loose rocks below their predecessors 
 in fall injured several of our followers and cattle, and 
 amongst the former my groom, who did not recover 
 from the lameness thus produced for eight or ten days. 
 
 At this place Haji Tora received a letter from the 
 Dadkhwah of Yarkand, and with it, as a present for the 
 envoy, a handsome fur-lined juba and tilpac, in which, 
 according to the customs of the country, as acknowledg- 
 ment of the compliment, our chief was presently robed. 
 The bright colours of the flowered silk cloak, as its loose 
 folds hung from his manly form, and the fresh green of 
 the velvet cap, though more suited in outward appear- 
 ance to the elegancies of the Tatar court than to the 
 rough realities of the spot, had within them what was a 
 comfortable protection from the keen severity of the 
 winter air in Tatary, and the Dadkhwah in the selection 
 of this expression of goodwill showed a judicious regard 
 for the conventional and the practical combined. 
 
 Our next stage was across the Sanju Dawan to Gach- 
 aka eighteen miles. We set out at 9 A.M., and went in 
 a north-east direction up a narrow gully which winds 
 as a deep groove amongst mountain walls of bare rock- 
 lofty, jagged, broken, and irregular, presenting a scene 
 of the wildest character with never a feature to soften 
 its harshness. In three quarters of an hour we came to 
 
ROUGH GROUND AND OBSTRUCTIONS. 207 
 
 a great landslip which blocked the gully as with a bar- 
 ricade. It was a whole bluff fallen away from its parent 
 hill, and lay piled up as a huge bank with the ruins of 
 its downfall. 
 
 Our road if such it can be called by which we took 
 our horses scrambling, and climbing, and tumbling over 
 this pile of rocks, here dropping into a breakleg fissure 
 between sloping stones, there passing over the carcase of 
 some baggager who, when he could no longer serve his 
 master, left his body to fill a hole and smooth the way 
 for a following comrade in toil, and elsewhere lying 
 across some slanting rock, as insecure in its fixture as the 
 surface it offered for passage at this spot became almost 
 impracticable, and the number of carcases strewed about 
 its inequalities bore evidence of its difficulty. 
 
 Fortunately it is not of great extent, and leads beyond 
 to an easy bit of road which winds up the course of the 
 stream, at this time solid ice and slippery as it is steep, 
 to a spot where its channel divides to receive the drain- 
 age of two sweeping slopes of the Sanju hill which here 
 meet by narrow outlets to form a tight little hollow. 
 This spot is called Zakongra by the Kirghiz, after the 
 name of its rivulet, and it is also called Caracoram, from 
 the dark colour of the debris of its rocks, and it is the 
 first stage at the foot of the pass on this side. We 
 alighted here for breakfast, and found a caravan of 
 Bajawar Afghans loading their cattle, and driving them 
 off one after the other to find their way down the gully 
 we had come up. They had about sixteen horses laden 
 with charras (resin of Indian hemp) which they were 
 taking from Yarkand to Ladakh, and had found a com- 
 fortable shelter for the night under an overhanging bank 
 of conglomerate, which here blocks the entrance to the 
 Sanju Dawan slope. 
 
208 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Our baggage and camp had left the ground two hours 
 before we set out, and was conveyed on the horses and 
 yaks provided by our Yarkand allies ; our own mules, one 
 hundred and ten in number, being reserved to meet 
 contingencies. During our halt for breakfast, the strag- 
 glers, and last out of camp came up and passed on, and 
 we congratulated ourselves with the promise of having 
 all clear over the pass before us. 
 
 At about noon we mounted the yaks reserved here for 
 our use, and resumed our route. A few paces across the 
 little Caracoram hollow brought us to a steep gap in the 
 rocks, only wide enough for one laden mule to pass at a 
 time, and beyond it led up through a wider passage 
 between high banks of schist to the long slope at the 
 top of which is the Sanju pass. 
 
 The scene which now burst upon our view is one not 
 easy to describe, still less to forget Immediately on 
 either hand, like the portals of a gate, stood bare banks 
 of silver grey slate which gently spread away on each 
 side into the slopes, that inclining together formed the 
 theatre of the spectacle they limited. And immediately 
 in front commenced that gentle rise over slabs of slate 
 debris the natural dark hue of which was lost in the 
 bright sparkle of its abundant mica which led at once 
 on to the field of our vision. 
 
 Here, at the foot of the ascent, one step took us from 
 the tiresome monotony of the bare rocks behind with all 
 their dulness of hue, on to the snow which overspread 
 all before with a white sheet of the most dazzling bril- 
 liance. On the left and on the right it spread with uni- 
 form regularity to the crests of the bounding ridges in 
 those directions ; whilst in front it rose up as a vast wall, 
 whose top cut the sky in a succession of sharp peaks 
 with a clearness of outline rarely witnessed. And above 
 
A BLOCK ON THE PASS. 209 
 
 all stretched the wide expanse of heaven with a depth 
 unsearchable in the speck] ess purity of its azure, and 
 with a calm such as often precedes the storm. Wonder- 
 ful was the scene ! 
 
 I stopped awhile to gaze upon its sublimity, and as 
 my eyes turned from side to side, and followed the cir- 
 cling of the white eagles as they floated majestically over 
 the pass, like sails upon a bright blue sea, they were 
 attracted by something which immediately turned the 
 current of my thoughts. I saw at the top of the pass, 
 at a narrow gap between two sharp peaks, a small knot 
 of black figures moving about the spot in commotion, 
 and from them I traced a long, dark, zigzag line, mo- 
 tionless and still, right down to the foot of the steep. A 
 few minutes brought me to the tail of the column, and 
 I learned that our camp and cattle were all stranded 
 here, nobody exactly knew why except that a caravan 
 coming from the opposite direction had met the head of 
 their column at the top of the rise. A slow and tedious 
 climb, now on foot and now on my yak, past the long 
 array of standing cattle, took me to the top. Here the 
 envoy and Haji Tora w T ere superintending the passage of 
 our caravan from a narrow ledge of rock at the very 
 crest itself. I found a perch on a projecting rock just 
 above it, and took the altitude by the hypsometer and 
 found it about 16,300 feet. The sky was beautifully 
 clear, and the air light, still and frosty ; and the view 
 of the snowy ranges, with the multitude of their sharp 
 jagged peaks, very fine. But an affair of more moment 
 now claimed the attention. For about thirty paces from 
 the top of the pass the rock was coated with sheet ice, 
 and at so steep a slope that no animal could pass it with- 
 out aid, so slippery was its surface. Steps were now 
 cut in the ice with picks, and laid with blankets and 
 
 o 
 
210 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 felts ; and over this footing the cattle were run up one 
 by one, a Kirghiz leading in front and another whipping 
 behind, and passed on through the narrow gap at the 
 crest to find their way as best they could down the 
 other side. The process was slow and attended by 
 many accidents, for the cattle were so numbed by 
 standing for hours in the snow, that their limbs had 
 lost much of their proper activity. One of our mules, 
 slipping from his narrow footing, rolled down the slope 
 on to a zig of the path below, and so injured him- 
 self that it was necessary to shoot him there, and shift 
 his gear to the back of another. A second fell in the 
 passage of the ice at the top, and with such a jerk that 
 the Kirghiz lost hold of his bridle, and he rolled down 
 the precipice " tail over tip " in a most extraordinary 
 fashion, bounding off and rebounding from the covered 
 rocks in his way with a force enough to smash every 
 bone in his body. Indeed, as his legs flapped about like 
 flails, and his neck doubled under his turning body as it 
 went rolling down, we concluded such was already the 
 case. But to our astonishment, when he was stopped in 
 his frightful fall by a small ledge on the hillside some four 
 hundred feet below, he struggled a few moments to right 
 his inverted body on the snow, and regaining his feet 
 shook himself straight, and looking around instinctively 
 made across the snow to join the line of his comrades, the 
 lower end of which was close by. The poor brute was 
 so cut about and injured, however, that he died a few 
 days after. 
 
 After two hours of this labour, about a hundred of our 
 cattle had been thus passed over, leaving double the 
 number still standing on the zigzag awaiting their turn, 
 when all of a sudden a squall of wind from the north 
 enveloped the country in clouds, and drove fine particles 
 
SUDDEN SNO WSTORM. 2 1 1 
 
 of snow, like frozen sand, with blinding force against us. 
 It was nearly four o'clock, and Haji Tora, rising from his 
 seat on the ice, urged -the envoy to quit his post, and 
 hurry down out of the snow on the other side, or else we 
 should be all benighted where we were. 
 
 It was not a time for hesitation or delay, and the Haji 
 leading the way we followed. A few steps took us 
 through the gap at the crest ; it is only wide enough for 
 one laden mule to pass at a time, and revealed to us the 
 descent down which our route doubled its way. It was 
 like the simile is not at all far-fetched a white board 
 set at a sharp angle against a wall, and was strewed on 
 each side the path with the wreck of our camp. The path 
 itself, which went down in steep sharp zigs, was frozen 
 hard, and was so slippery, that the cattle, here without 
 drivers, crowded together at the turns, till the pressure 
 of others coming on from above dislodged them on to 
 the snow on either side, or pushed them on to the next 
 turn of the path further down. 
 
 Our yaks had been kept in attendance a little way 
 down the slope, but in the confusion and noise of the 
 storm were so restive, that their footing on the ice was 
 almost as unsafe as that of the other cattle, and we con- 
 sequently preferred trusting to our own natural supports 
 to carry us to some less steep ground. How the others got 
 down I don't know, though I have a very vivid recollec- 
 tion of the manner of my own descent. I had on a pair of 
 treble soled shooting boots studded with nails, which I 
 found usually gave me a secure hold on slippery rocks 
 and ice, and therefore essayed to pick my way cautiously 
 down the path. I had hardly cleared the first turn, when 
 a mule, pushed on from above, came sliding after, and 
 knocked me from the path. And away I went with giant 
 strides down the steep, till the sight of an upset mule in 
 
212 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 front of me, frantically pawing the air in his efforts to 
 gain his feet, instinctively caused me to fall on my back; 
 and I was speedily brought to a stop with my feet against 
 his ribs. An unceremonious plant which proved of mutual 
 advantage, inasmuch as it somehow enabled the unfor- 
 tunate brute to recover his feet just as a couple of our 
 Ladakh coolies, abandoning another they were close by 
 setting loose from the load burying him under his fall, 
 came to my aid. 1 went on again picking my way 
 amongst the sprawling cattle here still in death, and 
 there struggling madly to free themselves from the en- 
 tangling ropes of their fallen loads and amongst the 
 scattered tents, and boxes, and gear strewed about where- 
 ever some obstructing rock had stopped their roll, now 
 sinking knee deep into some pitfall, and then tripping 
 over some loose balanced stone concealed by the snow, 
 till I passed from the steep on to a broad slope, where, 
 in a hollow under the shelter of a great shelving rock, I 
 found a party of Afghan merchants who were delayed here 
 by our occupation of the pass. They were refreshing some 
 of their countrymen of our escort and following with the 
 pipe of friendship, and I stopped to learn their latest 
 news from Yarkand. Just at this moment a tremendous 
 crash drew our attention in the direction of the pass, 
 and an indescribable scene met the eye. Its upper part 
 was concealed in a thick mist, from the edge of which 
 were seen men, and cattle hurrying, and tumbling down 
 the steep in a confused crowd to right themselves, and 
 pick up the pieces as best they could, on the slope where 
 we stood. Whilst looking, another avalanche, some hun- 
 dred or hundred and fifty yards to the right of the pass, 
 came thundering down its side, and rolled away to a hol- 
 low on the left just beyond our position as we faced the 
 pass. 
 
FALL OF AN AVALANCHE. 213 
 
 Amongst the others who were now passing on down 
 the slope, were three of the Turkish officers who had 
 come with Haji Tora from Constantinople. They were 
 numbed, famished, and frightened, and, having lost their 
 horses on the pass, were on the look out here to recover 
 them. They mentioned having passed my horse and yak 
 coming on together close at the foot of the steep. So I 
 waited their arrival, and then w r ent on down the slope in 
 the hope of getting a shot at some of the snow pheasants 
 which are said to abound in this locality. I saw no trace 
 of them, but hurrying on, got some specimens of the snow 
 bunting on the way. 
 
 At the foot of the steep, the ground slopes gently, and 
 spreads out in undulations up to the hills on each side ; 
 and being more level, the snow lay deeper on it. I here 
 returned to the path to mount my yak, and met one of the 
 Turks whom I had left at the foot of the steep. He had 
 annexed a yak allotted to another, and, on its master 
 claiming his own, was left here to trudge it on foot. I 
 found him seated on the snow wringing his hands, and 
 crying Ya Allah, Ya Allah, in helpless despair. His nose 
 and cheeks and knuckles were fissured by deep, bleeding 
 chaps, as if scored with a knife, and altogether he looked 
 a very pitiable object, and was so bewildered that he 
 was careless to control the fluttering of his loose robes 
 in the breeze. He looked up at me with a woebegone 
 countenance, and sighed Ya Allah ! and with a despond- 
 ing roll of his head from side to side lulled himself with 
 a repetition of Fana ! choc fana ! " Dreadful ! very 
 dreadful ! " 
 
 I could not help laughing at his droll expression of 
 misery, and some very animated but unintelligible refer- 
 ences to Stambol, which I interpreted, however, to mean 
 that " Constantinople was a much better place than this, 
 
2i 4 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 and that he was a fool to leave it." I bid him cheer up, 
 and giving him a good dose from my brandy flask 
 which he disposed of like a Christian mounted him 
 on my pony, a hardy and spirited little animal I had 
 selected from a batch provided for us by Mr Johnson at 
 Nubra. 
 
 The impetuous little creature, only half broken as he 
 was, no sooner felt a new hand on the bit than he com- 
 menced some of his playful antics, which ended in fright 
 at the flapping of his rider's cloak, and away he went at 
 full speed across country towards the hills on the left. 
 The Turk stuck to him manfully, as the wild little brute 
 tore madly over the inequalities of the ground, till pre- 
 sently he plunged into a snow drift, and shot his rider 
 a complete somersault over his head. The dark bundle 
 of clothes lay still for a few minutes, and then a head 
 and pair of arms appeared held up to heaven, and, doubt- 
 less, there were many Ya Allahs ! repeated, for I was 
 too far off to hear. 
 
 My pony meanwhile went off down the valley, kicked 
 off his saddle in one place and his bridle in another, and 
 then herded, as was his wont, amongst the baggage horses 
 of a Yarkand caravan, which we shortly after found 
 halted at the Coramlik-jilga camp ground, about a mile 
 and a half lower down, and just beyond the snow, where 
 he was captured. 
 
 At this place I found the envoy, and Haji Tora, and 
 Captain Chapman, and half a dozen others of our party, 
 all safe, and refreshed by some tea the Yarkandis had set 
 before them. We stopped a few minutes here to look up 
 at the formidable pass behind us. Nothing was to be 
 seen but clouds and snow, and the dark shadows of 
 nightfall which were closing rapidly upon us. We re- 
 sumed our route, and hurried on, down a rapidly falling 
 
BENIGHTED IN THE SNO W. 
 
 215 
 
 defile, by a winding path amongst a maze of earthy 
 mounds to Gachaka, seven or eight miles distant. 
 
 The path was very slippery owing to the hard frost ; 
 and the last part of the road was got over in the dark. 
 It was eight o'clock before we reached Gachaka, and 
 here we found that no part of our camp had yet arrived. 
 Haji Tora gave us some dinner in a Kirghiz acoe set up 
 for him, and whilst we were thus agreeably engaged had 
 another set up for us. It was the only one procurable 
 in the place, and, though in a very wofully decayed 
 condition, was a welcome shelter for the night. Mean- 
 while some of our followers came dropping in by ones 
 and twos, but except the envoy's tent none of our camp 
 came in that night. 
 
 But I have delayed long enough over our passage of the 
 Sanju Dawan, which we had heard of from our friends 
 under the name of the " Grim Pass." The name is not 
 known to the natives ; but whatever its derivation, our 
 experience proved it an appropriate one. 
 
 We halted next day at Gachaka for our followers 
 benighted on the pass to come on and join us. This is 
 a mere camp ground on the Sarighyar river, and its 
 elevation is about 10,100 feet. There are some Kirghiz 
 camps in the hollows and nooks around, and some small 
 patches of corn field here, but there is no house or hut 
 of any kind. 
 
 During the morning, parties of Kirghiz, with all their 
 available cattle, were sent up to the pass to help on our 
 stranded people, and baggage ; and by ten at night all 
 our followers were collected in camp with all our mules, 
 excepting eight that had died on the pass. The riding 
 ponies of our followers did not all join us till the next 
 day, and on arrival at Tarn, showed by their nibbled 
 tails, and munched clothing the strait they had been 
 
216 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 reduced to by hunger. Haji Tora lost twelve horses of 
 his camp left dead on the pass, and three of our followers 
 were severely frost-bitten. Of these, two lost some of 
 their toes, and did not recover the use of their feet for 
 three or four months ; and others were more or less 
 deranged by the night's exposure in the snow. Had it 
 not been for the careful preparations made by the envoy 
 at Ladakh, which provided each man with a suitable kit 
 of warm clothing and furs, I doubt not but we should 
 have lost some of our men. As it was, they recovered 
 from the hard trial better than was expected. At this 
 place the Bhot coolies we had brought on from Shahidulla 
 were discharged, at their own entreaty, which was 
 pressed with a free shedding of tears, to return home 
 before winter fully set in. Poor fellows, they had our 
 best wishes, and certainly earned them. 
 
 In the evening Haji Tora took leave of the envoy for 
 the night, as he was expected at Tarn, ten miles on down 
 the valley, on a delicate affair in which, according to the 
 custom of the country, a Kirghiz maiden was his part- 
 ner. We met him there next day, and before leaving 
 Tarn, which is a lonely hamlet of six or eight cabins 
 crowded together under two roofs, on our forward 
 journey were joined by the remnant of our followers, 
 and baggage, and cattle from this side of the pass ; all 
 brought in by the Kirghiz. 
 
 Tarn means " a wall " and a " mud house," and exactly 
 describes this place, which is the first fixed habitation 
 (not an outpost) with cultivated fields, that we have 
 come to since we left Changlung. It stands on a sandy 
 beach close to the Sarighyar river, or the "Yellow 
 Ravine " from the predominant colour 4 of its rocks ; just 
 as Kokyar, or the "Blue Ravine," further to the west is 
 named from the dark shades of its rocks. 
 
ARRIVAL A T SANJU. 2 1 7 
 
 From Tarn we marched to Kiwaz, sixteen miles. The 
 road goes down the narrow and winding defile, and 
 crosses its stream repeatedly from side to side, amidst a 
 gradually thickening growth of brushwood. On our 
 way we passed three or four caravans of charras from 
 Yarkand on their way up to the pass. Between Gachaka 
 and this place the river is crossed twenty-eight times. 
 In the summer the floods render the route impracticable 
 during certain months, and then the Kulik and Kilian 
 passes are used. A little way out of camp we passed the 
 remains of a barricade built across the valley by Aba- 
 bakar, when he fled into the mountains from Sa'id, as 
 I have before mentioned. And at an hour out of camp 
 we came to the Chuchu gully on the right. There is, 
 we were told, an alternative route over the pass at its 
 top to Sanju. 
 
 At Kewaz the valley expands into a flat sandy basin, 
 in which are several detached huts and a good deal of 
 cultivation, but I saw no " cotton," which tlie name of 
 the place implies. The brushwood along the river banks 
 is very similar to that of the Nubra valley. 
 
 On arrival in camp the envoy was received by Mulla 
 Hydar, the Hakim Beg of Guma. He brought with 
 him some pheasants which had been hawked near his 
 capital. He was a kind-featured old man with a very 
 quiet, and unassuming manner. He attracted our atten- 
 tion by the size of his Tartar cap, and its fox fur border, 
 the first notably distinct sign of the new costumes, and 
 peoples we were come amongst. 
 
 Next day we marched to Sanju, twelve miles, and 
 joined the advance party under Colonel Gordon. A 
 little way out of camp we crossed the Sarighyar river 
 over a wide boulder bed, and going down an expanding 
 valley, along the foot of some high banks of red sand 
 
218 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 and gravel, at an hour and a haif came to the cultiva- 
 tion of Sanju. We passed on amongst its fields and 
 gardens for another hour and a half nearly, and then 
 arrived in camp, near which the familiar uniforms of 
 our comrades, coming to welcome their chief, caught our 
 attention amongst the trees, and for the time diverted 
 our thoughts from the extraordinary, and sudden change 
 of scene we had entered to the more engrossing topics 
 of each other's welfare and experiences. We found that 
 our friends had got over the pass before the frost set in, 
 and without the accompaniment of a snowstorm, and 
 that they fortunately escaped the difficulties we had to 
 encounter. 
 
 We halted here three days to allow the stragglers of 
 our own and Haji Tora's party to come up with the bag- 
 gage, &c., which had been left behind on the other side of 
 the pass. And a more welcome rest in a more agreeable 
 spot we could not have found in all this region. The 
 halt afforded us an opportunity of experiencing some- 
 thing of the same sort of surprise in the change of 
 scene as the Emperor Babur more than three hundred 
 years before experienced in his much more sudden transi- 
 tion from the north side of the Hindu Kush to its south at 
 Kabul, as is so interestingly told in his memoirs. As he 
 found there, so we found here, a complete change in the 
 character of the scene. The climate, and the country, 
 and its soil were different; its people, and their language, 
 and their manners were of another sort ; and its plants, 
 and animals, and birds were of other kinds. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 SANJU is a delightful place. To us emerging from the 
 mountains after three weeks of toil across their vast 
 wastes of desert plateaux, glacier passes, and bridgeless 
 torrents, it seemed a perfect paradise, inviting a season 
 of repose on the very threshold of the level plains of 
 Tatary, which now spread open their wide surface to our 
 view. After the rugged rocks, and crumbling barriers of 
 the gloomy defiles we had left behind us, the eye here 
 revelled in the freedom of its range. The blank nudity 
 and sterility of the soil, which by very repetition had 
 palled upon us, was here relieved by the sight of orchards 
 and plantations, of stubble fields and stacked corn. 
 The recollection of keen frosts and blighting winds was 
 lost in the grateful sensations of a milder climate and 
 free respiration ; and above all, the dreadful solitude of 
 the desert was exchanged for the welcome society of 
 mankind an agreeable change. And the more so by 
 reason of our hospitable reception, no less than of the 
 different race of that fellow-being, which in its foreign 
 type and tongue, as in its strange dress and customs, now 
 invited our interest. 
 
 Shortly after arrival in camp, Ali Murad, the Beg or 
 " governor " of Sanju, appeared at the envoy's tent with 
 a long array of men bearing the trays of a sumptuous 
 dasturJchivan. There were soups, and pillaos (here 
 called ash), and roasts and ragouts. There were dry 
 fruits and fresh fruits, and there were bread in different 
 forms, and sweets of different sorts all savouring more 
 
220 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 of European tastes than Asiatic, as they are seen south 
 of the passes at all events. Spices are almost unrepre- 
 sented, and grease pervades every thing in the dishes with 
 which they are elsewhere generally used; whilst the fruits 
 are those of Europe, of which again the tea, and its ser- 
 vice remind one. Of the sweets, the characteristic were 
 a marmalade of fine cut carrots in syrup (called mur- 
 abba), and a cream of pounded white sugar flipped in 
 the white of eggs (called nashalla). Amongst the apples 
 we found a kind called muzalma, or " ice apple," which, 
 when cut, was semitransparent as if iced. With every 
 desire to acknowledge the compliment, and do justice to 
 the hospitality provided, our combined exertions were 
 of no avail in making any impression on the piles of 
 eatables which, according to the customs of the country, 
 should disappear under our attention. After tasting of 
 one and another, and praising each in turn, the allahu 
 akbar of eating released us from further responsibility, 
 and the feast was passed on to our attendants, who, with 
 a wonderful alacrity, adapting themselves to the re- 
 quirements of the place, finished the duty we had com- 
 menced. And that too entirely heedless of their Indian 
 prejudices which, but a few short weeks ago, nay but only 
 yesterday on the passes, compelled them to cast away 
 as unclean the food from their masters* table. 
 
 The dasturkhwan, which we faced here with, to our 
 hosts, such disappointing inability to cope with the 
 variety and abundance of its dishes, confronted us at 
 every stage, and at every halt ; and daily increased in 
 proportions and delicacy till, at Yarkand it reached to a 
 hundred trays, and at Kashghar attained the plenitude 
 of its richness and variety in I don't know how many 
 more. Nothing was done without the dasturUiwam, 
 and at last, the novelty wearing off, the very mention of 
 
RE CEPTION AND DASTURKHWAN. 2 2 1 
 
 the name grated disagreeably on the ear. If we went 
 a shopping to the city, we were inveigled to some man- 
 sion and feasted. If we made an excursion to some ruin, 
 the spread of trays was sure to be found awaiting our 
 investigation under the shadow of its crumbling walls ; 
 or if we visited the mausoleum of some sainted martyr, 
 the same array invited us to desecrate the sacred pre- 
 cincts ; and, finally, if we made a ceremonial call upon 
 a magnate of the land, this irrepressible custom formed 
 the most important part of the interview. 
 
 Sanju is a populous and flourishing settlement, of about 
 twelve hundred houses or families, on the Sarighyar 
 river where it debouches on the plain. It extends up 
 and down both banks for ten or twelve miles in an un- 
 broken succession of farmsteads. These consist of three 
 or four huts clustered together in the midst of their orch- 
 ards, fields, and plantations, and are usually enclosed with- 
 in surrounding walls, but bear no signs of fortification. 
 
 Altogether the place bears a look of prosperity and 
 plenty, which our free rambles over its fields did not 
 belie. And it may be taken as the model of all the 
 other rural settlements we saw in the country, so far as 
 regards its general plan and character of cultivation, its 
 people and their surroundings. That is to say, it is 
 planted on a perennial stream, and irrigated by numer- 
 ous canals drawn from it. Its houses are more or less 
 widely separated from each other by intervening fields 
 and orchards, vineyards and plantations, or patches of 
 meadow land ; and they spread away on every side from a 
 central spot, which contains the residence of the gover- 
 nor, and a street of stalls and booths for the weekly 
 market, where the peasantry assemble from all quarters 
 to barter their farm produce, and small industries. 
 
 Its cultivation comprises wheat, and maize, and rice, 
 
222 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 and barley in varying proportions according to soil. 
 Hemp, for its resin, which is a staple export to India; 
 and flax, for its seed, which is the source of the oil used 
 in the country ; cotton, for the material of the people's 
 every-day dress, and also for export. And garden produce, 
 such as is common in Europe, with melons and tobacco. 
 The fruits are the apple and pear, the apricot, plum, and 
 peach. The vine is every where cultivated, but wine is 
 unknown, and spirits are prohibited. The pomegranate, 
 almond, walnut, jujube and eloeagnus, are found generally 
 dispersed ; and the mulberry, willow, and poplar of two 
 kinds, with here and there the elm, are the timber and 
 fuel trees of the plantations and the water courses. 
 
 Silk is produced in some quantity, but of inferior 
 quality, from this up to Yangi Hissar, and is used for a 
 coarse home texture ; though some also finds its way to 
 Khocand, to which place too most of the cotton goes. 
 
 The cattle are cows of a finer breed than elsewhere in 
 the country; and sheep of the fat-tailed variety, superior 
 in size and wool to the English animal. The horses are 
 the hardy roadster of the short, thickset Tatar stamp ; 
 and there are a few mules of inferior powers owing to 
 the diminutive size of the ass, which in this country 
 does abound. 
 
 The people are Turks of a purer racial type than the 
 more mixed populations of the Yarkand and Kashghar 
 settlements ; and they are a peaceable and industrious 
 community, devoted to the cultivation of the soil, and the 
 arts of their agricultural life. And they produce within 
 the limits of their own settlements all the means of an 
 independent subsistence in the matters of necessary food 
 and clothing. A result possibly of the isolation of their 
 several settlements, and a liability to severance from com- 
 munication with their neighbours in times of anarchy and 
 
'CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY. 223 
 
 war. For around the Sanju settlement here, as elsewhere 
 in this remarkable region, is a blank desert of sand. 
 
 Their dress in the summer consists of a loose shirt, and 
 trowsers of coarse home-made cotton, and in winter the 
 same, with a long cloak padded and quilted in the form of 
 a loose robe like a dressing gown. Over these is usually 
 worn a long sheepskin coat, with the Tatar fur cap, and 
 boots lined with a casing of felt. Such is the dress of 
 the peasantry, men and women much alike ; the main 
 difference being in the finer quality, and varied patterns 
 of that of the latter, to whom also must be granted the 
 articles peculiar to the sex, such as the mantle and veil. 
 
 In the towns, of course, a greater diversity is seen, but 
 what I have stated as the dress of the people of Sanju is 
 the same as that of the peasantry generally, and it illus- 
 trates how independent they are of foreign sources for the 
 supply*of their actual requirements, as distinct from the 
 luxuries which become wants under a settled government 
 and just rule those great blessings which, amongst their 
 other benefits, protect industry and promote commerce. 
 
 Our arrival at Sanju seemed to excite very little curi- 
 osity, and, excepting the fifty or sixty men who gathered 
 around our camp from the neighbouring homesteads, 
 there was no crowd of spectators to stare at the foreigner. 
 There was no guard to prevent their doing so, nor any- 
 body to warn them off had they come. It was not like 
 travelling in Afghanistan, where the European is sur- 
 rounded by military guards to protect him from the 
 violence or insult of a fanatic people who habitually 
 carry arms, and mob the foreigner as if he were a wild 
 beast to be hooted out of their presence, or hunted to 
 death for intruding amongst enemies, or, at least, fair 
 game to be plundered. Here the people were unarmed, 
 and we moved about their lands with perfect freedom, 
 
224 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 and unattended, exciting no more commotion than any 
 one of themselves. Even the little boys did not display 
 the proverbial curiosity attributed to their class generally, 
 and our steps were dogged by no frolicsome urchins 
 making fun of the stranger, as they assuredly would have 
 been had we made our appearance in the streets of any 
 town at home in the guise of our travelling costume here. 
 
 Wherever we went, we met a deferential civility, and 
 an unexpected timidity. I passed several home-steads 
 of which the men were at work in the fields, and the 
 women in the courts in front of their houses, and did 
 not observe a single one of them cease their occupations, 
 or rise to stare at me as I passed. I even stood to watch 
 their operations without so much as disturbing them. 
 They seemed afraid to look up, or show any sign of 
 notice or interest. I was shooting little birds in the 
 hedge-rows, and collecting specimens of such plants as 
 were not already withered, and went freely in and out of 
 the orchards, and met no mark of disapproval, except from 
 the savage dogs, and they were immediately hushed by 
 their owners. And such was my experience everywhere 
 except in the cities. 
 
 The Beg of this place, Ali Murad, came to consult me 
 about a deep fissure he had in his under lip, and I com- 
 plimented him on the thriving condition, and quiet 
 demeanour of his people. 
 
 " Yes," he said, "Badaulat has reduced them to proper 
 order. But they are a rascally set of ruffians, and always 
 quarrelling among themselves. I keep them straight 
 by the shara" (Muhammadan law). 
 
 Perhaps he did, though I rather think he tried to mag- 
 nify the importance of his office and his own special 
 abilities, for he was a pretentious individual, and had 
 none of the retiring modesty of his subordinates. 
 
THE MIR OF SANJU. 225 
 
 " Do you know Shaw Sahib ? " he inquired abruptly. 
 
 " Yes. I saw him at Leh, on my way here," I replied. 
 
 "Is it true, then, that he is Mir (governor) of 
 Ladakh ? " 
 
 " No. He is not what you understand by that term 
 (he himself being Mir of Sanju). He is what we call 
 Joint-Commissioner, or Magistrate, to protect the in- 
 terests of traders passing that way." 
 
 " Then he is a servant of the Government," he said, 
 inquisitively. 
 
 " Yes. He is appointed by Government to that spe- 
 cial duty." 
 
 " But he told us, when he came here a few years ago, 
 that he was a simple Sauddgar (merchant), and had 
 nothing to do with Government." 
 
 " Quite true. He was not then employed by Govern- 
 ment." 
 
 " And he is now," he said, with an enquiring look of 
 doubtful thoughts. 
 
 "Yes; because he knew your people, and was your 
 friend, and the best man for the duty." 
 
 " I see. I see. He is our friend," and with a pensive 
 nodding of the head and downcast eyes, "he is a very 
 clever man." And saying so, he as abruptly took- his 
 leave, and went away chuckling to himself. 
 
 I had cauterized his lip, and given him some oint- 
 ment for it, and, on the strength of the favour, he way- 
 laid me at every turn during the four or five days he 
 was with us, to tell me he felt no better. In fact, he 
 thought the condition of his lip was worse than before 
 I touched it. 
 
 "You tell me you have had this disease five years," 
 I said, "and you expect to be cured in five minutes." 
 
 " If you only gave me your full attention, I am sure 
 
 p 
 
226 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 you could cure me, for you people can do all sorts of 
 things." 
 
 " Well, you try my medicine for five weeks, and if it 
 in that time does not cure you, come to me at Yarkand 
 and I will cut the diseased part out for you." 
 
 This was quite enough for my garrulous friend, and 
 he pestered me no more to look and see what progress 
 the sore in his lip was making. 
 
 Amongst others who sought my assistance here was a 
 trader from the Punjab. He had come up last year, and 
 had penetrated to Khocand, and was now thus far on 
 his way back to Lahore. He had lost the tops of the 
 fingers of both hands from frost-bite. On one, the 
 wounds had long been healed up, but on the other, which 
 he kept in a bag of sheep-skin, smeared inside with suet, 
 they were still open, owing to some decayed bones being 
 in course of extrusion. He said he had cleared a profit 
 of nearly thirty per cent., and seemed quite content to 
 earn it at such a sacrifice. 
 
 On the 1st November, Ibraham Khan, who had been 
 left behind on the other side of the pass with the bag- 
 gage delayed there, arrived in camp with the last of our 
 belongings. He reported that the Kirghiz had rendered 
 a willing assistance, or he would not have got over so 
 soon. The Envoy's handsome present to them at 
 Gachaka, in acknowledgment of their good service to 
 our party on the 26th October, had evidently borne 
 its fruit, and enlisted their goodwill in our favour, not- 
 withstanding the competition of the caravans waiting to 
 pass over. The merchants of some of these, seeing the 
 difficulty ahead, sold their loads at the foot of the pass 
 to their more venturesome fellows, and returned to pro- 
 ceed back to their homes with our camp. 
 
 Next morning, just as we were about to mount to 
 
RECEIPT OF THE ATALIK'S LETTER. 227 
 
 proceed on our onward journey, Mulla Artoc, whom I 
 have mentioned before as having overtaken us in the 
 Nubra valley, arrived from Kashghar with despatches 
 for Haji Tora, and a letter of welcome from Atalik Ghazi 
 for the Envoy. It was handed to the addressee by Haji 
 Tora with the observance of the customary ceremony, 
 and the Envoy, well acquainted with the customs of 
 the country, received it with proper respect in both 
 hands, and facing to the direction whence it came, 
 pressed it to his heart and eyes before unfolding to 
 read its contents ; and this done refolded and placed it 
 on his head with a careful tuck into a twist of his shawl 
 turban. Unlike the richly illuminated sheets, and huge 
 double envelopes of brocade and muslin which carry the 
 correspondence of princes on the other side of the passes, 
 this was a mere sheet of plain white paper, folded up 
 in a covering of the same. Unlike too the rhodomontade 
 and absurd compliments used in Indian correspondence, 
 the style of this letter was as simple as its paper, both 
 practical and to the purpose as a missive of welcome and 
 friendship apparently in pursuance of the fashion first 
 introduced amongst the Mughols by the founder of their 
 power, the great Changiz. 
 
 From Sanju we marched to Coshtac twenty-five 
 miles. After crossing the river on a firm boulder bed, 
 and passing through the strip of cultivation on its other 
 side, we ascended a high sand bank, and at once rose on 
 to the desert. It spread away before us in a great arc 
 which cut the horizon, and presented an undulating 
 surface of gravel, traversed in a south-easterly direction 
 by broken lines of sand dunes. Vegetation was ex- 
 tremely scanty and withered, and animal life was only 
 represented by a few larks of the "black-horned" species, 
 whilst the tracks of the antelope, with here and there 
 
228 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the burrows of the jerboa, told of other denizens of the 
 desert. 
 
 At half-way we dropped into a wide and shallow 
 ravine, and alighted at a resting stage under its bank, 
 for the dasturkhwan which we found spread at the side 
 of a frozen tank, under the branches of some poplar 
 trees that grew around it. This place is called Langar, 
 and consists of three or four huts in the midst of a 
 cluster of willow and elceagnus trees ; and round about 
 them are small patches of ploughed land. 
 
 We resumed our route across a continuation of the 
 desert to Coshtac, which is a similar, though much 
 smaller, settlement to that of Sanju. It lies in a wide 
 hollow on the banks of the Kilian river, which joins that 
 of Sanju near Guma away to the south-east. The joint 
 streams are further on lost in the desert of Takla, which 
 is a wide spread of sand in whose loose heaps are buried 
 the ancient cities of Khutan. Next day we went across 
 a similar strip of desert to Oetoghrac the "poplar 
 house" from the number of those trees here twenty 
 miles. This is a small collection of homesteads in the 
 ravine of a perennial little stream, whose spring-head is 
 at the foot of some gravel cliffs away to the left, or west 
 of our route. 
 
 Borya twelve miles was our next stage, on the 4th 
 of November, across a similar waste to a similar hollow, 
 and similar collection of farms. Except a small caravan, 
 at a few miles out of Sanju, we met no people on the 
 road, and observed nothing to note on the desert, be- 
 yond its limitation on the west by low spurs of gravel 
 and clay which were concealed above in the obscurity 
 of thick haze and its unlimited stretch on the east to 
 a distant horizon of a like haze, barely distinguishable 
 from the ground with which its colour mingled. Both 
 
CHAR A CTER OF R US TIC LIFE. 2 2 9 
 
 sky and land were so much of the same colour a light 
 yellowish dun or drab that it was impossible at a 
 distance to distinguish one from the other In the 
 evening we enjoyed a reprieve from the blank monotony 
 of the view above and below and around by the spectacle 
 of a total eclipse of the moon, which we watched to 
 perfection in a cloudless sky, till near an hour short of 
 midnight by our time. 
 
 We did not observe that the people of the homesteads 
 amongst which we were camped took any notice of this 
 celestial phenomenon ; or if they did, it was without 
 demonstration of any kind. Not a soul was seen, nor a 
 voice heard beyond our own party, except the howl of 
 the watchdogs. 
 
 Indeed, the silence that pervaded these isolated little 
 centres of habitation had before attracted our attention, 
 and in all our subsequent experience was one of the most 
 notable features of peasant life in this country. We 
 never heard the sound of music, the voice of song, or the 
 laugh of joy, which, in the country dwellings of any 
 other clime, are the evening's solace after the labours of 
 the day. Nor did we see anything of the social gatherings 
 for gossip or romp, such as one might expect to find in 
 such communities, even amongst the young folks. Yet 
 we were assured that these people have their reunions 
 and parties, and after their own fashion enjoy the plea- 
 sures and .vanities of life much as other people do. It 
 may be, and very probably is so, only we saw no sign 
 of it, owing possibly to the circumstances of their 
 situation cut off from their neighbours by desert, and 
 isolated amongst themselves by their separate dwell- 
 ings ; or, perhaps, owing to the rigid discipline of a 
 new form of government, jealous of the assemblage 
 together of individuals of its conquered subjects. 
 
2 3 o KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 From Borya we marched to Kargalik twenty-two 
 miles and halted a day. For the first fifteen miles the 
 route lay across a gravelly desert waste, and then sloped 
 gently to a wide hollow running west and east, and 
 covered for several miles up and down its course with 
 the cultivation of Besh Aric. This is a prosperous 
 and populous settlement, spread, as the name indicates, 
 over five canals drawn off from the river Teznaf (teznafi, 
 "quickly profitable"), or Tezab (the swift river) as it 
 is called in the "Tarikhi Eashidi." It irrigates all this 
 tract as far as Lakhof on the east, beyond which is the 
 desert again. 
 
 We alighted at some tents, pitched for us in the centre 
 of the settlement, to face the usual dasturkhivan, and 
 then resuming the route across a small strip of sandy 
 waste, on which we found the wild rue or peganum, the 
 wild liquorice, camel's-thorn, and tamarisk, &c., in one 
 hour reached Kargalik, where we were accommodated in 
 a rest house built expressly for us. This was the first 
 house we had occupied since leaving Murree, and, in 
 point of comfort, it was not inferior to those of our more 
 civilised country left behind, though of different style. 
 
 In its newly completed state it looked clean and invit- 
 ing, and its interior furniture showed how thoughtful 
 our hosts had been of our accustomed requirements. 
 The plan of the building was altogether native, and 
 built like the other houses in this country, of .raw bricks 
 laid on a foundation of rolled stones from the river's bed, 
 and coated with mud plaster. It was a quadrangular 
 enclosure in the midst of the town, and was entered by 
 a large gateway in which our guard took post. The 
 opposite wall was occupied by an open verandah, raised 
 two or three feet from the ground, which communicated 
 through a doorway, with a smaller court, partitioned off 
 for the kitchen, store-room, and out-offices. 
 
OUR REST-HOUSE AT KARGARLIK. 231 
 
 Of the two remaining sides, one was occupied by a 
 large chamber open towards the square, and flanked on 
 each side by a bed-room, which opened into it by a door 
 on one side, and into the square by a door on the other. 
 The remaining side was occupied by a row of six or 
 seven small bed-rooms, protected in front by a verandah. 
 Each room had a fireplace and chimney after the fashion 
 of our own country, and was provided with a folding 
 door of coarse planks which turned on a pivot. The 
 floors were spread with handsome Khutan carpets, and 
 the walls were covered to a height of three feet by a 
 stretch of cotton cloth or velvet plush to protect the 
 dresses of those leaning against it. Above this was a row 
 of recesses by way of shelves, and above the door was a 
 ventilator to light up the white gypsum plaster of the 
 room. 
 
 Such were the rooms. The furniture comprised some 
 chairs and bedsteads built expressly for our benefit, on 
 what was supposed to be the model of those of our own 
 country. The production was not bad, and did credit to 
 the Chinese carpenter's ingenuity, thrown, as he was, 
 on his own resources, and without a pattern, in a 
 country where the people sit and sleep only on the floor. 
 
 Besides these quarters for ourselves, there was a second 
 quadrangle, across the road, for our servants and cattle, 
 with covered stalls for several scores of horses. This 
 shelter and rest was very acceptable, for our mules 
 seemed to feel the change of climate very much, notwith- 
 standing the care taken of them, and their light work. 
 They did not stand the weather so well as the horses of 
 our guides' escort. These had been warmly clad, and 
 led over the passes from Nubra to Sanju, where their 
 troopers, discarding the hardy little brutes that did tha 
 rough work of the mountains, returned to their chargers, 
 and appeared in the proper form and efficiency of a 
 
2 3 2 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 " Guide." These cavalry horses very quickly picked up 
 condition, and their grand size and proud action amongst 
 the short and clumsy cattle of the country were the 
 admiration of the people, and with their riders inspired 
 no small respect for the worthy representatives of our 
 Indian army. In fact, the two orderlies riding ahead of 
 our cavalcade on the line of march habitually mono- 
 polised the salutations of the spectators, who hardly 
 ceased gazing after their handsome uniforms and soldierly 
 appearance till we had passed by unnoticed. 
 
 The mules, on the contrary, did not pick up so well 
 till they had enjoyed a good rest and feed in quarters, 
 and it was found necessary to assist them on the march 
 with the cattle of the country. The caravans going 
 out to Leh had already taken up most of the horses on 
 the line of our route, and our hosts could get us only 
 bullocks for the march from Sanju to this. These 
 animals are used in the passage of the mountains ap- 
 parently in considerable numbers, for I noticed their 
 skeletons were freely scattered on the passes. For cara- 
 van work in this region, I believe the Tibat pony is the 
 best of any of the cattle we saw, and the Kashghar 
 roadster the next. Indian cattle are not up to the work. 
 
 Kargalik is the largest settlement we have yet seen, 
 and is a market town. It produces a good deal of 
 cotton of good quality ; and much of it goes to the 
 Khocand market in the form of a coarse cloth called 
 kham. The people here, of whom we saw a crowd of 
 about three hundred, have a very mixed cast of features, 
 representing the Turk, Tatar, and Chinese separately, 
 and combined in no very attractive forms, in which 
 there seems to be a struggle between beard and no 
 beard. 
 
 I measured the height, and circumference of the head 
 
FREQUENCY OF GOITRE. 233 
 
 above the ears, of thirty of the men loitering about our 
 gateway. The tallest was 70 \ inches, and the circum- 
 ference, of his head was 21 inches. The shortest was 
 6 If inches, and the circumference of his head 21-| inches. 
 The. mean of both measurements for all was 66f and 
 2 If inches respectively. The greatest circumference of 
 head was 22t|r inches, and the least 2 Of inches. All the 
 men wore boots and nearly all had the head shaved. 
 
 From Kargalik we marched to Posgam, twenty-five 
 miles, and camped in some gardens near the market. 
 The route lies through a populous and highly cultivated 
 tract, and interspersed here and there are strips of reed 
 marsh, and tamarisk jangal, and wastes covered with 
 saline encrustations and saltworts. At about half-way 
 we forded the river Teznaf, and on a roadside canal 
 beyond it saw an ingenious contrivance for husking rice 
 by water power. It was an overshot watermill, the shaft 
 of which worked a lever by means of two clappers fixed 
 near to its extremity. The long end of the lever had a 
 crusher fixed to it at an acute angle, and it rose and fell 
 with each stroke of the clappers. The whole machine is 
 roughly made of wood, and is inexpensive as it is simple. 
 It might with advantage be adopted in Kashmir. 
 
 A little further on we entered Yakshamba Bazar or 
 " Sunday Market," and alighted at a newly built rest- 
 house for the dasturldiwan. Of twenty men who bore 
 its trays nine were afflicted with goitre, and of eleven 
 others standing outside the gate five were similarly 
 afflicted. We had seen instances of this disease all along 
 the route from Sanju, but to-day its prevalence seemed 
 general, and further on at Yarkand itself we found fully 
 three-fourths of the population so afflicted, and often to 
 a hideous extent. At this place the Turkish officers in 
 the suite of Haji Tora made their appearance in full 
 
234 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 uniform to the admiration of the natives, and created 
 somewhat of a puzzle on the score of their identity, and 
 various were the surmises as to who they really were. 
 Though they wore the red fez, with its tassel of black 
 silk, as the badge of their nationality, still their dress, 
 equipment, and bearing were so thoroughly European, 
 that their co-religionists might well be excused for 
 failing to recognise their long separated brethren with- 
 out formal introduction ; particularly as the western form 
 of their mother speech was hardly more intelligible to 
 the people in its early home, than the strange jargon in 
 which we offered them their own language. 
 
 Eesuming our route, we crossed some strips of waste 
 and marsh to Posgam, and in an hour and a half reached 
 camp near its Charshamba Bazar or " Wednesday 
 Market." Next day, the 8th of November, we made 
 our entry into Yarkand, and came to a halt for three 
 weeks. Our route for twelve miles lay through the 
 suburbs of the city, which in character resemble the 
 rural settlements already described, and, at about three 
 miles out, crossed the Yarkand river by a wide and 
 shallow ford over a firm pebbly bed. The stream is here 
 called Zarafshan or " the gold scatterer," not on account 
 of any of that precious metal borne in its floods, but on 
 account of the wealth its waters diffuse in the irrigation 
 of this spot. The city itself, and all its southern suburbs, 
 derive their water from this stream through an intricate 
 network of little canals, which here overspreads the land, 
 and fills it with a life and fertility, which appear the more 
 abundant and prosperous by contrast with the silent wastes 
 of sand and marsh that hem the tract around. We found 
 the river about stirrup deep, and flowing in two main 
 channels upon a wide pebbly bed, which spread nearly a 
 mile across between low banks of sand. Later in the season 
 
A NOVEL MILITARY SALUTE. 235 
 
 the waters diminish, so that it is possible to cross dry- 
 shod, stepping from stone to stone. But in the height of 
 summer the floods from the melting snows and glaciers 
 at its sources fill the whole of its channel, and the river 
 is then crossed by boats, of which there are two or three 
 kept for the purpose at the Aygachi ferry, a few miles 
 below the place of our crossing. 
 
 We alighted at some tents pitched on the roadside 
 near the Langar Zilchak, a few miles short of the city, for 
 that tiresome ceremony the dasturJchivan, and availed 
 ourselves of the opportunity to put off our travelling 
 cloaks and wraps, and display the uniform we had before 
 starting donned for the occasion. Whilst resting here, 
 Yasawul-bashi Nyamatulla, " chief wand-bearer " in the 
 court of the Dadkhwah, arrived on the part of his master 
 to meet and welcome the Envoy. He carried in his 
 hand the emblem of his office a long white willow 
 wand, which seemed never to leave it, for there it 
 always appeared on the several subsequent occasions on 
 which we saw him and was attended by a guard of 
 about twenty soldiers, all, like himself, dressed and 
 armed in the Andijan fashion. 
 
 He was introduced to the Envoy by Haji Tora, and 
 after the interchange of the usual salutations, and the 
 delivery of his messages, he brought forward his guard to 
 pay their respects. They were standing in a row on one 
 side of the space in front of our tent, and were now 
 marshalled forward in batches of five or six to where 
 the Envoy and his staff stood for the purpose of saluting. 
 This they did by falling on one knee, and making a 
 rapid sweep of both arms in front, whilst they gabbled 
 some words of greeting, the import of which we did not 
 understand ; then stroking their beards as they rose, they 
 stepped back to their places to be followed by the next 
 
236 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 batch who performed the same ceremony. And so on 
 with the rest. The whole process did not occupy a 
 couple of minutes. The men were fine looking fellows, 
 of quite a different stamp to the people of the country, 
 and in the loose folds of their many robes appeared of 
 huge size. 
 
 They wore long riding boots, which were case-lined 
 with felt, and only partly concealed by the capacious 
 trousers. These were of ample dimensions, and were 
 worn, two or three or more at a time, one inside the other ; 
 and all were covered by a succession of long robes like 
 dressing gowns, worn one over the other, to the number 
 of four, five, or six. These last were of printed cotton, 
 or of Khocand silk, and of all sorts of lively colours 
 in large staring patterns, which appeared at a distance 
 like what one might imagine to be broad lightning 
 streaks, and great thunder blotches jumbled up together. 
 The sleeves were of very extra length, loose above and 
 tight below, so that they puffed out the arms above the 
 wrist with a gradually increasing thickness. Around the 
 waist the folds of a long scarf contracted the length of 
 garments into a huge bundle above, and much the same 
 below, when seated especially. On it was clasped a 
 leather belt to which hung the sword, and a multitude 
 of receptacles for the furniture of the long prong-rest 
 gun (it was carried slung on one shoulder, and secured 
 under the arm of the same side), together with the other 
 items of the soldier's requisites. There were wash-leather 
 bags for powder and ball, dressed leather cases for caps, 
 for hammer, for pricker, for knife, &c. ; there were the 
 flint and steel case, and the little bag for snuff or tobacco, 
 or what not. And above all, the crowning piece of the 
 whole, was the snow white turban proud badge of 
 devotion to Islam. 
 
ENTRY INTO YARKAND. 237 
 
 This ceremony over, we mounted and set out for the 
 city. The Yasawul-bashi and his guard, mounted on the 
 sturdy little horses of the country, headed the proces- 
 sion. Next followed the troopers of our Guides' escort, 
 and then the Envoy and Haji Tora, attended by their 
 respective officers riding together, and behind came 
 our mounted followers. At about a mile or so from the 
 city we were met by the principal merchants, and some 
 citizens. They were reined up at the roadside, and, after 
 salutation, joined our party, and swelled the procession 
 to about two hundred and fifty horsemen. None of 
 them were richly dressed or well mounted, nor did any 
 of them carry arms, except the few Government officials 
 mixed up amongst them. Their general appearance was 
 shabby, and set off our own grande tenue to the greater 
 advantage. 
 
 Near the city we found the road had been hastily 
 cleaned for us puddles filled, and dung-heaps levelled 
 and was lined on either side by a crowd of the citizens, 
 who, as we rode past, remained perfectly still, and gazed 
 at us with respectful silence. They made no demonstra- 
 tion of surprise or curiosity, nor was a sound heard 
 amongst them. They were comfortably clad in the 
 sheepskins, and padded cotton gowns of the country, 
 and wore the long boot, and the Tatar cap of lamb- 
 skin, edged with otter fur; and if one might judge 
 from their ugly faces, and inexpressive looks, appeared 
 well disposed towards us. 
 
 I never saw a more quietly-conducted crowd, nor a 
 more submissive-looking people than those we passed 
 through as we entered the city of Yarkand. Nor, at 
 the same time, have I ever seen such a collection of re- 
 pulsive features and sickly countenances. It is beyond 
 my power to convey a correct idea of the confusion of 
 
238 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 physiognomies presented by this crowd of faces, though 
 there was a master type running through the whole of its 
 diversity of forms. The gaunt, almost beardless visage, 
 and thick complexion of the Manchu, with his sunken 
 eyes, high cheek bones, and projecting jowl, form the 
 extreme of harshness in one direction ; whilst the fleshy, 
 perfectly smooth face, and pinky yellow colour of the 
 Calmac, with his oblique eyes, flat cheeks, and rounded 
 jowl, form the extreme of plainness on the other. 
 
 Between the two, as family types, are the bearded, sal- 
 low-skinned Turk of the country, and the angular, rosy 
 faced Kirghiz of the Steppes ; the coarse-featured, hard- 
 lined Tungani, and the thick-lipped, square-faced 
 Khitay, both of Western China ; and a number of mani- 
 fest Mongolic forms, in which the distinctive features of 
 the others are indefinitely blended by intermixture one 
 with the other ; or else lost in the improvement intro- 
 duced by foreign admixture, the nature and fruits of 
 which are seen in the crowd before us. For, attractive 
 by their singularity are the tall form, and handsome face 
 of the Caucasian, here sparsely represented in the pure 
 type of the fair-skinned Kashmiri, and his more swarthy 
 kinsman the Badakhshi, or in the transmission uninjured 
 of their special characteristics to the " Arghun " of their 
 alliance with the women of the land. Equally notable, 
 too, are the robust frames, and intelligent looks of the 
 now dominant people of the country of the Uzbak 
 Tatar of Andijan, or of the " Chalgurt," the fruit of his 
 former intercourse here in whom the superior combina- 
 tion of race types, derived from intermixture with the 
 Tajik, has lost nothing of its development by the re- 
 currence to its original Turk stock. 
 
 Such are the main family distinctions amongst the 
 
RECEPTION IN THE CITY. 239 
 
 crowd of faces we here saw, taking the best as models, 
 for fully one-half of them were disfigured to a greater or 
 less extent by goitre, and a general sickly expression of 
 countenance, which last I afterwards found was due 
 more to the abuse of opium and bang than to the natural 
 sallow skin of the race. 
 
 We entered the city by the Altun Dabza, or " Gold 
 Gate," on its south side, and passing through a succes- 
 sion of streets to the left, here and there occupied by 
 rows of shops and private dwellings alternately, passed 
 out through the Cawughat Dabza, or " Melon Gate," on 
 the west side, into the tsinhai, or "public market," of 
 the Chinese time. It was a sort of military bazar, ex- 
 tending between the city and their fort, or mangshin, 
 the present Yangishahar, four hundred yards or so off 
 to the west, and was, as described to us, full of life and 
 business in the days of its prosperity. Its main street 
 always presented a gay scene, with the painted flags, and 
 shop signs of the Chinese merchants, who here sold 
 and bought and went away, whilst the restaurants, and 
 booths of the permanent settlers were always crowded 
 by visitors, and pleasure seekers from the city and 
 fort. 
 
 The scene of this former bustle and activity is now 
 represented by some miserably decayed little suttlers' 
 huts near the gateway. Beyond them, on the right, 
 are a dismantled hall of justice, and a preserved 
 mosque, both prominent objects from their size ; and in 
 rear of them is an open space used as a cattle-market, 
 and place of execution the gallows, with gibbets for 
 three, occupying a prominent eminence at its higher end 
 whilst in front they look across the road on to some 
 broken walls and heaps of ruins. Further on the space 
 
2 4 o KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 has been cleared, and enclosed on the right as a sarae 
 for the fort, but is left on the other side an open waste 
 on which rubbish is shot. 
 
 "We found no guards at either of the city gates we 
 passed through, except two or three men seated on the 
 ground, with their guns placed beside them. On enter- 
 ing the fort, over the drawbridge of its ditch, however, 
 we passed a guard-house, between the outer and inner 
 gates, in the verandah of which were seated some thirty 
 men, similarly equipped to those before described. No 
 two were alike in the showy patterns of their robes, but 
 all wore white turbans, and sat on their heels crossed 
 under them as motionless and silent as statues, with 
 their great prong-rest guns set before them in a row, 
 muzzle outwards, and with their swords lying across their 
 laps. Their hands were folded together in front, and 
 concealed by the overlapping of the sleeves, whose extra 
 length served the purpose of gloves. And as we rode by 
 some raised their eyes to look at us, but most kept 
 them steadily fixed on the ground before them, with a re- 
 spectful inclination of the head. On passing through the 
 inner gate, we had on our right a shed of gun-carriages, 
 and old pieces of cannon, a relic of the Chinese rule. 
 About the shed were about thirty artillerymen, all dressed 
 in an uniform of Turkey -red cloth trousers, coat, and 
 cap all of the same material, but of inferior quality, and 
 bad fit. They were seated about the place in any fashion, 
 and took no notice of us as we passed, beyond surveying 
 us with upturned faces of surprise. 
 
 A short way farther on, between the walls of soldiers' 
 quarters on either side, and we alighted at the court of 
 the Eesidency which had been prepared for us. It was 
 the same that Mr Forsyth and his party occupied on the 
 occasion of their visit to this place in 1870, but had 
 
VISIT TO THE DADKHWAH. 241 
 
 recently been enlarged by the addition of some new 
 rooms for our larger numbers, and was now comfortably 
 furnished with carpets, &c., in much the same fashion 
 as the quarters at Kargalik. 
 
 Immediately on arrival, though an hour had hardly 
 elapsed since we had done our duty by one at Zilchak, 
 a dasturkhwan of ninety-two trays of fruits and sweets 
 was borne in by as many soldiers, who nearly filled the 
 court, whilst, I don't know how many, dishes of cooked 
 food were spread on the verandah in front of the Envoy's 
 quarters. At the same time, one of the chief men 
 attached to the Dadkhwah's court, called on the Envoy 
 on the part of his master for the achmdng hdrmdng 
 (" May you not be hungry or fatigued"), or ceremonial 
 inquiry after health, &c., and it was arranged through 
 him that the Envoy should call on the Dadkhwah on the 
 morrow. 
 
 Meantime, as we were to stay here for the present, we 
 settled down in our quarters, and explored their limits ; 
 an investigation which gave us every reason for satisfac- 
 tion with the thoughtful arrangements made for our 
 comfort as the guests of the Atalik Ghazi. During our 
 stay here we received every attention from the officials 
 appointed to attend to our wants, and enjoyed perfect 
 freedom to visit the city and suburbs as we pleased. 
 
 Next day at two o'clock, the hour appointed, the 
 Yasawul-bashi having come over to conduct him, the 
 Envoy, attended by his staff in undress uniform, paid an 
 official visit to the Dadkhwah, whose residence was in a 
 sort of inner fort or citadel close by. It stood at the 
 end of the street in which was our Eesidency, and just 
 before it was an artillery guard over some six or eight 
 field-guns. The men were dressed in the red uniform 
 before mentioned, and stood at the attention behind 
 
 Q 
 
2 4 2 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 their guns as we passed. The open space in front of the 
 gateway had for some reason been recently railed in, and 
 a cross-bar had been fixed across its entrance. This 
 last, however, was removed on representation, and we. 
 rode through without dismounting till we reached the 
 gateway. The guard stood up as we passed, and 
 Muhammad Ali, the eldest son of the Dadkhwah (and 
 Mahrambashi or " Head Page " in his court), receiving 
 the Envoy in the outer court, conducted him through 
 two others the guards in each standing to the audi- 
 ence-hall. Here the Dadkhwah came out to the ver- 
 anda, and received the Envoy very cordially. We were 
 all introduced in turn, and he then conducted his visitor 
 to a seat on the cushion at the top of the hall, where, 
 taking our seats in a line below them, we were soon at 
 ease on the cushion. 
 
 The audience -hall was an airy room, about sixty or 
 seventy feet long by twenty-five wide, and had four or 
 five windows looking on to the veranda. The ceiling 
 was painted in bright colours, and decorated with Per- 
 sian couplets. The floor was spread with Khutan car- 
 pets, and there was no other furniture in the room. After 
 the presents were brought in by our people the dasturkh- 
 wan of tea, and sweets, and bread, and fruits was 
 spread. On every ordinary occasion of a visit this form 
 of refreshment is observed. The cooked foods of our 
 past experience are served only on special occasions 
 as on the march, and are then intended as a dinner. 
 The tea was delicious, and had a peculiar rich aroma, 
 which was quite new to us. It was prepared without 
 milk, and this is undoubtedly the proper form for the 
 beverage. The Dadkhwah told us this tea came 
 through Russian merchants from Almati. It is now 
 very scarce in the country, and sells, if I recollect 
 
HIS RECEPTION OF THE ENVOY. 243 
 
 rightly, at sixteen or eighteen shillings a pound. Some 
 of the Indian teas had found a market here, but they 
 have hardly had time to gain much favour, owing to 
 their very different flavour from what the people have 
 been habituated to. During our stay at Kashghar, the 
 Envoy presented some mule loads of Himalayan growth 
 which he had brought from India to Atalik Ghazi, but 
 his highness so little approved its quality, that he distri- 
 buted the whole of it amongst his officers and servants even 
 before we left the shadow of his court. The Dadkhwah 
 received us alone, and the Envoy's orderlies with some 
 of the court officials stood at the door with our camp 
 serjeant. He was in full Highland costume, with the 
 banner and ribbons of his pipes adding to the splendour 
 of his appearance. Our host glanced hastily at him 
 once or twice, but, to our surprise, made no observation. 
 We afterwards learnt that good taste had suppressed the 
 natural curiosity so strange a garb was calculated to 
 excite, for the Dadkhwah felt scandalised at the sight of 
 the bare knees, and reprimanded his yasawal-bashi for 
 having so hurried our toilet that one of our attendants 
 should appear in his presence without his trousers. 
 
 His extensive reading had not made the Dadkhwah 
 acquainted with the peculiarity of the " Garb of Gaul/' 
 and he learned something new by our visit. Muhammad 
 Yiinus, though without the wide experience of Haji Tora, 
 enjoys the reputation of being the most learned scholar 
 amongst the Andijan possessors of the country, and he is 
 certainly the best of their governors. He is a native of 
 Tashkand, where his brothers still resided when we were 
 at Yarkand, and was formerly the scribe of Atalik Ghazi 
 at the time he held the office of Mir a post similar to 
 that of the Beg of Sanju, that is, governor of some petty 
 rural district under the government of Mallah Khan. 
 
244 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 When Atalik Ghazi, at that time CosKbegi Yacub Beg, 
 attached himself to the cause of the Capchac leader Alim 
 Culi, he got his secretary appointed to the court of the 
 new Khan as Shaghawal-bashi, or " chief comptroller" of 
 the officers charged with the duty of receiving guests 
 and foreigners. On the death of Alim Culi, in action 
 against the Eussians at Tashkand, and the restoration of 
 Khudayar Khan to the rule in Khocand, he fled the 
 country with a number of others who, in the revolutions 
 preceding the rise of Alim Culi, had taken the side 
 against both the Eussians and Khudayar, and with them 
 joined Atalik Ghazi at Kashghar shortly after he had 
 deposed his master, the Khoja Buzurg Khan, and seized 
 the government for himself. 
 
 Here his former master welcomed him back to his ser- 
 vice, and, relying on him as his most trusty and wise 
 counsellor, took him into favour, and appointed him to the 
 charge of the recently captured district of Yarkand, which 
 is a territory about the size, though not nearly so popu- 
 lous, as the Peshawar division, as Dadkhwah or " Gover- 
 nor of the first class," corresponding to our commissioner 
 of a division in the Panjab. The reputation acquired 
 by him in his former office has followed him here, and 
 he is generally styled Shaghawal Dadkhwah by his com- 
 patriots. During its first years his rule was one of very 
 sharp severity, and, if report does not exaggerate, the 
 gallows were always swinging with malefactors, till, in 
 fact, the place was cleared of evil-doers. At all events, 
 the citizens do not now show much sign of the turbulent 
 and litigious character usually assigned to them, though 
 they are still kept under a very strict police surveillance ; 
 and under the regime in force, the Dadkhwah conse- 
 quently may be considered a popular governor. To us 
 he is favourably known for the hospitable reception he 
 
TURKISH BATU IN THE CTY. 245 
 
 gave to our travellers from Inda, and lie has done much 
 to cultivate the trade with India by conciliating treat- 
 ment of our merchants, without in any way abating 
 from the claims of the Shara\ or relaxing the severity of 
 the religious disabilities such as the double rates of im- 
 post on Hindus, and other nonmuslims, prohibition of the 
 turban, riding on a saddled horse in the city, &c. 
 
 On the conclusion of this visit we called on Haji Tora, 
 who occupied a house immediately opposite our quarters, 
 and in the evening went with him to the city, where a 
 hammam had been got ready for our use. Some little 
 evasion was attempted on the part of the Dadkhwah's 
 officials, who did not appear willing that we should enter 
 their bath, but this difficulty was soon overcome by Haji 
 Tora, who sent one of his own servants to set matters 
 straight, and then accompanying our party, himself 
 joined us in enjoying the luxury. We were mainly in- 
 debted to the action of our friend in this matter for the 
 subsequent liberty of movement accorded to us during our 
 stay in this country of espionage and police restrictions, 
 the hardships of which Messrs Hayward and Shaw, and 
 the Eussian visitors before us, experienced more fully, 
 though only in the lightest form, compared with the lot 
 they would assuredly have met in Kabul. 
 
 Of course, the hammam was not completed without the 
 inevitable dasturkkwan, and we returned to our quarters 
 well satisfied with the success of the day's operations, 
 though, owing to the misunderstanding above alluded 
 to, the bath had not been heated as well as it should have 
 been to insure its proper enjoyment. It resembled those 
 in the city of Peshawar in every respect, and oddly enough 
 amongst the shampooers attached to it were two Afghans 
 of that place. One of these men claimed my acquaint- 
 ance, and told me all about my life on that frontier 
 
246 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 with a correctness that surprised me. I gathered from 
 his garrulity that he came to Peshawar originally 
 from Kandahar, and that he found his way here two 
 years ago through Kabul and Badakhshan. It is asto- 
 nishing how these Afghans wander about. They over- 
 run India down to the Deccan as traders, and soldiers. 
 They are found in Turkey and Egypt, and are met at 
 Nijni Novgorod, and in the markets of Tehran and of 
 Bukhara. And of the extent of their wanderings in this 
 country, and perhaps into China, the fact that Atalik 
 Ghazi on arrival at Kashghar was joined by upwards 
 of a hundred of them will convey some idea. These 
 men, amongst others of their countrymen in the army 
 of the ruler of Khutan, were, it appears, scattered 
 amongst the cities of this region as traders at the time 
 of the Tungani rebellion, and on the appearance of the 
 Ghazi cast aside their money speculations for the prizes 
 and plunder of war, which for them, apart from their 
 natural predilections, was an incumbent duty as pro- 
 fessors of Islam. 
 
 In the zeal of their religious and military ardour they 
 enlisted under the banner of Atalik Ghazi, and were of 
 no small service in conducing to the success of his cam- 
 paigns ; but they have since found themselves netted in 
 a toil they at that time little reckoned on. They all, 
 in the course of their successive victories, took to them- 
 selves wives of the land, and for the most part they 
 were captives of war ; but on the establishment of the 
 captain of their band as independent sovereign of the 
 territory of his conquests, they found themselves the 
 subjects of a despot king, and not at all the noble 
 warriors for the faith, nor, in virtue of the character, the 
 free rovers over infidel rights, which they fancied them- 
 selves to be. On the conclusion of the war many of 
 
AFGHANS IN KASHGAR. 247 
 
 these men sought leave to return to their homes, but 
 the ties of their Kashghar families proved cords that 
 bound them to the land more strongly than they can 
 break through. For the new ruler allows no woman to 
 leave the country of his acquisition, so thinned as it has 
 been of its male population by the recent massacres 
 and wars, any more than he allows her husband, or legal 
 protector, to abandon her as a burden upon the others. 
 These Afghan adventurers indeed have but small chance 
 of ever quitting this land of their forcible adoption, for 
 the ruler is as jealous of any man leaving his territory as 
 he is determined no woman shall ; whilst the summary 
 execution of captured runaways is enough to deter the 
 most enterprising from attempting to secure their liberty 
 by the evasion of the law. 
 
 Haji Tora, amongst other matters, explained this regu- 
 lation to the Envoy, before we entered the country, as a 
 guide for the conduct of any of our camp-followers who 
 might wish to lose their hearts to the fair ones of the land, 
 in order that they might be prepared to ]ose their liberty 
 also. " They may marry here if they choose/' he said. 
 " There is no prohibition. But if they do so, they must 
 settle here. They cannot go out of the country again with 
 you." Whether the charms of the fair Tatars were want- 
 ing in attraction, or whether the rule of Atalik Ghazi was 
 too powerfully deterrent, I will not pretend to decide. It 
 is a fact, however, that of more than a hundred followers, 
 Indian subjects, not one elected to transfer his allegiance, 
 even for such thrifty mates, and such orthodox rule, as are 
 the boast of Kashghar. 
 
 Both here, and afterwards at Kashghar, I opened a 
 charitable dispensary in the Eesidency premises, and 
 saw a good deal of the Afghans, in the service of the 
 Atalik Ghazi, who used to visit it. And from them, 
 
248 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 in their own language, which was not understood by 
 those around, I got an insight into the state of affairs 
 in the country which, of course, was not to be looked 
 for from the Andijan officials appointed to attend us, 
 nor from the people of the country, for they were care- 
 fully kept away from us, or only permitted an interview 
 in the presence of their guardians. 
 
 The police system here, as we soon discovered, is a 
 most intricate network, and w r orked with a marvellous 
 secrecy which nobody understands, and everybody dreads. 
 As a consequence the people are silent and suspicious. 
 House to house visitation is discouraged in a peremptory 
 manner known to the governors, whilst private entertain- 
 ments are watched by their agents. The people see a 
 spy in every man they meet, and accost each other with 
 polite commonplaces, and courteous bows and curtsies 
 in place of conversation. They know their words and 
 actions are noted at every turn, and they conduct them- 
 selves accordingly. No traveller or merchant can move 
 from one place to another, or quit the country, without 
 a permit. And no subject can go from one town to 
 another without a passport. Nor can he leave the 
 country for trade, pilgrimage, or other business, without 
 giving a security. In fact the whole system is as per- 
 fectly organised as in the more civilised countries of 
 Europe where it still exists, and on much the same model, 
 and speaks much for the administrative talents of the 
 Atalik Ghazi, and his chief counsellor, the Dadkhwah of 
 Yarkand. And we had an experience of its working 
 very soon after our arrival under his protection in an 
 occurrence which revealed to us its mysterious network 
 of agents, and put us on our guard amongst our hosts 
 and friends. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 DURING our stay in the Yangishahar or " New Town " of 
 Yarkand we availed ourselves of the facilities afforded to 
 visit the adjoining city, called Kuhna Shahar or " Old 
 Town," and study its peculiarities, and learn what we 
 could of its history. We saw it in the bustle and crowd 
 of its market days, and we walked its streets in the 
 emptiness and inactivity of their ordinary state, and 
 altogether we had fair opportunities of judging of its size 
 and population, its trade and manufactures. 
 
 Yarkand is one of the ancient cities of Tatary, 
 and was in remote times a royal residence of the Turk 
 princes of the Afrasyab dynasty. Of the origin of its 
 name I have met with no explanation, but, following 
 the track of Remusat, who traces Khutan to the Sanskrit 
 Kustana, I have ventured to hazard the derivation of 
 the name of this city from the same lingual source, to- 
 gether with those of several others in this territory whose 
 present orthography presents no such distinct derivation 
 from their Sanskrit forms as does the example above 
 mentioned. Their etymology can be traced to no original 
 source in the region where the names appear, and their 
 easy transformation without violence to Sanskrit forms, 
 coupled with the connecting link in the ancient history 
 of the country, seem to warrant their affiliation to the 
 source indicated. In this view Yarkand would be the 
 Tatar form of Hari Khand " the dwelling of the Hari " 
 whose name appears in other places in the form of 
 
250 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Herat and Hari, Hari Chand near Peshawar, and Hari- 
 ana near Delhi. By its citizens the place is pronounced 
 Hyarkan, but is written Yarkand. The city shows no 
 traces of ever having covered much more ground than it 
 occupies at the present time, but appears to have been 
 merely the capital of the little sand-girt state in the midst 
 of which it stands ; now and again, in the revolutions of 
 time, rising to pre-eminence for a season as the seat 
 of authority over the other similar little states which 
 constitute its natural geographical territory in the basin 
 of the Tarini river. 
 
 "Wells Williams in his " Middle Kingdom/' on the 
 authority of Chinese chroniclers, if I recollect aright, 
 gives its walls a circuit of seventeen miles. It is in- 
 credible that the city could have ever attained such pro- 
 portions, for the country is incapable of supporting the 
 population of a city of such magnitude, unless indeed 
 its characters were formerly of a very different nature 
 to what they are now. It is more probable that this 
 measurement included the suburbs from which the city 
 derived the means of its support, because the present 
 Yarkand urban and suburban, as a municipal district 
 separate from the territory over which it exercises im- 
 mediate jurisdiction may be limited by such a circum- 
 ference. 
 
 From its position on the line of the ancient caravan 
 route from China to Turkey by way of Caratakin and 
 Badakhshan to Balkh, it formerly enjoyed considerable 
 importance, and was long the rival of Kashghar for pre- 
 eminence as the capital of the country. But the superior 
 situation of the latter on the direct and easier route by 
 Andijan, coupled with its importance as a strategic 
 position, at an early period, secured it the preference a 
 distinction which it maintained more or less uninter- 
 
HISTORY OF YARKAND CITY. 251 
 
 ruptedly from the time of the Arab ascendency to that 
 of the Mughal decline. Yarkand meantime held a 
 secondary importance, and now and then, as the anarchy 
 of the times afforded opportunity, rose to a short- 
 lived independence as a separate state, but does not 
 appear to have become the seat of government until 
 Ababakar Mirza made it the capital of his kingdom, the 
 limits of which were Acsu and Khutan on the east, 
 Atbashi and Isigh Kol on the north, Uzkand (now in 
 ruins), Ush and Madi, Jagrak, and the Bolor or Pamir 
 steppes to Wakhan on the west, and the Tibat plateaux 
 up to Caracoram on the south. 
 
 Ababakar greatly improved the city with noble man- 
 sions and gardens, and strengthened its fortifications by 
 a device which the author of "Tarikhi Kashidi " describes 
 as a novelty in the country. He protected each gate 
 of the city by an outwork thrown forward to the distance 
 of a hundred paces, and its peculiarity consisted in its 
 forming a lane of that length leading from the outside 
 to the gate. That is to say at a hundred paces in front 
 of the gate were built two round towers for archers, and 
 these were connected with the gate by parallel lines of 
 covered way from which the defenders could shower 
 their arrows upon the enemy assaulting the gate. 
 
 They proved so efficient against the arms of the period 
 that Yunus twice failed to take the city, though he 
 besieged it on each occasion with a vastly superior force. 
 Nothing now remains of these defences, though their 
 sites at each gate are marked by parallel rows of booths 
 and huts which extend to about their former length out- 
 side each. Of the city in Ababakar's time, the work I 
 have above cited gives the following particulars. The 
 walls, which had been rebuilt by Ababakar, enclosed an 
 area of 200 man, i.e., taking the man at fourteen pounds, 
 
252 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR, 
 
 land requiring 2800 Ibs. of corn to sow it, and had six 
 gates protected as above described. One part of the 
 interior was walled off as the arg or citadel, in which 
 was the palace, and the rest was divided into twelve 
 parks or gardens, in each of which were the mansions of 
 the wealthy and about a hundred houses. In the exca- 
 vations and levellings necessary for these improvements, 
 the cdzuc or " prisoner gang" discovered a well of hid- 
 den treasure. Its value in jewels and money was so great 
 that Ababakar organised a systematic exploration of all 
 the ancient ruins in his territory, and realised an im- 
 mense wealth in precious gems and metals, and notably 
 from those of Khutan. The greater part of these was 
 plundered by the troops of Sa'id, but the most valuable of 
 his treasures Ababakar carried off in his flight to the 
 mountains, and they were ultimately cast away into the 
 torrents of the Yurangcash, and Caracash rivers. It was 
 this greed for unknown wealth which was the cause of all 
 his cruelties, and the sufferings of his victims in those 
 "treasure-searching gangs," which were named cdzuc 7 
 after their resemblance to the " galley-slave " gangs of 
 Europe. The worst criminals, and the innocent victims 
 of his anger were alike, without distinction of crime or 
 sex, condemned to the cdzuc to swell the number of his 
 labourers. 
 
 The city was supplied with water by canals which 
 Ababakar led into it from the Yarkand river. Its 
 quality is praised as extremely good, and is considered by 
 the people as the best in the world. Its effects in pro- 
 ducing the goitre so prevalent here are not alluded to, nor 
 did I come across any passage in the book mentioning this 
 disease. And this, if not an oversight on my part, which 
 I don't think it is, is very remarkable. Because Mirza 
 Hydar is elsewhere so full and correct in his description 
 
POLITICAL FACTIONS OF THE COUNTRY. 253 
 
 of the country generally. Yet the prevalence of this 
 disease at Yarkand is recorded as a special feature of its 
 climate by Marco Polo three hundred years before the 
 time of my author. 
 
 Ababakar is said to have laid out twelve thousand 
 gardens in Yarkand, but, as Sogholoc near Kashghar is 
 included amongst the number, the term must apply to 
 the whole territory of his government, and not merely 
 to the limits of his capital. The statement illustrates 
 the prosperity of the country under the dreadful tyranny 
 of his rule as dependent entirely on his own despotic will. 
 Of the power of this I shall have to record a remarkable 
 instance hereafter in the destruction of Kashghar. 
 
 On the conquest of the country by Sa'id, he continued 
 Yarkand as the capital, but his son and successor, 
 Eashid, removed his court to Kashghar, and restored 
 that city to its former rank as the capital of the country. 
 And it remained so till, in the anarchy which followed 
 his death, Yarkand contested the proud position. This 
 period is known as the Khoja usurpation, and the wars of 
 the Carataghluc and Actaghluc, or " Black Mountaineer" 
 and " "White Mountaineer " factions respectively. 
 
 Shortly after his accession to the throne in 1533 A.D. 
 Eashid allied himself with the Uzbak rulers to the west 
 of the mountains, and received a visit from the celebrated 
 divine of Samarcand Maulana Khoja Kasani (" our rever- 
 end lord of Kasan ' ') better known by his title of Makhdumi 
 al Azim (" My greatest Master"). This saintly priest was 
 received with proper reverence, and as a mark of his 
 devotion was granted a large estate in Kashghar. He 
 married a lady of the city, and left two sons at Kashghar, 
 named Khoja Kalan and Khoja Ishac. After the death 
 of their father, which occurred at Samarcand in 1542, 
 these two sons rose to prominence in the affairs of the 
 
254 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 government and formed rival factions. The eldest son, 
 whose mother was a native of Samarcand, was supported in 
 his pretensions by the people of Yarkand and the Caratagh 
 to the west ; and the younger son, a native of the country, 
 by the people of Kashghar and Actagh to the north. 
 
 Their jealousies and contentions threw the country 
 into disorder, and dismembered it amongst the several 
 sons of Eashid, who, becoming independent in their 
 several little states, waged war against each other for 
 the supremacy. In the midst of this anarchy Khoja 
 Hidayatullah, more commonly called Hazrat Afac, who 
 succeeded as chief of the Actaghluc faction, made an 
 attempt to seize Kashghar. He was repulsed and driven 
 out of the country, but ultimately finding his way to Ila, 
 he there sought the aid of the Ghaldan or " ruler " of 
 Zunghar to establish him in the government his family 
 had ruined, and himself had failed to secure. 
 
 The Ghaldan marched an army to Kashghar and 
 annexed the country in 1678, and establishing the 
 Khoja as his governor at Yarkand as the capital, posted 
 his Calmac troops and officers in all the cities of the 
 territory. And thus the country remained for nearly a 
 century. The Calmac occupation was a purely military 
 tenure, the administration of the government being 
 left in the hands of Musalman officers chosen by the 
 Khoja in subordination to the Calmac officers appointed 
 from Zunghar. The system, as might have been pre- 
 dicted, led to endless contentions amongst the Khojas 
 (whose numbers seemed to multiply with the years) 
 themselves, and the Jieirs of the Khans whom they had 
 robbed of their rights, and consequently the rule of the 
 Calmacs was characterised by a series of campaigns to 
 restore order in the country they had seized from its 
 belligerent possessors. 
 
TIME OF THE CHINESE RULE. 255 
 
 On the conquest of Zungliar about 1760 by the 
 Chinese, they acquired possession of Kashghar as an 
 appanage of the Ghaldan's possessions, and held the 
 country on precisely the same system that their prede- 
 cessors had done. They retained Yarkand as the capital, 
 and residence of the Khan Amban or "chief governor/' 
 subordinate to the Viceroy of Ila, to which Kashghar and 
 Zunghar were now attached as divisions of one provincial 
 go vernment, and they held the country by strong garrisons 
 planted in the cities of the several states composing the 
 territory. They left the internal government in the hands 
 of Musalman officers elected by the people, or appointed 
 by the Viceroy, and themselves merely looked to the 
 protection of the frontiers, and realisation of the revenue 
 by the maintenance of order and encouragement of com- 
 merce. Their government through the Musalmans, how- 
 ever, proved no more peaceable or profitable than that 
 of their Calmac coreligionists and predecessors with the 
 like agency, and the proud spirit of Islam, fretting under 
 the dominance of the infidel yoke, took advantage of the 
 tolerance accorded by the pagan to his subjects of what- 
 ever creed to raise no less than four serious insurrec- 
 tions in less than as many decades for the overthrow of 
 his hated rule hated till it was lost, and then welcomed 
 by the rebels as preferable to that for which they had 
 rebelled. 
 
 The last of these revolts was under the leadership of a 
 refugee in Khocand the Khoja Wali Khan, whom I shall 
 have to mention hereafter and probably, so horrible were 
 his barbarities, would have been the last, even had not the 
 Chinese rule been overthrown by causes operating from 
 another direction. Khutan, Yarkand, and Kashghar, 
 were the states implicated in these revolutions instigated 
 by the Khojas, and they were the only ones that suffered 
 
256 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 in the measures enforced for their suppression, measures 
 hardly less barbarous than those that called them forth. 
 
 Under the Chinese rule Yarkand appears to have been 
 the most flourishing city in the Kashghar territory, but 
 since the conquest of the country by Atalik Ghazi, and 
 the selection of Kashghar as his capital, it has greatly 
 declined in wealth and importance. And many years 
 must elapse before it can recover its prosperity, unless 
 the intolerance of the present Islam code is very much 
 relaxed in favour of unbelievers in its perfection. Of 
 this happily there are hopeful signs in the policy adopted 
 by the present ruler, and with the British merchant on 
 one side and the Russian on the other, his country may 
 yet, let us hope, become a free mart to the European, 
 and a pattern of enlightened government to his ignorant 
 and exclusive fellow-potentates of Central Asia. With 
 this fervent wish let us leave the doubtful future, and 
 turn to the records of the past. 
 
 For Yarkand, claiming our curious sympathy as the 
 seat of a Christian bishopric, and the residence of Marco 
 Polo in the thirteenth century, and as the shelter of 
 Benedict Goes in the seventeenth (as the wondrously 
 attractive pages of " Cathay, and the Way thither" tell 
 us), in recent years, has acquired a fresh interest for us 
 by reason of the Tungani rebellion, and that severance 
 of the country from Chinese rule, which have ended in 
 its conquest by a neighbouring tribe, and substituted 
 the friendly relations of the present possessors for the 
 exclusiveness of their predecessors. 
 
 Of the precise causes and exact course of this rebellion, 
 so disastrous in this region to the prestige of Chinese 
 empire, little is satisfactorily known. The movement 
 originated in Salar or Hochow, in the province of Kansuh, 
 at the time that similar hostilities_were waged by the 
 
THE TUNGANI REBELLION. 257 
 
 Tayping in the north, and the Panthay in the south of 
 the empire ; and like those, it appears, was a religious 
 war for the subversion of Budhist. government by that 
 of Islam. 
 
 In Kansuh the Musalman Chinese, called Tungani, 
 rose against their Budhist brethren, called Khitay, and 
 massacring them seized the government for themselves, 
 and waged a successful war against the imperial troops. 
 Of these Tungani there were several thousands mixed up 
 with the Khitay in the different garrisons of Zunghar 
 and Kashghar. The successful action of their brethren 
 in the seat of their power immediately inspired them 
 with the like spirit of disaffection, and the flame of their 
 discontent very rapidly spread over all the territory 
 garrisoned by them. 
 
 So far as concerns Kashghar the wave of their revolt 
 rolled on from Khamil and Turfan northwards to 
 Orumchi and Manas, and westward along the caravan 
 route to Kucha and Acsu. Everywhere the rebels 
 enacted the same roll of massacre and plunder of the 
 Budhists, and then fell under the domination of Musal- 
 man priests of a sect different to their own, and despising 
 them as heretics. Those to the north and east of Cara- 
 shahr, to Turfan inclusive, passed under the rule, tem- 
 porary as it was, of Daud Khalifa, an aged Khoja of 
 Orumchi ; and those to the west, including Yarkand, but 
 exclusive of Kashghar and Khutan, passed under the 
 rule of Kashuddin or Eashiduddin Khoja of Acsu, which 
 he made the capital of his transitory kingdom. 
 
 So soon as Eashuddin, about the end of 1862, took the 
 control of affairs at Acsu, the Chinese Ambans, or gover- 
 nors, in the cities on the west, finding themselves cut off 
 from communication with their headquarters at Ila, im- 
 mediately shut themselves up in their forts, and separ- 
 
 K 
 
258 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ated themselves from their Tungani comrades, whom 
 they kept under surveillance ; whilst the Khan Amban 
 at Yarkand, as chief governor at the capital, devised 
 means to disarm them. He was too late. The Acsu 
 emissaries had already reached them, and the sus- 
 pected Tungani, informed of the Amban's scheme to 
 disarm them, forestalled his intention by a night attack 
 upon the fort, and the massacre of 2000 of their for- 
 mer comrades with their families. In the morning they 
 rushed into the city, raised the populace, and before 
 nightfall left the streets full of Khitay corpses, and their 
 shops plundered of their contents. Many escaped to 
 the suburbs, and others, mostly women and children, 
 found shelter in the cellars of benevolent Musalman 
 neighbours. Within a few days the example of Yarkand 
 was followed by Khutan and Kashghar. At the former 
 place, an old priest, named Haji Habibulla, who had 
 lately returned from the pilgrimage to Mecca, took the 
 lead in affairs with his son Abdurrahman Khoja, and, on 
 the latter's death in action against the Acsu troops, 
 assumed independent authority as king, with the title of 
 Haji Habibulla Padshah. At Kashghar the city was de- 
 fended by the Chinese Musalman governor, who called 
 in the aid of the Kirghiz chief Sadie Beg, but he and 
 his crew proved such villanous ruffians that they were 
 ousted, and then, failing to recover the city, Sadie sum- 
 moned a Khoja from Khocand, as will appear hereafter. 
 Meanwhile, in Yarkand, the people recovering from the 
 shock of the bloody tumult raised by the Tungani set 
 up their chief priest, Hazrat Abdurrahman, as king, and 
 elected a fellow-citizen, Nyaz Beg, as his prime minister, 
 for the maintenance of order, and the organisation of 
 a force, with the Tungani as the nucleus, to capture the 
 Yangishahr held by the Khitay. 
 
INTERIOR OF THE CITY. 259 
 
 They besieged and assaulted the place for three months 
 with little success, and then some Kucha and Acsu 
 Khojas arriving with a large army they renewed their 
 efforts with redoubled energy. It took them another 
 three months, however, before they reduced the garrison 
 to straits. Finally the Amban, finding their mines had 
 sapped the outer walls, blew himself and family up with 
 the palace, and the soldiers immediately firing the pow- 
 der magazines, the whole garrison perished in the ruins. 
 
 The Acsu Khojas now claimed the victory, and the 
 government of the place as servants of the king Kash- 
 uddin. The citizens objected, and finally the govern- 
 ment was divided between Abdurrahman in the city, and 
 the Khoja Burhanuddin with the Tungani and Acsu 
 troops in the fort. And so it continued till Atalik Ghazi 
 came to demand the submission of the Khoja to his 
 master Buzurg, as the Khan Khoja, or " lord para- 
 mount." His attempt on this occasion to take the place 
 by stratagem failed, and he was forced to retreat with 
 the loss of his camp. His second attempt proved more 
 successful. And Nyaz Beg, for his services in delivering 
 the place to him/was taken into favour, and subsequently 
 appointed Dadkhwah of Khutan, which soon after fell 
 into the possession of Atalik Ghazi by an act of treach- 
 ery, and butchery to extermination, which is not a soli- 
 tary blot on the character of his conquest of this terri- 
 tory, as Acsu, and Kucha, and Turfan can tell. 
 
 Since the establishment of the new rule, the place has 
 enjoyed peace ; and order, whatsoever the character of 
 the means employed, has been established with won- 
 derful security. Under the government of its present 
 Dadkhwah, violent crime is now almost unknown, and 
 trade, seeking markets in new directions since the com- 
 plete closure of its former channels, is encouraged as an 
 
260 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 absolute necessity, if not for the people, for their 
 rulers at least. 
 
 The city, like those of Central Asia generally, is 
 built of raw bricks and clay, and wears an untidy look, 
 from the state of disrepair in which its fortifications 
 are left. It lies low on the plain, in the midst of 
 wooded suburbs, and presents no features of attraction 
 to the stranger approaching it. The walls are of an 
 irregular trapezoid shape, with their length from north 
 to south, and are entered by five gates namely, the 
 Altun Dabza, or " Gold Gate," on the south ; the Cawu- 
 ghat or " Melon/' on the west ; the Terabagh, or " Hide 
 Garden," on the north-west ; the Musci, or "Poisoner" 
 (from some former chief having been so disposed of here), 
 on the north-east; and the Khancah, or "Monastery," on 
 the east. They are very massive, and supported at inter- 
 vals by turreted bastions, whilst along the top runs a 
 parapet of loopholed walls. There is no ditch, and the 
 height of the walls is very much lessened by the debris, 
 which forms a sort of glacis slope to near the top in 
 some parts, so as to render their scaling a matter of no 
 difficulty. 
 
 In the interior arrangement of the city the streets and 
 houses are crooked and irregular, as those of Oriental 
 towns generally are, but they possess a peculiarity I have 
 seen nowhere else in Central Asia ; that is, they here and 
 there open on to small squares occupied by tanks, on the 
 sides of which grow fine silver poplars, and willows. 
 They are the source of water supply to the citizens, and 
 being open are in no way protected from the filth and 
 dust of the streets. At the same time may be seen a 
 woman washing her soiled linen at one side, and a man 
 filling his 'kapok or " calabash " (a hollowed gourd) at 
 the other ; whilst its bottom is black with the decayed 
 
VARIETY OF ITS INHABITANTS. 261 
 
 leaves, quantities of which are seen floating on its surface, 
 and the deposit of dust, &c., blown into it by the wind. 
 There are said to be upwards of a hundred of these tanks 
 in the city. Some are fed by constantly-running canals, 
 but most are fresh filled every third or fourth day. But 
 in winter when the canals are frozen, and hence the 
 raison d'etre, they are unchanged for two or three 
 weeks at a time. There are several wells in the city, 
 but their water is considered very unwholesome, and 
 they are consequently rarely used. 
 
 The private dwellings in their exterior have a look 
 of neglected disrepair, and the shops in the bazars and 
 main streets are mean compared with those of an Indian 
 city of the same class, owing possibly to the inferior 
 materials of their architecture. In its general aspect the 
 interior of Yarkand may be likened to that of Kandahar 
 though it has neither the regular form of the fortifications 
 of that city, nor any bazar like its Charsu. But like it, 
 this city is built of clay, is situated on a plain, is watered 
 by canals, and is surrounded by garden suburbs. In these 
 respects it resembles Mashhad too, though it is not to 
 be compared with that city in point of size, elegance, 
 wealth, or population. 
 
 By population I mean numbers only ; for in outward 
 appearance there is not so great a difference between the 
 people of Yarkand and those of Mashhad as there is be- 
 tween them and those of Kandahar. In the last-named 
 city, the Tatar cap and boot, as much as the Tatar phy- 
 siognomy, are not known amongst the handsome Aryan 
 features and elegant turbans of the people thronging its 
 bazar. But in the other, both the physiognomy and 
 the dress mingle in the mixed crowd of its shady Khi- 
 yaban, or are found in distinct groups in its spacious 
 caravanserais. 
 
262 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 And here the similitude ends ; for in manners and do- 
 mestic life, as in language and religious belief, the diver- 
 gence is greater, though not without a social or family 
 link of connection common to the two. The asperity of 
 the Tatar face, which at Mushhad is seen softened down 
 almost to a European stamp of complexion and features, 
 is here found in its varied forms, from the pure bred 
 Manchu to the mongrel Turk, all mingled together. The 
 last constitutes the rural population of the country, and 
 on market-days is found in the city crowding its alleys 
 to impassability, and completely transforming its appear- 
 ance for the ten or twelve hours of daylight. To the 
 traveller coming from India, and mixing in the scene, the 
 change is complete, and he almost fancies himself in some 
 country town of Eastern Europe. In place of the dark 
 skins, lithe forms, and airy drapery on the south of the 
 passes, he finds a people of so light a complexion that an 
 Indian in their crowd shows like a black sheep in the fold ; 
 he sees bulky frames that do not lose in height what they 
 gain in breadth ; and his eyes meet, in place of the delicate 
 folds of muslin and gauze, or the close shapes of calico 
 and print, the loose robes of buckram and frieze, or the 
 capacious wraps of bold-coloured silks and heavy fur. 
 
 He will observe, doing their marketing, groups of 
 women with rosy complexions and comely features, who 
 will remind him they did me of a market scene I wit- 
 nessed some years ago in Buda Pesth of what he has 
 seen nearer home, if he come from mid-Europe. He will 
 not fail to note how European is their gait and deport- 
 ment, and, may be, he will recognise familiar forms in 
 their dress. At all events, the low curtsy with which a 
 passing friend is greeted, and his low bow of acknow- 
 ledgment in return, will not be the least of the links that 
 he will find of familiar home customs. 
 
INTERIOR OF A RESTAURANT. 263 
 
 If lie respond to the loud, sharp, business-like invite 
 of " mine host " of the restaurant, he will enter a small 
 cabaret, in which there is everything but the liquor. 
 He will take his seat at the table with others on the 
 bench, which might have been made by an English 
 carpenter for any difference perceptible in it, and before 
 he has had time to admire the handsome china bowls, 
 or the well-known " willow-pattern " plates, and the 
 novel porcelain spoons, or to scan the contents of the 
 dishes before him, or yet to notice the undisturbed com- 
 posure of his neighbours as they ladle away their bowls 
 of soup, or finger their portions of pilao, he will be at- 
 tended by a veritable waiter, napkin on arm, and as glib 
 with his " tacsir " as is his English confrere with his " yes- 
 sir." There are soups of vermicelli, maccaroni, and other 
 forms of paste, which one might naturally have looked 
 for at a French or Italian table, but not expected here. 
 There are stews, and ragouts, and messes of rice, mutton, 
 and vegetables, all boiled together in curds and whey, 
 or in their own soup. There are joints of mutton, beef, 
 and horse, both roast and boiled not torn with the 
 fingers as in Afghanistan, but carved with the knife. 
 There is pastry of all sorts, meat pies and jam pies, and pies 
 of mince. There are puddings, too, in variety, but none 
 so filling as the cakes of simple dough and fat ; and 
 amongst them there is the zanbosa, or " lady's kiss/' 
 that baked pasty tell-tale of Tatar taste in Andijan 
 whence they come redolent of onion and garlic, and 
 crammed with odds and ends of gristle and fat ; and 
 there is its counterpart the mantu or "You and I," 
 the pasty cooked by steam, and like the other, special 
 favourite of the Andijani. Finally, there are salads of 
 carrot, radish, and onion chopped fine, and cress and 
 mustard in the leaf. 
 
264 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 He will eat his fill, and pay his five or six pence for an 
 excellent dinner without comment or objection from a 
 soul, and may issue to elbow his way through the jostl- 
 ing crowd in search of other surprises. He will find other 
 similar little establishments, table and kitchen all in one 
 room, full of hungry peasants who have done their bar- 
 tering, or merely come for a holiday dinner ; and if he 
 inquires, he will learn that the same busy scene is repeated 
 here every Monday and Thursday, when the country 
 comes and dines in town. He will also be told that 
 formerly in these shops there used to be various other 
 dishes of dog, cat, and rat dressed to suit the Chinese 
 palate ; but these, with the pig, and ass, are now prohi- 
 bited under Islam as unlawful, together with the religion 
 that in the midst of plenty could prefer such diet ; and 
 that with them went the spirits and other liquors which 
 formed a chief attraction at these eating-houses ; and that 
 their place is now held uncontested by the chaigun, and 
 what here now passes for tea. 
 
 In his tour through the bazars he will find the but- 
 chers' and bakers' shops as crowded by country pur- 
 chasers as are the drapers' market and the stalls where, 
 on these busy days, boots, and hats, and ready-made furs, 
 and other clothes are exposed for sale ; and he will see 
 that cotton (yarn and cloth), with poultry, corn, and 
 % live stock, are as ready mediums of exchange as the 
 more convenient though less abundant coin. 
 
 If he turn out of the crowd to take his way by the 
 less frequented streets to the cattle market outside the 
 Cawughat gate, he will find there a jostling crowd similar 
 to that he has just left ; and as in the city, so here, he will 
 find as many mounted as on foot, and as many sight- 
 seers as purchasers. He will see horses exchanged for 
 cows, or cows for sheep, or, may be, a Calmac youth for 
 
MARKET-DAY AND WEEK-DAY. 265 
 
 a fur coat, or a Khitay girl for a silk robe, or vice versa, 
 and each or all he may also see sold for money. And 
 on the open spaces in the crowd surging about over the 
 uneven ground, or at the corner of some house, he will 
 find the bacsioi " minstrel," guitar in hand, accompany- 
 ing the soft strains of his voice with the music of its 
 cords for the entertainment of the group of admiring rus- 
 tics gathered round him. Or he will see, as he did in 
 the city, some sage old fortune-teller seated in a retired 
 corner with his confiding boor, and with each throw of 
 the dice increasing the wistful expectancy of his client's 
 looks by a solemn consultation of the pages of his astro- 
 logical calendar, which he opens deliberately with a pre- 
 liminary adjustment of the spectacles, and closes with 
 reverence, keeping a finger always between the pages of 
 last reference. 
 
 In all the dense crowd, of perhaps eighteen or twenty 
 thousand men and women, jumbled together on foot or 
 on horseback, he will hear a hum of voices, but no dis- 
 cord or disturbance will he see, and before sunset he 
 will find the streets empty; 'and so they will remain 
 till next market-day. If the reader will accompany me, 
 we will visit the city together on one of its quiet days, 
 attended, of course, by the cicerone appointed by the 
 Dadkhwah, an official who shows his devotion to his 
 master by hovering about our door to follow us like & t 
 shadow the moment we step beyond, except that his 
 voice and presence are such provoking realities. 
 
 Mounting our horses, for everybody here with any 
 pretensions to respectability rides, we set out after break- 
 fast, and passing out of the close walls of our residency, 
 emerge into the main street leading from the fort gate 
 to the Orda or " Court/' the palace of the Dadkhwah. 
 We turn to the left and make for the gate, a couple of 
 
2 66 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 hundred yards or so to our front. On the way we 
 encounter a group of horsemen who, our attendant in- 
 forms us, are soldiers just returned from a tour of service 
 on the Turfan frontier, and they are now going to pay 
 their respects to the governor, who will hold a court for 
 their reception at noon. 
 
 They are Capchac and Uzbak warriors from Andijan, 
 fine soldierly fellows, wearing an air of conscious supe- 
 riority, and as they pass look us full in the face with an 
 expression of mingled curiosity and goodwill. We ob- 
 serve their gaudy-coloured robes, presents in lieu of pay 
 on their furlough ; and the richly embroidered silk saddle- 
 cloths of some of them, samples of the plunder on the 
 frontier. 
 
 We pass out of the gate its guard seated in the verandah 
 of their guard-room just as we always find them, and 
 motionless and silent as blocks of wood on to the open 
 space which, at its further end, conducts through a wide 
 street of booths to the city gate facing us at about five 
 hundred yards to the east. Here we find a number of 
 ragged Chinese converts the Yangi Musalmans of to-day, 
 the Khitay of a few years ago hanging about to do odd 
 jobs for the soldiers, or any passer-by ; to hold a horse, 
 or go a message, or carry a bundle. They are not all 
 of this place, but include amongst them the captives 
 of war from the towns to the eastward as far away as 
 Orumchi and Manas. How they live nobody knows, ex- 
 cept that they sleep in the stables, and outhouses of the 
 barracks, and are passed as drudges from the possession 
 of one soldier to that of another. 
 
 There is one of them carrying a tray of sweetmeats 
 and biscuits supported by a cord round the nape, and 
 selling them for the baker who employs him. His best 
 customers are his own brethren, whose coppers he collects 
 
A ROUND OF THE SHOPS. 267 
 
 as soon as earned ; for with, them he only deals for cash. 
 From him our attention is attracted by the long tresses of 
 a woman we are overtaking on the road. They are braided 
 into two substantial plaits of glossy black, which hang 
 down the back, and taper to points nearly reaching the 
 heels. She looks up at us as we pass, and we see an 
 unveiled face of almost pink complexion, and strongly- 
 marked Tatar features of no very great claim to come- 
 liness. She wears a rouoad cap of silk brocade, with a 
 deep border of otter-fur, and, though the air is freezing, 
 displays a white muslin mantle over the quilted cloak 
 covering her under shift. Her feet are cased in boots of 
 shagreen, decorated with silk embroidery worked in bright 
 patterns of yellow and red, whilst their upper part is con- 
 cealed by the similarly decorated legs of loose pantaloons. 
 She is a native of the country, and wife of an Andijan 
 soldier, and is, in full dress, going to visit a neighbour 
 hard by. We go on, and entering the gate encounter 
 two matronly dames astride their donkeys coming out. 
 They are enveloped in loose over- cloaks of glazed indigo 
 blue cotton, and are propped insecurely on their steeds 
 just like a bundle of clothes, except that a long brown 
 boot hangs on each side, and a face shows above with 
 the veil thrown back over the top of the round hat. 
 
 The worthy ladies are evidently shortsighted, and we 
 are not distinguished till close upon them. Their in- 
 stinct of propriety produces a sudden effort to veil the 
 faded beauty of bygone years, and its violence upsets 
 one of them on to the ground. A snuffseller sitting on 
 the side of the passage, with his stock of the coarse green 
 powder piled in little heaps on a tray beside him, jumps 
 up, and, raising the fallen dame to her feet, hustles her 
 into a side passage, with voluble upbraiding for so far 
 
268 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 forgetting the modesty of the sex as to essay the passage 
 occupied by foreign men. 
 
 We proceed, and passing a row of six or seven open 
 stalls on each side the shops of grocers, fruiterers, lock- 
 smiths, tobacconists, &c., turn off to the right to visit 
 the boot and hat market. The first few houses are open 
 stalls for the sale of meat, vegetables, fruits, &c., with a 
 baker's and a cook's shop. Beyond are the blank mud 
 walls, and battered doors of private dwellings. The street 
 is almost empty, and its dirt, and the decay of the walls,, 
 are noticed in the absence of the concealing crowd of 
 market-day. 
 
 The doors are almost all open, and seated inside, or 
 immediately outside, we see the gudewife with her chil- 
 dren. She is stitching a shirt or working embroidery, 
 and they are toddling about in boots nigh as big as 
 themselves, or busy with mud pies. At some of the 
 doors are seen young girls plying the needle, and in 
 others and many of them is set the beshic or " rock- 
 ing cradle " with its little occupant rolled up in swad- 
 dlings and corded like a mummy. The infant is set out 
 to sleep in the open air, and lies on a mattress, but has 
 no coverlet. The mattress is provided with a round 
 hole in its centre, and, by a very ingenious and peculiar 
 device, the occupant is protected from the risks of wet 
 linen freezing about the person. The instrument is 
 called shumac and is made of wood in the shape of a 
 common tobacco-pipe, and is seen for sale in the shops 
 hung up in strings by the gross. We pass a doorway 
 within which are seen two horses turning an oil-mill, 
 and alight to examine it. It is exactly similar to those 
 used in the Panjab, and occupies a shed something like 
 a stable. A man attended by three youths, who take 
 
CRADLE LIFE OF TATAR BABIES. 269 
 
 it in turn to serve the mill, tells us the linseed is all 
 grown in the country, and is the only source of their 
 oil, whilst the cake is a nourishing addition to the 
 winter fodder of their cattle. A little way on we turn 
 out of this unfrequented street to the left, and where 
 it branches off find a soldier armed with the prong-rest 
 gun of his country standing on sentry. He looks down 
 three avenues, and is quite alone, and on foot. A few 
 steps in our turn bring us to one of the many kol or 
 "tanks" of this city. The road goes on two sides of 
 it, and on the others are private houses, whose courts 
 open on to it. Its surface is frozen two or three inches 
 thick, but broken at the sides for the people to draw their 
 daily supplies. Through the open doors of the courts we 
 see as we pass a horse and two cows tethered in one, and 
 in another we see the family at work cleaning cotton of its 
 seeds by means of the chighric. This is a gin formed of 
 two rollers fitted close one above the other upon a wood 
 frame which is of two different kinds. In both the 
 upper roller is of wood, and the lower of iron ; and they 
 are turned together in the same direction by a three - 
 toothed cog, which in the one is worked by a crank 
 handle, and in the other by an eccentric wheel revolved 
 by a foot-board. The old man, seated on a high stool, 
 works the latter, and his more youthful partner, squatted 
 on the ground, the other. The cotton is held in between 
 the rollers on one side, and passes out at the other by 
 their revolution, leaving its seeds behind. Beyond, we 
 see a group of men round a farrier's shop, the most 
 notable part of the surroundings of which are the paral- 
 lel bars, such as one sees in a gymnastic yard. He 
 is shoeing the horse belonging to one of his customers, 
 whilst three or four others are waiting their turn. The 
 farrier is an old Chinaman by birth, a new Musalman 
 
2 yo KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 by force. He has lost his tail with his liberty, and 
 changed his national dress for that of the Tatars of the 
 place. But spectacles are not, luckily for him, included 
 in the long list of things prohibited by the intolerant 
 Islam of the present regime, and consequently their great 
 round discs of crystal stand upon each cheek, on either 
 side the nose as bridge, by a brass handle connecting them, 
 and supporting them by a projecting arm against the fore- 
 head. His instruments and apparatus are, like himself, 
 of Chinese introduction, and, by their peculiarity, claim 
 attention. So we stop to watch his operations. 
 
 His restive subject is reduced to quiet submission by 
 being slung off the ground between the parallel bars 
 which stand at the side of the street in front of the 
 shop, whilst his hoofs are treated in turn at leisure. 
 The old shoes and nails are removed by pincers, and the 
 hoof pared and levelled by a coarse rasp. No knife 
 or cutting instrument is used. New shoes are then 
 adjusted, and secured by nails driven home with a 
 hammer, and finally the feet are rested on a block, 
 and the projecting nails are blunted off by a long stick 
 tipped with iron. This is used standing upright with a 
 hammer applied to the upper end. The horse is now 
 set free from the sling, and another takes his place. 
 
 We go on, and enter the bazar. It presents a quiet 
 scene, with few people moving about, and several of the 
 shops closed. The stalls which we found on market-day 
 so full of furs, and hats, and boots, and so overflowing 
 with animation are quite empty, and the ovens of the 
 pastry-cook are without their fire. So dismounting we 
 make over our horses to the grooms riding behind, and 
 turn back to go down the length of the bazar, whose 
 roadway is covered by a loose thatch of reeds, and 
 withies by way of protection from the summer's sun. 
 
RUSSIAN COVERS AND ENGLISH INTERIORS. 271 
 
 On either side is a long raised platform, on the divisions 
 of which are displayed in baskets, and wood trays, the 
 wares of the shop behind each. They are now open to 
 the street, but at sunset will be closed by shutters of 
 broad boards, and the passage door at one side will be 
 the entrance to the house behind it. During daylight 
 the owner sits amongst his stock, wrapped up in the 
 capacious folds of his loose bundles of clothes, his head 
 bowed dreamily under the weight of his turban, till 
 some customer rouses him from his reverie. 
 
 Here is a general dealer encased in a succession of 
 choghas, or, as they are here called, juba, the many 
 layers of which swell him out to the proportions of a 
 dropsical giant. He has a store of cheap hand-mirrors, 
 and clasp-knives, lucifer-boxes, and bottles of scent, and 
 he has painted little cardboard boxes full of beads, and 
 buttons of coloured glass of all shapes and sizes, and 
 packets of needles, which, like all his other wares, are 
 wrapped in Kussian covers, and bear Eussian labels, 
 though, as in this particular case of the needles, the 
 inner cover sometimes tells of English origin. He has 
 the shumac hung by the gross upon strings, and he has 
 ready-made plaits of hair, which explain the length of 
 the tresses we admired on the fair Tatar we overtook at 
 the outset of our excursion. He has cotton print hand- 
 kerchiefs of bright patterns, and others of more prac- 
 tical purpose, with the map of Kussia, and her railways, 
 stamped in clear lines upon it. 
 
 His neighbour is a druggist, and the platform in front 
 of his shop is covered with a close array of baskets, and 
 bags propped open by their contents, which are bordered 
 by the openings rolled up as a rim. They are mostly 
 Indian drugs and spices, such as caraway and cardamum, 
 cinnamon and ginger amongst the latter, whilst amongst 
 
272 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the former are senna and long pepper, and the nuts of 
 the emblic and water-lily, with those of the strychnos 
 nux vomica. This last is seen in quantity in all such 
 shops, and is in general use in the form of decoction as 
 a tonic and restorative in cases of dyspepsia, produced 
 by the abuse of opium and bang. Amongst his stock of 
 indigenous products are the flower-buds of an artemisia 
 called tuTchm, and used as a hair wash, and the toghraghu, 
 which is a fungus decay of the bark of the poplar of the 
 desert, and is used in powder as a ferment in baking, 
 and also as a cataplasm for wounds and boils. 
 
 The druggist, besides dispensing his drugs, prescribes 
 their use, if the purchaser so desire, for in this country 
 medical science has no professed practitioners, and every- 
 body is his own doctor. His scales and weights are of 
 Chinese origin and names. The latter consist of neat 
 little brass cubes with a Chinese stamp of their values, 
 and the former of the ordinary double scale balance. 
 But he uses more frequently for the less bulky substances 
 another form of weighing machine also of Chinese make. 
 It consists of a single scale, and horizontal beam balance. 
 It is poised by a cord a little on one side of the attach- 
 ment of the pan, and the weight slides backwards and 
 forwards on a graduated scale marked on the beam. 
 
 We pass on amongst similar shops, and stop to look 
 at that of an ironmonger. His stock consists of shovels, 
 and mattocks, and locks, sticks of bar iron, chains and 
 hooks, and odds and ends of all sorts, bridle bits and stir- 
 rups. He has also an assortment of crude minerals in 
 wood trays. There is salt in flat cakes as gathered on 
 the desiccated pools of the desert. It requires a formal 
 introduction, so completely have its impurities disguised 
 its identity. There are massive crystals of alum, and 
 sulphate of copper, and sal ammoniac, all from the vol- 
 
THE IRONMONGER 'S SHOP. 273 
 
 canic region of Acsu, and lumps of yellow ochre from 
 the same locality. There are nuggets of antimony from 
 China. They are wrapped in paper packets, and, in 
 place of the bright metallic lustre of the native ore, pre- 
 sent a black appearance, cast in small moulded shapes, 
 as if prepared for immediate use ; and their fitness for 
 which is evidenced by their staining the fingers in 
 handling, as well as the paper that covers them. 
 
 Our friend of the shop bears the name of his trade, 
 and is called Timurchi, " Ironmonger." He is rough and 
 hard in appearance and manner as the rusty wares and 
 crude stores he presides over. He answers our questions, 
 always looking across our shoulders at the cicerone be- 
 hind us, and with a betrayed air of hesitation. " You 
 say this alum comes from Badakhshan ? They told us 
 in a shop higher up that it came from Acsu." My 
 remark was altogether unexpected, and Timurchi, in his 
 precipitation, replied, " So it does. Everybody knows 
 it comes from Acsu." But his confusion was covered 
 by the adroit interposition of its cause, who stepped 
 forwards, and, pretending to examine a lump he had 
 taken in his hand, exclaimed, " Yes. But the best kind 
 comes from Badakhshan, and is what all the tanners and 
 dyers here use." 
 
 With this sample of our guide's duplicity we will 
 leave this bazar, and make for the cloth market. We 
 pass by a detour through two or three winding alleys, 
 with solitary passengers here and there stepping their 
 way mid street, and see nothing more noticeable than 
 the mangy, wolfish dogs snoozing on the roadside dung 
 heaps, too lazy to do more than snarl as we pass, and 
 the numbers of children about the doorways, amusing 
 themselves with infantile predilection in the dirt of the 
 gutters. In a wider part of the road the lofty portals 
 
274 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 of an ancient building in the Arabic style of architec- 
 ture, and overtopping all the surrounding dwellings, 
 attracts attention on account of its masonry and tiles in 
 the midst of mud walls. It is a madrassa or " college," 
 and is one of twenty-eight or thirty similar establish- 
 ments in this city. Across the court, and opposite to the 
 gate is the mosque, and on each side of it is a row of 
 eight or ten chambers, the quarters of divinity students, 
 for only the doctrine of Islam is taught within its walls. 
 The students come out of their cells to survey the in- 
 truder, but his guide is sufficient guarantee of his pro- 
 tection, and no sign of objection is observed. They are 
 about thirty in number, and most of them are men of 
 mature age who, though perhaps rich in theological 
 lore, are very poor in worldly store. They here find a 
 happy asylum, and are enabled with their families to 
 stave off the hardships of poverty as pensioners on the 
 charity of the establishment endowed by some pious 
 muslim of a by-gone age for the support of necessitous 
 students. A small gold piece is gratefully accepted by 
 the Shekh, and his pupils, repeating with him a benedic- 
 tion on the bestower, stroke their beards in concert to 
 the " Amen " as we pass out to resume our tour. 
 
 Passing along a quiet street in which a shop or two 
 here and there interrupts the line of walls of private 
 dwellings, a lively hum of voices proceeding from one of 
 them excites a natural inquiry. " That's a maktab" 
 responds our guide. So we gently push open the door 
 we find ajar, and enter to inspect the school. It is a low- 
 roofed " tween deck " sort of saloon ranged with forms 
 on each side a central alley, up and down which an assis- 
 tant tutor, cane in hand, paces, flipping an idle boy now 
 on one side, and now on the other between the turns of 
 his short beat. On a low platform inside the door at 
 
INSTITUTIONS OF THE CITY. 275 
 
 one side sits the master with all the importance of grave 
 looks and spectacles ; and around him are seated the 
 most advanced pupils, some six or eight boys of from 
 fourteen to eighteen years of age. They are reading 
 Persian books, and writing from dictation. 
 
 The room is cram full of children, and its atmosphere 
 stifling ; and, though only about twenty-four feet by six- 
 teen, it contained upwards of fifty children (we counted 
 fifty- eight) disposed on the forms, and in two small 
 galleries like bunks under the roof on each side. Our 
 entrance produced no cessation of the din of voices gab- 
 bling over the creed, and first principles of Muhammadan 
 belief; on the contrary, encouraged by our attention, 
 the active little creatures swayed their bodies and voci- 
 ferated with increased energy, and it required a vigorous 
 flourishing of the cane to stop the mechanical repetition 
 of lessons once set agoing. 
 
 The children were mostly very young, from six or 
 eight to ten years of age, and had a wonderfully European 
 look with their fair rosy complexions. On one side were 
 two forms, and a gallery occupied by about twenty little 
 girls. Some of them were very gentle little souls, with 
 innocent features of the fairest pink and white ; and they 
 looked very pretty in their round fur hats, and white 
 frocks, and neat boots. Some pennies (or the coppers 
 that represented them) distributed amongst them elicited 
 just the signs of delight one witnesses amongst school 
 children at home. 
 
 We go on our way, and meet a knife-grinder trundling 
 his wheel, and announcing his calling to the exact tune of 
 him of England. He is to all appearance the same being, 
 the machine is identical, and the call absurdly like. But 
 for the other surroundings one might fancy himself in 
 some by-way of London. And to complete the illusion, 
 
2 7 6 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 here comes the pie-man wheeling his barrow, and call- 
 ing his customers with what for the sound may well be, 
 "Come buy! Come buy ! Pies hot pies cold ! Pies 
 new pies old." His whole get up, cart and all are 
 strange reminders of home scenes in this distant clime, 
 and even the pies he sells are not so different from those 
 of the old country. 
 
 We enter the cloth market, a long row of shops on 
 either side a winding street which is roughly roofed in 
 with a spread of reeds and maize straw for shade, and 
 find the best and richest bazar in the city. Here are 
 shops of all sorts, and merchants of different kinds. 
 
 Here is an Andijani cutler. His floor counter is 
 covered with sheath knives by the hundred, all bright 
 and sharp as a razor ; his shelves are full of brass and 
 iron-plated flint and steel cases of which the leather is 
 nigh concealed by the metallic ornament; whilst his walls 
 are hung with bundles of knife sheaths and leather belts 
 of strong buff. . 
 
 Then we stop at a draper's. Its owner, a Kashmir 
 emigrant, or an Arghun his descendant by a mother of 
 the country. He has a rich stock of cotton prints, 
 calicos, and chintzes, with the coloured silks of Khocand 
 and of Khutan displayed in folded lengths on his boards, 
 or hanging in pieces from cords stretched across between 
 the posts that support his shop verandah. He can pro- 
 duce at a few minutes' notice from the recesses of his 
 store flowered muslins, and brocades of silk or gold, 
 satins and velvets, and broadcloths, and will point to 
 the English marks on the stuffs as proof of their superior 
 excellence. 
 
 There are several similar shops, and in few are the 
 Kussian trade-marks seen, though the fabrics of that 
 country are stored in most of them in the form of coarse 
 
RELICS OF CHINESE OCCUPATION. 277 
 
 cottons of patterns in vogue amongst this people. Our 
 Kashmiri or Arghun, as the case may be, greets us with 
 a smiling countenance, and, with the pronunciation 
 peculiar to his people, explains in fluent Hindustani 
 all we wish to know, besides all he wishes to tell us of 
 his loyal feelings, and his own special pleasure in seeing 
 us here. 
 
 Even the rough Afghans, who hang about his shop to 
 while away the weary days till their caravan gets the 
 permit to march, join him in welcoming our presence as 
 the presage of better times in store for all ; whilst the 
 Sikh from the Panjab, who here disposes piece-meal of 
 the venture he has brought over the passes, considers 
 himself as one of ourselves, and metamorphosed as he is 
 in the costume of the country, salutes us as old friends 
 in the deferential style of his people, and is proud to dis- 
 play his acquaintance with the king's guests on the scene 
 of his daily chaffering. 
 
 Amongst others, we stop to overhaul a second-hand 
 clothes mart, a sort of pawnbroker's and old curiosity 
 shop combined. Here is a medley of all sorts of things 
 appraised at chance prices apparently from day to day 
 by the snuffy and goitrous Yarkandi who lives amongst 
 them. There are patched sheepskin coats, and quilted 
 cotton cloaks renovated by a fresh dyeing. There are 
 old bits of china, cracked violins, and an American 
 clock that does not figure. There are bits of jade amu- 
 lets, and charms, and mouth-pieces for pipes of the 
 same mineral, with great beads of agate and crystal, 
 all of very inferior quality and no better price. There 
 are Chinese chop -sticks and fans, and writing-cases, spec- 
 tacles, purses, and ear-cases edged with fur. There are 
 also Chinese cloaks of costly fur, and rich silk robes em- 
 broided in grand designs of dragons and flowers, with 
 
278 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 mantles of linen gauze artistically woven in varied pat- 
 terns, and, in great diversity, many other relics of the 
 late rulers all now becoming scarce curiosities, and dis- 
 appearing from the scene of the revolution which trans- 
 ferred them from the possession of their owners to the 
 hands of the rabble plunderers ; from which they have 
 filtered through different channels to the shop before us, 
 and are all more or less stained, and worn, and injured, 
 in token of the rough usage and varied fortunes they 
 have experienced. 
 
 We turn off out of the bazar, to work our way home- 
 wards, after an inspection of one of its book-shops. The 
 volumes are mostly Turki manuscripts on religious sub- 
 jects, but amongst them there are some lithographed 
 books on medicine, history, and theology, and all in Per- 
 sian from India. We search in vain for any historical 
 records of the country, or for any native literature in 
 poetry or in prose. Such works do exist, but are sacredly 
 guarded in the monasteries attached to the many shrines 
 of the country, or are concealed in the possession of pri- 
 vate individuals. 
 
 As we proceed we come to a group of men and boys 
 around a party of dancing dervishes. The rogues brave 
 the cold in their tatters, and drown care in the wild song 
 of their calling, and free life of their selection. They 
 wear a high-peaked conical hat with a bushy edging of 
 fur, and carry a leopard, or antelope, or other skin hang- 
 ing on the back. Swung in front from the neck is the 
 beggar's trough, and in the hand is a stout club, or an 
 iron mace set with jingling rings. This last is the music 
 that accompanies their song, and gives the time to their 
 step in the dance. They are an idle, worthless set, but 
 here meet a willingly-accorded protection, and for the 
 nonce, on this occasion, restrained the wonted fanaticism 
 
THE ANDIJAN CAR A VANSAR Y. 279 
 
 of their class to receive our coin of conciliation with 
 every mark of gratitude. 
 
 On our way we see a fine new masonry building, its 
 straight lines and squares of brick and mortar showing 
 in the midst ol the decayed walls and mud houses be- 
 setting it like a new patch on an old garment. It is the 
 Andijan Sarae, built by the present ruler for the accom- 
 modation of the merchants visiting his country. 
 
 We walk in, and find its comfortable quarters occupied 
 by merchants from Orenburgh, and Tashkand, and Al- 
 mati, and elsewhere from Eussian territory. They are 
 Musalmans, and very civilly invite us to partake of the 
 tea they are drinking. We find their bales consist of 
 madder, and bar iron, and iron cauldrons, brass candle- 
 sticks, loaf and candy sugar, tea, and cotton prints. They 
 cover the area of the court, and are seen through its 
 grating piled up in the cellars below. Their owners are 
 taking in return felts and carpets from Khutan, with its 
 silk and cotton as part of their exchange. They are 
 finer looking, and better dressed men than those usually 
 seen in the place, and have amongst them some perfect 
 strangers to the country merchants supposed to hail 
 from Moscow ; and apparently they all live very much 
 apart to themselves in the Sarae. In the hands of one 
 of them is a schot, or calculating machine. It is a sort 
 of ready-reckoner, and consists of an oblong frame of 
 wood, on which are filed upon wires a number of balls 
 of different colours for units, tens, &c. These are run 
 from side to side of the wires according to the rules for 
 
 o 
 
 the use of the instrument, and afford an easy method of 
 calculating long sums. 
 
 Having done the city we mount again, and on the 
 way back sum up the total of our experiences, and draw 
 our conclusions therefrom not forgetting, however, to 
 
280 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 note such objects en route as may for the moment divert 
 the current of our thoughts. 
 
 The most interesting result of this visit to the city is 
 the new aspect in which it has shown the people to us 
 in their ordinary every-day life, and we are pleased to 
 perceive that the unfavourable impression produced by 
 the concentrated ugliness and inferiority of the crowd, 
 which so excited our curiosity and attention on the day 
 of our arrival, loses very much of the repulsive character 
 it then presented by dispersion and intermixture with 
 the softer faces of women, and more attractive features 
 of youth. But it is by no means removed, for the 
 hideous goitre meets us in every street and alley, the 
 huge worm-like mass of its tortuous vessels dragging 
 down the features, and drawing the eyes forward almost 
 on to the cheeks of a naturally unattractive countenance ; 
 or, in less exaggerated development, marring by its dis- 
 torted swellings the comeliness of some fair feminine 
 face ; or, even in its incipient growth, destroying the 
 charm of infantile beauty. 
 
 It is the prevalence of this unsightly deformity, coupled 
 with the sallow complexions and sickly looks which too 
 often meet the gaze in the bye-ways and bazars of the 
 city, that so detracts now from the agreeable impression 
 produced by the concourse in its thoroughfares of the 
 rural population in holiday dress on market day. The 
 life and activity of that bustling scene, with its varied 
 Tatar costumes, and faces ruddy with the glow of health 
 are nowhere seen to-day. The citizens have put by their 
 good clothes, and in their shops and work-rooms quietly 
 employ themselves in the ordinary pursuits of their daily 
 life in the bazars minding the shop, and in the alleys 
 dyeing the cloths they will expose for sale on market day, 
 or making the boots, and trimming the hats which, with 
 
THE CITY MAGISTRATE ON TOUR. 281 
 
 fur coats and silk-embroidered shirts, &c. they will bar- 
 ter with the peasant or, preferably, sell to him for the 
 coin he has just realised outside in exchange for his farm 
 produce. 
 
 Industry and quiet are now the order of the day; and 
 here comes, just entering from a side street, the officer 
 charged with the duty of maintaining their proper obser- 
 vance. He is the Cazi Kais, or chief magistrate of the 
 city, and is going his daily round of the bazars as a 
 warning to gamblers and idlers, and those who neglect 
 the call to prayers, no less than as the examiner of 
 weights and measures, and protector of the people from 
 the frauds of the grocer and butcher. He is riding 
 attended by his secretary also mounted, and is preceded 
 by six men in two rows of three abreast, marching with 
 slow and measured step. Each of them carries his badge 
 of office, the dira. It is a broad thong of leather fixed 
 in a handle of wood, and is held in the hand with the 
 strap resting on the shoulder. He turns down the way 
 we are going, so we fall back to follow his procession. 
 The people pass on either side with a respectful bow to 
 the Cazi, placing the folded hands upon the stomach, 
 and bending with a sudden jerk as if twinged with a 
 cramp there. The women, if not already veiled accord- 
 ing to the requirements of the strictly enforced shard, 
 rapidly pull down that unwonted square piece of net- 
 work, which when the censor is not in the way is often 
 thrown up over the hat, and running to one side stand 
 with their faces to the wall, or if there be an open door, 
 or a convenient passage, disappear into its hiding. One 
 of them has not only forgotten her veil, but is so preoccu- 
 pied in mind that she does not notice the censors till 
 close upon them, and hurriedly turns to the shelter of 
 the wall. Her neglect of the duty imposed by Islam, 
 
282 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 however, has not escaped the sharp eye of the Cazi Kais, 
 who in passing utters a few words of reproachful exhor- 
 tation, the force of which is impressed with four or 
 five quick whacks of the dira upon the offending head, 
 and upon the shoulders under which it immediately 
 ducks. 
 
 The party, after passing a number of shops, stops at 
 that of a grocer, and proceeds to examine his weights. 
 The secretary pronounces all right on the word of the 
 dira bearers, and the " Cazi Eais " proceeds. One of the 
 many bakers' shops is next selected. His flour is found 
 to be adulterated with earth, and he is summarily con- 
 demned to a drubbing, whilst the spoiled meal is confis- 
 cated. He is led out into the street in front of his shop, 
 and there well whacked about the head and body with- 
 out much harm corporeally, and with very salutary effect 
 morally. 
 
 A butcher escapes similar chastisement on satisfactory 
 explanation that some diseased meat found on his counter 
 was the portion reserved to appease the savage curs be- 
 setting his shambles. And then, the procession diverging 
 from our route, we go on our way, and passing a nest of 
 beggars, veritable outcasts, and the most disgusting 
 specimens of mankind I have seen blind, leprous, and 
 goitrous, who grovel in the filth of some low hovels built 
 against the base of a high wall near the gate at which we 
 entered, and live and breed on the charity of wayfarers 
 we leave the city, and return to our quarters by the way 
 we went out, well pleased with the day's excursion, if not 
 fully satisfied in respect to the preconceived notions of 
 its population and wealth which we had formed from 
 the accounts that had reached us in India. Its bazars 
 are decidedly poor in comparison with those of any 
 Indian city of the same class, and indeed presented no 
 
DECLINE OF PROSPERITY. 283 
 
 such display in point of value as we saw on our return 
 to India in the native bazar at Simla. The ordinary 
 traffic in its streets too is not to be compared with 
 the everyday life of an Indian city, and struck me as 
 very much less than what we saw in the thoroughfares 
 of Srinaggar. The people are warmly and comfortably 
 clad, as the necessities of this climate require. But 
 there is as a rule nothing rich about their dress, and orna- 
 ments of gold or silver, or gems, are rarely or ever seen 
 except in some of the shops as curiosities of the Chinese 
 customs. What the display may be in the privacy of the 
 liar em can only be conjectured from samples of embroid- 
 ered veils studded with rubies and pearls on a border of 
 gold fringe, and of gold and red coral ear-drops, and of 
 bracelets chased with simple designs, and set with eme- 
 ralds and turquoise, which we saw as articles for sale, with 
 other trinkets of the Tatar boudoir. In fact ornaments 
 are not the fashion, in public at all events, and the 
 jeweller's shop is as scarce in the bazars as the booksellers. 
 The city has no special manufactures of any importance. 
 It has a local reputation, however, for the superiority of 
 the leather cured within its walls, and its boots and shoes 
 are esteemed for their excellence in all parts of the terri- 
 tory. This industry, with those of the furrier and hatter, 
 employs some hundreds of families, but the products of 
 their labour do not pass beyond the limits of the neigh- 
 bouring states of the country, Khutan in one direction 
 and Acsu in the other. 
 
 Under the Chinese the jade trade was specially en- 
 couraged, and the industry employed several thousands 
 of families here, and at Khutau, and at the quarries 
 in the Caracash valley, as did the gold mines in the 
 southern hills. But since their expulsion from the 
 country these occupations, except in the case of one 
 
284 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 gold mine near Khutan, have entirely ceased, and 
 as regards the jade industry may be considered ex- 
 tinct. Even during the Chinese rule it appears that the 
 best specimens of this highly-prized mineral were taken 
 in block to China, and there confided to the artist's 
 skill. I made particular inquiries after samples of the 
 carved stone, and quite exceptionally succeeded in getting 
 some good pieces cut in the Indian style, and apparently 
 of ancient date. Much secrecy was observed in admitting 
 the fact of their existence through fear of their passing 
 summarily at a nominal valuation into the hands of the 
 rulers, and when I got them they bore stains of mud as 
 if they had been secreted under ground. The seller 
 informed me that they had employed two generations of 
 artists in their manufacture, and that the Chinese owner 
 would have willingly sacrificed his life to retain them as 
 heirlooms in his family. Be this as it may he has cer- 
 tainly lost his life without the fulfilment of the proviso, 
 or even a chance of its offer. 
 
 There are no jade artists or miners now to be found here, 
 and all that at present meets the inquiry for the mineral 
 by Russian traders for the China market is w T hat was left 
 in the country by the Chinese. Some of the best pieces 
 of both white and green jade used to be dug up in a 
 deserted channel of the Khutan river in the vicinity of 
 that city. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A SALUTE of seven guns at sunset on the 21st November 
 announced the conclusion of the " Ramazan " a fast 
 which here seems to sit very lightly upon the majority, 
 much as their prayers do, for both are neglected on 
 trivial pretences by all but the priesthood class and a 
 similar salute at daylight ushered in the " Id" The 
 festival, however, had been already inaugurated amongst 
 the troops, who kept the night alive with the noise of 
 their musical instruments in the barracks around us. 
 
 This day had been fixed for the departure of Haji Tora 
 for Kashghar, and it was arranged that we should follow 
 a week later. He set out accordingly with his staff of 
 Turkish officers, and the presents from Constantinople, 
 after the conclusion of the "Id" prayers. The envoy 
 accompanied by some of his staff paid him a visit to 
 bid him farewell, whilst Colonel Gordon and Captain 
 Biddulph went over to the Dadkhwah on the part of the 
 envoy with the " Id " presents and congratulations. 
 
 In the afternoon we visited the city expecting to see 
 a crowd of holiday folks there, but found the bazars 
 very thinly attended, owing probably to the usual 
 market gathering having been held on the previous day. 
 The troops recently arrived from Manas and the Turfan 
 frontier appeared there in force, and amongst them I 
 noticed several with very marked Manchu features, and 
 just the long thin moustache, and wiry chin tuft one 
 sees in pictures of their race. 
 
286 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 In our several visits to the city we never heard the 
 sounds of music or song, except the ravings of the 
 darvesh, and the recitations of the bacsi, if they can be 
 so classed. There are nevertheless professed musicians 
 of no mean talents according to the standard of the 
 country, but they only perform at private entertain- 
 ments. 
 
 The Dadkhwah, to make sure we did not leave the 
 place under the impression that the horribly harsh and 
 discordant noises of his military band were the proper 
 and only representatives of the music of the country, 
 very obligingly sent a party of professionals to give us a 
 specimen of the real art. The company consisted of 
 five performers. One played upon a reed pipe like a 
 flageolet (balawan), and another upon a violin of eight 
 strings (rabctb) ; two of them played upon tambourines 
 (doff) which had jingling rings of steel round the cir- 
 cumference, and the other performed on a sort of harp 
 (canun) or piano with eighteen double wires and two 
 single stretched across a sounding board. The perform- 
 ance was in concert, and accompanied by the voices of 
 the two who played the stringed instruments. The 
 songs they sung were Turki love ditties, and the airs 
 were peculiarly soft and harmonious. There was nothing 
 discordant, though there seemed a monotonous repetition 
 of tune. But the combined effect of their execution was 
 on the whole pleasing, and in itself not without merit. 
 The canun player used a steel plectrum, and stopped the 
 vibrations of the wires by a tap with the fingers of the 
 other hand. 
 
 Seventy-five mule-loads of our camp and heavy 
 baggage having gone ahead in carts neat, light wagons 
 resembling those of Europe, and drawn by three or four 
 horses, one in the shafts and the others abreast in front 
 
DEPARTURE FROM YARKAND. 287 
 
 we took leave of the Dad.kh.wali, and set out on our 
 journey to the court of Atalik Ghazi. 
 
 Muhammad Yunus considered his position in this 
 country as dadkhwah of Yarkand equivalent to that of the 
 lieutenant-governor of a province in India, and did not 
 deem it necessary to return the visit of the envoy, but 
 got over any little difficulty in the matter by inviting 
 us all to breakfast on the day preceding our departure, 
 and the opportunity served for us to take leave of him, 
 and thank him for his hospitality and attentions. 
 
 We left the Yangishahr of Yarkand at about eight A.M. 
 on the 28th November, and marched twenty-five miles 
 to Kok Eabat, where we found quarters in the rest- 
 house. It is similar to that at Karghalik, arid like it 
 and others we occupied, only used by the king, and the 
 guests whom he chooses to honour. 
 
 Our route passed round the north side of the fort, and 
 at about four miles crossed the Opah river by a newly 
 built bridge, the ornamental towers at each end of which 
 are not quite finished. Beyond it we passed amongst 
 scattered homesteads to Cara Cum, or " Black Sand," a 
 mile and a half further on, and alighted for the dastur- 
 khwan at a peasant's house which had been cleared for 
 our reception. It stood on the verge of a sandy waste 
 which we, on resuming the route, traversed for ten miles to 
 Eabatchi. This last is a long strip of farmsteads running 
 east and west on the course of a small perennial stream. 
 At half way to it we passed the roadside post-stage, or 
 ortang, of Sughuchak, where are a few trees and eight 
 or ten huts clustered together. All the rest of this 
 bit of the road is a waste dotted with saline pools, 
 patches of reeds and tamarisks, and camel's thorn 
 scattered over a surface covered with saline encrusta- 
 tions, and thrown into hillocks of blown sand. And 
 
288 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 here and there, at distant intervals on its wide extent, 
 appeared a few isolated shepherd's huts. 
 
 From Eabatchi to Kok Eabat the road lies across 
 similar country, with scattered homesteads extending 
 some way out on its surface. Kok Eabat is a settle- 
 ment of about two hundred homesteads which spread 
 east and west over a considerable surface. Our next 
 stage was Kizili, thirty miles. The route went N.W. 
 across a gravelly desert the horizon of which met and 
 mingled with an atmosphere of dense haze. Its surface, 
 bare and undulating, gently sloped to the west up to 
 some low ridges of clay projecting on to it from under 
 a veil of haze which concealed all beyond from view. 
 The air was keen (the thermometer stood at 18 F. as 
 we set out), and was rendered sharper by a cold north 
 wind. 
 
 At half way a little beyond the ruins of a former 
 post-stage we alighted for the daxturlchwdn at Ac 
 Eabat, or "The white hostel." This is a small post- 
 stage enclosed within walls, and has accommodation for 
 a score of horses. It is kept by a party of four or five 
 men, and is the only habited spot on this march. There 
 are two wells of brackish water here ; one on the road 
 and the other inside the robot. In the latter, which is 
 a very narrow shaft, the water was ninety-eight feet 
 down, and disagreeably salt. 
 
 Near this place we were met by Khal Muhammad, a 
 confidential servant of Atalik Ghazi, who has the rank of 
 Pdnsad Bdshi or " Commandant of five hundred." He 
 was accompanied by twenty troopers, or jigit as the 
 cavalry soldier is here called, and had been sent out from 
 Yangi Hissar by his master to welcome, and do honour 
 to the envoy, and conduct his party to the capital. His 
 men like himself wore a very strange uniform, which 
 
THE ATALIK'S LIFE GUARDS. 289 
 
 was admirably adapted to the climate and country at 
 this season. 
 
 It consisted of a whole suit of yellow buff leather. 
 The conical cap was of this material edged with otter 
 fur ; and, like the long sheepskin coat, had the wool 
 intact on the inside. The overalls very capacious bags, 
 called shim in place of the wool were lined with chintz, 
 and decorated at the lower edges, as was the coat, with 
 a thin border of otter fur. Even the boots were of tan 
 leather unblacked. The material of the cap and coat 
 was the same as that of the Kabul postin the peculiar 
 colour and softness being the result of the treatment in 
 curing with pomegranate rinds but it was altogether 
 without the silk embroidery on the postins of that 
 country, and had no ornamentation at all on those worn 
 by the private troopers. The coat worn by Khal 
 Muhammad had a sort of dragon's head device worked 
 in coloured silks on the back between the shoulders. 
 And this device we subsequently found was the badge 
 of rank, and only allowed to commandants. 
 
 This was the only party of troops we saw in uniform 
 during our stay in the country, excepting only the artil- 
 lery, though there are probably many similarly equipped ; 
 for at Kashghar we afterwards met another Pansad 
 Bashi in the same sort of coat as Khal Muhammad wore 
 here, and saw some few of the body guard of Atalik 
 Ghazi in the same uniform as that of this party. The 
 arms of these men were the sword, and percussion rifle 
 with high sights. These last are manufactured in the 
 Atalik's workshops in the Yangishahr of Kashghar, and 
 look very serviceable weapons. 
 
 At Kizili we alighted at the Government rest-house, a 
 spacious Sarae opposite the village, and in the afternoon 
 visited the iron furnaces of the place. We found eighteen 
 
 T 
 
2 9 o KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 or twenty smelting ovens clustered together in the midst 
 of the houses of the workmen. None of them were in 
 work, so we had an opportunity of examining their 
 structure. The furnace is built in the centre of a round 
 pit which is roofed roughly, and it has a narrow chim- 
 ney four to six feet high, and pierced with air-holes 
 round the base. The charcoal and ore are mixed toge- 
 ther in the shaft of the chimney, and the melted metal 
 sinks to a trough below, where the nozzles of two or 
 three bellows appear to have been fixed. The furnaces 
 are very roughly built of clay and stone, and, to judge 
 from the slag lying about them, the smelting appears to 
 be imperfect. The ore is brought from the hills two 
 days' journey to the west, and the quarries are called 
 Timurtagh or " Iron hill," and Kiziltagh or " Eed hill." 
 The miners and smelters are said to number two hundred 
 families. Their huts are massed together as in a village, 
 and not scattered about as farmsteads as in the other 
 settlements we have seen in this country. The water 
 here is brackish, and the soil of a reddish colour, whence 
 the name of the place. 
 
 Next day we marched to Yangi Hissar thirty miles 
 and halted two days. The first ten miles across a waste 
 of thin pasture, on which we passed the little farmstead 
 settlements of Chamalung (where the Chinese had an or- 
 tang or post-stage), Cuduc, and Cosh Gumbat ; and the 
 next four across a desert strip of sands and salines, which 
 extends east and west out of view, and is thinly covered 
 with camel's thorn, tamarisk, saltworts and other desert 
 plants, to Topaluk, or " The dusty place/' a settlement 
 of farmsteads running east and west along the course of 
 a small rivulet. We alighted here for the dasturJchwan 
 at a peasant's house on the roadside. 
 
 At two miles further on we passed the homesteads of 
 
ARRIVAL AT YANGI HISSAR, 291 
 
 Kalpin, and a little beyond it the ruins of a village of 
 the same name, and then entered on a wide desert tract 
 which rises into hillocks and banks that run from west to 
 east and close the distant view in front. The land here 
 lies low, and is covered with spongy saline encrustations, 
 and saltworts and coarse grass, and is impassable except 
 on the beaten track owing to the pitfalls on its blistered 
 surface. In some parts, our cattle getting off the track 
 sunk to the hocks in a loose pulverulent earth, the nature 
 of which was concealed from view by the plants growing 
 in the saline crust on its surface. As my horse laboured 
 heavily on it, I dismounted, and tried to follow some 
 bustard which had been marked down away to the 
 right, but found the effloresced soil so deep, and the 
 labour of walking on it so fatiguing, that I was glad to 
 leave the game to their safety, and resume my seat in 
 the saddle. 
 
 On the other side of this desert tract we came to 
 the Sugat Bulac or " Willow Spring " post house, at the 
 foot of some ridges of gravel and sand which extend 
 across the country from west to east along the course of 
 the Shahnaz river. The road winds amongst these 
 ridges for some miles, and then, passing through a gap, 
 leads across the muddy river by a bridge of rough logs 
 and spars. The stream is dammed just above the bridge, 
 and about the banks on either side are some water-mills 
 on the canals drawn off at this point to the cultivation 
 and farms of Shahnaz. The river here flows in a deep 
 sandy channel between high perpendicular banks of loose 
 earth, and is unfordable on account of its quicksands. 
 It comes down from the low hills on the west, and is 
 exhausted in the irrigation of the lands lower down 
 after a south-easterly course of about twenty-five miles 
 on the plain. Beyond the fields of Shahnaz we crossed 
 
2 9 2 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the bare gravelly ridges of Cayragh, and descended to 
 the populous suburbs of Yangi Hissar, which itself is a 
 poor dilapidated little town, protected by a strong fort 
 on the plain to the north. We passed through its bazar, 
 and turning off to the left across some fields, white as 
 snow with their encrustation of salts, alighted at a gar- 
 den-house which had been prepared for our reception, 
 and was kept by a guard of soldiers. We were to have 
 halted here only one day, but late in the evening of the 
 1st December a messenger arrived from Kashghar Avith 
 orders for Khal Muhammad to detain our party here 
 another day. So he explained to the envoy very diplo- 
 matically that the Atalik had ordered him to take care 
 that we were not fatigued by over-marching, and that 
 he was to make us comfortable here for to-morrow, and 
 bring us on next day by the usual stages. 
 
 On the 3d December accordingly we resumed our 
 march, and alighted at the rest-house of Yapchang, 
 twenty-five miles. Our road took us past the fort, or 
 Yangishahr, of Yangi Hissar, and through a wide street 
 of barracks outside it. There was no parade or display 
 of troops, but we saw some of the soldiers seated under 
 the line of trees in front of their doors, and caught 
 glimpses of the Chinese women their prizes of war as 
 they peered at us from the doorways or over the wall. 
 Some of them were in the bloom of youth, and remark- 
 ably clear and rosy in complexion. 
 
 Clearing the barracks, we went north across a thinly 
 cultivated, and saline impregnated plain which is here 
 traversed by two considerable canals a mile or so apart, 
 and bridged at the road. Beyond them, at about the 
 tenth mile, we passed the farmsteads of Saidlar, and 
 then crossed a wide sandy waste grown over with reeds 
 and saltworts, and here and there covered with stagnant 
 
APPROACH TO KASHGHAR. 293 
 
 pools, and stretches of marsh, land, in the midst of which, 
 scattered at distant intervals, were a few widely isolated 
 homesteads ; and at another five miles or so we came to 
 Sogholuc, where we alighted at a pleasant garden-house 
 for the dasturkhwan. 
 
 The weather was remarkably fair, and, though the 
 sun was shining brightly, and felt agreeably warm, it 
 had little effect on the ice of the frozen streamlets. The 
 usual haze had disappeared, and the air was clear, and 
 frosty to a degree we had not before experienced, and 
 we got a very extensive view of the country. It pre- 
 sented only a wide plain of undulating sand and gravel, 
 very thinly peopled only in front and behind us, all the 
 rest being a reed-grown waste, here and there broken in 
 its monotonous level by sand dunes. Against the sky to 
 the south and south-west were seen some snowy peaks, 
 and the mountain masses of the Tagharma group in 
 Sarigh Col ("the yellow defile"), whilst directly to the 
 west lay the lower ranges of the Caratagh (" the black 
 mountain.") 
 
 Beyond Sogholuc we marched four miles over a wide 
 reed-grown tract, on which the road winds amongst 
 marshes and sand dunes up to the Khan Aric which we 
 crossed by bridge, and following up its marshy curve for 
 some distance crossed a branch canal by bridge, and 
 beyond it entered the cultivation of Yapchang. 
 
 Next morning 4th December we marched to the 
 Yangishahr of Kashghar, fourteen miles. Our route 
 went north-west over a plain of sandy waste similar to 
 that already passed, and still thinly populated, though 
 traversed from west to east by the river Tazghun, and 
 several canals from it, most of which, as is the river, 
 are crossed by rafter bridges. Within thirty minutes of 
 leaving Yapchang we crossed three of these canals by 
 
294 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 bridge (they flow in low-banked sandy channels impas- 
 sable otherwise by reason of quicksands), and then the 
 river, and in fifteen minutes more entered the culti- 
 vation of the Tazghun settlement. Beyond its narrow 
 strip, we crossed a saline waste of reeds, and marshes, and 
 pools, and at two hours and ten minutes from Yapchang 
 alighted at a small cluster of huts at the Carasu bridge 
 for the dasturkhwan. 
 
 The morning air was sharp and frosty. The pools 
 and lesser streams were all frozen, and the larger carried 
 drift ice. Beyond the Carasu, which is about five miles 
 from the Yangishahr, we were met by a party of fifteen 
 or sixteen horsemen headed by Coshbegi Mirza Ahmad, 
 who had been sent out by Atalik Ghazi to welcome the 
 envoy. He is one of the most important men attached 
 to the court, and is the first richly dressed man we have 
 yet seen in the country. He is a fine handsome man, 
 of about forty-five years of age, and has large features, 
 with a full beard, and looks more like an Afghan than a 
 Tatar. He is one of the few men who held rank and 
 position in his own country before he came here ; and 
 he figured prominently in the politics of Khocand, where 
 he made an unsuccessful attempt to usurp the throne, 
 and took an active part in the hostilities both against 
 the Kussians and against Khudayar Khan. On the cap- 
 ture of Tashkand by the former in 1865, he made an un- 
 successful attempt to forestall the latter in the recovery 
 of Khocand, and, on the restoration of the Khan to the 
 throne, was forced to flee the country with many others 
 who had been arrayed against both in the interest of 
 the Capchac party. We did not meet him again after 
 our installation in the Eesidency. 
 
 Beyond Carasu up to the Yangishahr, and to Kash- 
 ghar five miles further on, the country becomes more 
 
RECEPTION BY A TALIK GHAZI. 295 
 
 populous and highly cultivated, and farmsteads and 
 fields meet the eye in all directions. 
 
 Our road passed some artillery barracks, and then 
 along the east side of the fort round to the Eesidency, 
 or quarters which had been recently built for our accom- 
 modation, immediately opposite the gateway on the 
 north face of Yangishahr, where we alighted at noon. 
 Mirza Ahmad having introduced us to our quarters, and 
 marshalled in the dasturkhwan, took leave of the envoy 
 to report arrival to his master. 
 
 A couple of hours later Ihrar Khan, Tora, who had 
 previously visited India, and was known to the envoy, 
 came over to conduct us to the presence of Atalik Grhazi, 
 as it was the custom of the country for honoured visitors 
 to be granted an audience to pay their respects to the 
 king immediately on arrival. We accordingly arrayed 
 ourselves in full dress uniform, and followed our chief, 
 who was conducted to the palace by the Tora. 
 
 The distance across the road to the fort gate was only 
 a bowshot, and we found but a small crowd of soldiers 
 and camp followers collected as sight-seers. We passed 
 over a drawbridge, and through three gates, one beyond 
 the other at right angles, each with its guard, as at 
 Yarkand, and, dismounting inside the third, walked 
 across an open space to the gate of the palace or orda. 
 This is a very unpretending flat-roofed building ap- 
 proached through three courts, the two outer of which 
 were occupied by about 400 men of the king's guard. 
 They were all seated motionless and silent in long rows 
 against the verandah walls. 
 
 We passed through the first two courts, and some- 
 how sympathetically became infected with the solemnity 
 and silence that pervaded the air of the place. As we 
 entered through the doorway of the third court, Ihrar 
 
296 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Khan, with a look of serious gravity, motioned a pause, 
 and stepping silently forward peeped into it, and then 
 beckoned us on. Three or four steps brought us through 
 the passage into the oblong court. Two sides were occu- 
 pied by a verandah, and the other two by blank walls 
 of mud plaster. Under the verandah at the further end, 
 and opening on to its broad floor, was a row of door 
 windows with lattice-work panels ; and in the centre of 
 the court was a frozen tank, around which grew some 
 tall poplar trees. There was not a soul in the court 
 but ourselves, and its silence was oppressive. The Tora 
 walked a step or two in front of us with downcast head, 
 folded hands, and silent footfall, and we mechanically 
 followed, stilling the noise of our boots upon the flat- 
 brick paved path as best we could on tip-toe. 
 
 At the steps of the verandah our guide, with unre- 
 laxed solemnity of countenance, motioned a halt, and 
 leisurely walking up to the door, disappeared within 
 it. We took the opportunity to whisper to each other as 
 the tone most suited to the dreadful silence of the spot 
 and occasion. After two or three very long minutes the 
 Tora reappeared in the verandah, and beckoning the 
 envoy to advance, motioned the rest of us to stand 
 still. 
 
 Our chief entered the doorway, and, as I am informed, 
 walked nearly up the hall, when a middle-sized, stout- 
 built, and plainly dressed man of about fifty years of age 
 entered from an opposite door, and shaking hands, wel- 
 comed him to Kashghar. The sounds of conversation 
 reached us in the court, and now the Tora standing in 
 the verandah at the hall door beckoned us one by one, 
 and passed us in. "We walked in turn up the hall (a 
 large plain room, like that of the orda at Yarkand) to 
 its top, where Atalik Ghazi was seated Turkish fashion 
 
THE CEREMONY OF HIS COURT. 297 
 
 on the floor, with the envoy on his right at one side. 
 Here, being introduced by our chief, we stooped to 
 shake the proffered hand, and bowing our acknowledge- 
 ments to the sonorous and impassive "salctmat" of the 
 Atalik's greeting, stepped back to seat ourselves on the 
 cushion in a line below the envoy. 
 
 "When all were seated the Atalik, with true Oriental 
 solemnity, welcomed the envoy to his country in a few 
 short words, the while folding his hands in the over- 
 lapping sleeves of his juba. The envoy gracefully 
 acknowledged the compliment, and presented a rifle for 
 the acceptance of our host. It was received with a bow, 
 but no curious examination or inquiry was permitted 
 to disturb the narrow current of the etiquette so rigidly 
 observed in this Court, and then a glance from Atalik 
 Ghazi towards the Tora, who stood inside the door at 
 the further end of the hall, was the signal for the das- 
 turWiwan. A low bow and a tacsir preceded his exit 
 to order it in. He re-entered immediately, and with a 
 drop on one knee and rapid stroke of the beard whilst 
 muttering a benediction, rose to resume his attitude of 
 respectful attention at the former post. 
 
 A file of some twenty-five or thirty soldiers, with 
 their swords slung at the waist, now marched in with 
 the trays of fruits and sweets, and laid them on the 
 Khocand silk table-cloths which were now spread 
 before us by one of their number. This was all done 
 with such studied quiet that the silence of the room 
 was not disturbed by more than the rustle of their 
 silk dresses and sword belts, till the booming of the salute, 
 at this moment fired on the parade near our quarters, 
 suddenly broke the stillness of the palace with the 
 first of fifteen slowly succeeding reports all in the full 
 force of the honour they were meant to convey. For 
 
298 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 this military mode of doing honour was an innovation 
 on the customs of the country ; and this was, through 
 the representations of Haji Tora, the first occasion on 
 whichjthe Atalik had so honoured anybody a course 
 he was led to adopt in recognition of a similar com- 
 pliment paid to his own envoy, now returned with us, 
 on his reception by the authorities in India. 
 
 All this time the Atalik, seated on his crossed heels in 
 the fashion of the country, maintained a dignified silence, 
 and we sat motionless staring at the trays before us, or 
 looking straight in front through the opposite windows 
 into a court beyond in which were loitering a few 
 soldiers gun in hand, or gently turning our eyes upon 
 the personage whose character inspired such awe. 
 
 With the last gun of the salute a soldier bearing a tray 
 with two bowls of tea on it approached, and kneeling 
 held it to the Atalik who, relaxing the gravity of his 
 features for the moment, with a gracious smile proffered 
 it to the envoy, and reaching forward to the nearest 
 tray of the dasturlchwan took a biscuit, and breaking 
 it handed a morsel to him, and at the same time with a 
 bismillah invited us to help ourselves. 
 
 The ice of reserve was now cracked, and a conversation 
 between Atalik Ghazi and the envoy followed, inter- 
 rupted by long pauses of grave silence. His Highness 
 observed, "You have performed a hard journey over 
 bad roads. I hope my officials have attended to your 
 requirements satisfactorily.' 7 The envoy assured him 
 we had travelled with comfort, and said how grateful 
 we were for all the attentions shown to us by His 
 Highness. 
 
 " You must have found it cold on the march from 
 Yarkand. The frost here has set in hard since four days, 
 and will increase during the next two months." The 
 
FEATURES OF THE ATALIK. 299 
 
 envoy, gracefully acknowledging the preparations made 
 for our accommodation, replied that in the comfortable 
 shelter provided by His Highness, the cold would only 
 remind us of our home country. 
 
 The Atalik then referred to the envoy's previous visit 
 to this country, and observed that he was unable to meet 
 him on that occasion owing to the pressure of important 
 affairs requiring his presence on his eastern frontier. 
 He was highly honoured by his visit now. " You have 
 come," he said, " to your own country. You are all 
 welcome. Make yourselves at home, and do as you 
 would at home. You are free to do all that is right in 
 my territories." 
 
 Another bit of bread was offered by way of ceremony, 
 and the allah akbar with the accompanying stroke of 
 the beard signalled the removal of the dasturJchivan. 
 The file of soldiers reappeared, and noiselessly picking 
 up the pieces disappeared with their trays ; and then a 
 repetition of the first " salamat," whilst Atalik folded 
 his hands in the opposite sleeves of his juba, was the 
 hint on which, rising with the envoy, we made our bows 
 and walked out of the hall as well as our numbed and 
 cramped legs could carry us. 
 
 We went out the way we came in, and were accom- 
 panied by the Tora to our quarters. On emerging from 
 the sacred precincts of the palace we threw off the 
 solemnity of its atmosphere, and with the Tora, who 
 was inwardly proud of the impression produced by his 
 master's august presence, breathed and talked once more 
 with our wonted freedom and ease. 
 
 Atalik Ghazi has a very remarkable face, and one not 
 easily described. It presents no single feature with 
 undue prominence, and seen in a crowd would pass un- 
 noticed as rather a common sort of face ; yet it has 
 
300 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 peculiar characters and wears an expression which some- 
 how conveys the impression that it is more assumed 
 than natural. The face has the general outlines of 
 the Tatar physiognomy, with its asperities softened 
 and rounded by Uzbak blood, and presents a broad 
 full countenance without a wrinkle or a seam, and 
 with less of commanding weight than of sensual pas- 
 sion in its expression. This may be the result of the 
 features having acquired their natural cast under the 
 influence of the vicissitudes and servility of his life 
 until ten years ago as a servant of the Court of Khocand. 
 The forehead is full and high, and without trace of a frown 
 or wrinkle is displayed to full advantage under a well 
 set turban, the pure white folds of which rest high on the 
 shaven scalp; but it loses much of the force thus acquired 
 owing to the equally full development of the cheeks, 
 which again also detract from the size and importance of 
 the nose. On any other face this characteristic feature 
 would be pronounced massive and powerful, but here it 
 is short, and smooth, and defective alike in breadth and 
 prominence, and deprived of much of its real weight by 
 the mouth, which and the eyes are the two most strik- 
 ing features of the whole countenance. The mouth is 
 large, but not coarse ; and the lips are thick and fleshy, 
 but at the same time firmly set. Its expression is 
 one of severity, though now and again in conversation 
 the upper lip is curled for a moment with a very pleas- 
 ing smile, instantly, however, to resume its apparently 
 studied expression of gravity. The eyes are full and play 
 under open brows, but they have no softness. They 
 move slowly and stare with deliberation, and take no part 
 in the evanescent smiles that occasionally move the lips. 
 Their general expression is that of thought and melan- 
 choly. Altogether the set of the features appear to be 
 
fflS CHARACTER. 301 
 
 the result of studied gravity and reserve, and though 
 naturally the countenance is well favoured its general 
 expression is not attractive. 
 
 The same ceremony and etiquette marked each of the 
 five visits we paid to His Highness during our stay in 
 the country. The studied simplicity and grave solemnity, 
 coupled with the awful silence pervading the precincts 
 of the court, stamp the character of the strict discipline 
 maintained by this remarkable man. There is no sign 
 of confidence or affection anywhere. The expression of 
 fear and self-interest is everywhere. There is no recog- 
 nised system of rule. The despot's will is the law. His 
 own people, as well as his subjects, think, and speak, and 
 act with an ever-present conviction that any moment 
 may plunge them into calamity ; and they live a life of 
 resignation and servility. 
 
 The man who has created, and who controls this state 
 of society, if a tithe of what is said in mysterious 
 whispers of his acts and his tempers be true, enjoys no 
 confidence or affection where the bare sentiments do not 
 exist. The loyalty he extorts is that of fear, not of 
 goodwill, and its homage is exacted with a jealousy 
 apparent in the most trivial matters, as we observed 
 in many instances that came to our notice during our 
 stay in the country. 
 
 He trusts nobody, and is in return trusted by nobody. 
 Profound secrecy, and an imperious will, the caprice of 
 which no man can foretell, are the principles of his rule, 
 and, whatever may be their merit, they are not without 
 their burthen, of which mistrust of his own creatures is 
 not the least onerous. How far these conditions may 
 be the growth of the peculiar circumstances of his posi- 
 tion it is not easy to determine, but of their existence 
 there is not a doubt, and of their novelty in the govern- 
 
302 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 merit of the country there is no lack of evidence amongst 
 the conquered people. The government is said to be 
 formed on the model of that of Khocand, and the Court 
 titles and dignities are all adopted from that princi- 
 pality, where, some half century ago, Muhammad Ali 
 Khan revived the system of the Mughal emperors in the 
 Court he then established. 
 
 Whatever the severity of the rule, however, and by 
 whatever means it has been acquired, it is now firmly 
 administered by a master mind, and with a success that 
 has well nigh banished violent crime from the country. 
 And it has besides reduced the people to a state of dis- 
 cipline that reflects as much upon their submissive 
 temper .as upon the majesty of Islam, in whose name 
 the change has been effected by the potentate who now 
 here holds the sway over a million and a half of people, 
 the subjects for a hundred years and more preceding of 
 the comparatively tolerant rule of the Chinese. 
 
 During the three months of our stay at Kashghar we 
 heard of only one murder occurring in the place, and 
 for that the culprit was publicly executed by having his 
 throat cut in the principal bazar of the city. We never 
 heard of robbery on the high roads during all our stay 
 in the country. This form of crime appears only to 
 have been practised by the wandering Kirghiz on the 
 borders. 
 
 On returning from our visit to the Atalik we in- 
 stalled ourselves in the quarters prepared for us, and 
 soon perceived the cause of our detention at Yarkand 
 and delay at Yangi Hissar. These buildings had only 
 been commenced on a plan forwarded by Haji Tora after 
 his messenger, Mulla Artoc who overtook our camp in 
 Nubra, arrived at Kashghar ; and they had only been 
 finished just as we entered them. 
 
UR RESIDE NC Y AT KASHGHAR. 303 
 
 The buildings included two courts surrounded by rooms, 
 and two yards for stabling and servants, all enclosed 
 within walls of a square shape, and entered by a main 
 gateway facing the fort. The rooms were very comfort- 
 ably furnished as at Karghalik and Yarkand, and we 
 received the most hospitable attention throughout our 
 stay in the place. 
 
 Around our block of residency was an open space, and 
 beyond it were the military bazar on one side, with regi- 
 mental barracks (little fortified squares) scattered over 
 the plain on the others in the direction of the city. 
 Amongst those to the northward, and at no great dis- 
 tance, is a neat building surrounded by tall poplars 
 within the enclosing walls of its court-yard. It is one 
 of the Atalik's harems, and is said to contain a hun- 
 dred and twenty fair creatures from different parts of 
 the country. There is another inside the fort and a 
 third at Yangi Hissar. The total number of their in- 
 mates is variously estimated at from two hundred and 
 fifty to four hundred women, amongst whom there are, 
 it is said, representatives of almost every people from 
 the cities of China on the east to the markets of Con- 
 stantinople on the west, and from the steppes of 
 Mongholia on the north to the valleys of the Himalaya 
 on the south. The modern Napoleon of the Tatar 
 steppes, as his admirers are pleased to style him on ac- 
 count of his successful usurpations, may be with equal 
 propriety styled the Solomon of the age, for if he has 
 not the proverbial wisdom of that ancient king, he at 
 least emulates him in the number of his wives and con- 
 cubines. Of the former, Yacub Beg, as a prosperous 
 Musalman, had provided himself with the full ]egal num- 
 ber before he left Khocand ; but now the four partners 
 of his lot as a mere Coshbegi have to share their fortunes 
 
304 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 with four times their number of wives, whom it has 
 pleased their lord as Atalik Ghazi to take unto himself 
 in formal wedlock. And this without account of the 
 concubines whom he may please to honour with his 
 favours. The greatest promotion these last can look for 
 is to be transferred as wives to some deserving officer 
 whom their lord and king may thus choose to honour. 
 
 A couple of days after our arrival at Kashghar, Atalik 
 Ghazi paid a visit to the shrine of Hazrat Afac, the 
 patron saint of the country, and returned to his Court 
 next day with the style and title of Amir Muhammad 
 Ydcub Khan, Amir ulmuminin or " Commander of the 
 Faithful," and issued a new coinage in the name of the 
 reigning Sultan of Turkey. There was no parade or 
 ceremony to celebrate the event, but the Amir, held a 
 court, and received the congratulations of his troops on 
 the dignity and honour conferred on him by the repre- 
 sentative head of the Faithful. 
 
 On the llth of December the envoy, attended by all 
 his officers in full dress, paid a visit to the Amir, and 
 presented the letter and presents from the Queen, and 
 the letter and presents from Her Majesty's Viceroy of 
 India. The envoy proceeded with all due state and 
 ceremony, and was received by the Amir with precisely 
 the same etiquette as on the first occasion. That is, he 
 met him standing, and took his seat on the floor before 
 the rest of us entered. Amongst the presents those 
 which excited most surprise, and met with greatest 
 favour were the sewing machines, of which the fame 
 had spread this way from the Moscow market. They 
 soon found their way to the harem, and were very 
 quickly put out of order by the fair fingers there. Ihrar 
 Khan Tora brought them back one day to be readjusted, 
 and to take a lesson how to manipulate them, and went 
 
APPRECIATION OF THE TELEGRAPH. 305 
 
 off with his charge quite elated with the new gained 
 power, to explain how simple it was to work them. 
 But, whether he was an unskilful demonstrator, or the 
 ladies were too hasty in their experiments, they werebefore 
 long again brought back in pieces to be put together and 
 set right; and this time accompanied by a tailor to 
 master the mysteries of their construction and working. 
 His instruction was apparently to some purpose, whether 
 for good or evil I will not pretend to say. At all events 
 we never heard of them again. 
 
 The telegraph apparatus on which some of our party 
 had devoted much time to set in working order, and 
 whose powers they were prepared to illustrate by trans- 
 mitting messages between the envoy's residence and the 
 Amir's court, was evidently looked upon with suspicion, 
 and His Highness never once alluded to it, much less 
 expressed a wish to see it in operation. The models of 
 steam engines and steam ships fared no better, not so 
 much from prejudice against them as inventions of the 
 devil as from utter ignorance of their uses and powers. 
 
 On the 13th of December we visited the city as the 
 guests of the Dadkhwah Alish Beg. He resides in an 
 orda very similar in plan and surroundings to that of 
 Yarkand, and in its audience hall entertained us to a 
 most sumptuous dasturJchwan of mixed Andijan and 
 Chinese cookery. We spent the afternoon in the garden 
 attached to his palace. In summer it must be a very 
 pleasant retreat, but as we saw it in the depth of winter 
 it appeared anything but a charming resort. It had two 
 large tanks, and on one of these on a subsequent occasion 
 Captain Chapman with his skates showed our host how 
 people in Europe disport themselves on the ice. His 
 rapid and clever evolutions drew forth the admiration of 
 the Dadkhwah and his retinue, and we more than once 
 
 u 
 
306 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 heard of the Amir's intention to preside at such a dis- 
 play, but for some reason His Highness never carried 
 out the purpose. 
 
 It took us an hour and twenty minutes to ride from 
 the Yangishahr to the city gate, at the ordinary march- 
 ing rate of four miles an hour. Our road took us amongst 
 a number of small barrack enclosures, and across three 
 or four irrigation canals, over which at different points 
 are thrown rough rafter bridges, and then along a low 
 water-logged beach of the Kizil Su, or " Eed river," by 
 a causeway lined with willow- trees up to the bridge over 
 the river, which here flows between very shallow banks. 
 
 The bridge is a rough untidy structure of wood, sup- 
 ported on two piers built in the channel ; and the road 
 rises up to it on either side over a sloping bank of 
 earth. Just above this bridge on the city side is the 
 spot where Khoja Wall Khan in 1857 murdered Adolphe 
 Schlagentweit, and added his head to the pile of skulls 
 which he in the tyranny of his mad career erected here. 
 He reappeared on the scene of his former atrocities, in the 
 party which came over with the Khoja Buzurg Khan in 
 1864-5, and was afterwards put out of the way as a 
 troublesome character and possible rival, when Atalik 
 Ghazi came to power some six months later. 
 
 Beyond the bridge on the right hand a little way off 
 the road are seen the ruins of ancient Kashghar the 
 Aski Shahr or Aski Sai as it is usually pronounced, " the 
 old city" destroyed by Mirza Ababakar, as I have 
 before mentioned. Of the completeness of his work the 
 remains bear witness, though in the haste of his level- 
 ling, the ramparts of the citadel were left standing on 
 three sides. The eastern walls have been entirely washed 
 away by a branch of the Tuman river which had been 
 dammed up to flood the, city and efface all trace of its 
 
RUINS OF ANCIENT KASHGHAR. 307 
 
 mud walls, and its channel now occupies the place of 
 that side of the fort, the former area of which is now 
 occupied by a few poor cottages and cornfields. The 
 walls which remain are now about twenty-four feet high 
 and twelve paces broad at the top. They are built up of 
 hard clay and gravel, and present a look of great strength. 
 At intervals of fifty or sixty paces are tall round moles 
 built up of successive layers of clay and rubble which 
 are still distinctly traceable as they were originally de- 
 posited. There are four of these moles on the west face, 
 and they stand forward some thirty feet from the walls. 
 They present three or four successive horizontal lines of 
 holes, one above the other at intervals of six feet or so, 
 which represent the sockets of the rafters which passed 
 in so many tiers from the mole to the walls ; and they 
 probably formed covered passages from the outwork to 
 the fort, and from their shelter gave the archers a flank 
 fire upon assailants against the walls. 
 
 The city according to the " Tarikhi Eashidi " covered a 
 very large extent of surface on both sides of the river 
 Tuman, and traces of ruined walls, and mounds of debris 
 are still seen scattered about on both banks below the 
 existing ruins of the citadel. From remote times Kash- 
 ghar held a proud position as one of the most impor- 
 tant cities of eastern Turkistan, and in the time of the 
 Mughal Khans gave its name to the territory of their 
 hereditary kingdom. This name which fell into disuse 
 during the century of Chinese occupation has now been 
 revived by the present ruler, who styles himself Amir of 
 Kashghar ; and his coin bears the name of this city as 
 the capital of his principality. 
 
 From the time of the Afrasyab kings it was noted as 
 the capital of this territory, and a flourishing centre of 
 trade. What the ancient pronunciation and spelling of 
 
3o8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 its name may have been does not appear, but in the form 
 it has been handed down to us by the Arab chroniclers 
 of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it does not 
 seem to have lost much of its original etymology, if we 
 are right in considering Kashghar as the foreign form 
 of the Sanskrit Kasigarh the fort of Kasi a name now 
 represented in India by the Hindi form of Kashi for the 
 city of Benares. As a transition state between the two 
 I note that Marco Polo, according to Yule, spelled the 
 name Cascar, and elsewhere it is spelt Casigar. 
 
 But Kashghar reached the height of its prosperity as 
 the capital of the Uyghur kingdom under the princes of 
 the lylik dynasty. In the time of those kings the 
 tenth and eleventh centuries the suburbs of Kashghar, 
 it is said, extended up to the settlement of Artosh, 
 twenty miles to the north at the point of divergence of 
 the caravan routes, by the passes on the west to Khocand, 
 and on the north to Almati. At that time Artosh itself 
 was a flourishing market town, and the residence of the 
 Baghra Khan branch of the royal family, the hereditary 
 princes of the country, and for many centuries the rulers 
 of Kashghar. 
 
 It was under the reign of one of those princes Sultan 
 Satoc Baghra Khan Ghazi that Islam was first intro- 
 duced into the country, he himself having become an 
 early convert at the hands of Abu Nasr, one of the 
 conquering Samani princes of Bukhara. He spent his 
 life in wars of conversion, and after more than half a 
 century of bloodshed and violence, reduced the towns on 
 the line of the route from his capital to Turfan and up 
 to Khamil to accept the new faith. On his death in 
 1037 he was buried under a grand mausoleum in Lower 
 Artosh, where his tomb is now venerated as one of the 
 most important shrines of the country. It has been very 
 
BUILDING OF THE PRESENT CITY. 309 
 
 recently restored from its state of decay by the Amir, 
 who has renewed its ancient endowments, and built a 
 commodious college and monastery in connection with 
 it. The cities of Yangi Hissar, Yarkand, and Khutan, 
 held out against the introduction of the new faith, but 
 were finally reduced after an exterminating warfare of a 
 quarter of a century by the sons and successors of Satoc 
 Baghra Khan. 
 
 On the downfall of the Uyghur rule Kashghar became 
 the capital of the Cara Khitay king, Gorkhan, and passed 
 from him to Koshluk prince of the Nayman Kirghiz 
 at that time with the Cara Khitay mostly Nestorian 
 Christians till a few years later it was seized by the 
 Mughals headed by Changiz. Under the Mughal rule the v/' 
 city flourished, and recovered its importance as a com- 
 mercial centre on the restoration of the trade with China; 
 but, during the years of anarchy succeeding the death of 
 Chaghtay, it appears to have lost much of its importance 
 till the restoration of the Chaghtay family, in the person 
 of Toghluc Tymur, again raised it to pre-eminence in the 
 country. But only for a short time, for in the reign of 
 his son Khizr it felt the full force of Tymur's last cam- 
 paign in this direction, and was reduced to a state of 
 poverty and depopulation from which it never recovered 
 thoroughly. Finally it was utterly destroyed and effaced 
 from the earth by Mirza Ababakar as before mentioned. 
 
 He transported its population en masse to Yarkand, 
 and, with ten thousand of its men, in seven days built the 
 present city, on the high ground of the right bank of the 
 Tuman, a little way higher up its course. Its enclosing 
 walls and ditch only were completed when the invading 
 army of Sd'id appeared on the Uch Burhan ridge on the 
 opposite bank, above the ford at Sarman. 
 
 Ababakar in the meantime had fallen back on his 
 
3 io KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 capital, fortifying and storing Yangi Hissar on his way, 
 and his general left at Kashghar abandoned the place, 
 without an attempt at defence, the very night of the 
 enemy's appearance under its walls. Sd'id, finding the 
 place a mere walled enclosure, left it behind him, and 
 advanced upon Yangi Hissar. On his capture of Yar- 
 kand, three months later, he restored the Kashgharis to 
 their new city, and it then assumed much the form in 
 which we found it. 
 
 According to the ' ' Tarikhi Eashidi " its walls enclosed 
 an area of one hundred and fifty jarib, or about fifty acres. 
 They are high and massive, and are supported at intervals 
 by buttress bastions with turrets on top, and are pro- 
 tected by a deep ditch on three sides, the fourth being 
 washed below by the river. The city has two gates, the 
 Cum Dabza or " Sand-Gate " on the south side, and the 
 Su Dabza or " Water-Gate " on the north. 
 
 Around it on the plain are populous suburbs, and some 
 prominent shrines. Of these the most conspicuous and 
 important are those of Sayyid Jalaluddin Baghdadi, and 
 Hazrat Padshah. The latter is built over the head of 
 Arslan Khan of the Baghra Khan family, whose body 
 lies under the shrine of Ordam Padshah at the Cum 
 Shahidan or "Martyr's Sands." 
 
 He was killed, as I shall hereafter mention, in fight 
 against the Chinese of Khutan, and his head was cast by 
 the victorious general against the city walls as a rebuke 
 to the cowardice of the garrison shut up within them. 
 Afterwards, on the repulse of the enemy, the head of the 
 martyr prince was buried where found outside the walls, 
 and a shrine was built on the spot. The situation of the 
 shrine, consequently, is a guide to the former limit in 
 this direction of the city walls, and conveys some idea 
 of the area they enclosed. 
 
ITS MIXED POPULA TION. 3 1 1 
 
 The interior of Kashghar much resembles that of Yar- 
 kand in the character of its architecture, but the streets 
 are narrower, and more crowded with life and activity. 
 The city is much smaller than Yarkand, but has a brisker 
 trade, and its shops display a richer assortment of goods. 
 Its people too have a much more healthy and robust look, 
 and do not suffer so much from goitre. In the centre of 
 the city, opposite the Dadkhwah's orda, is a new masonry 
 sarae built by the Amir. This and the or da are the only 
 decent looking buildings we saw in the whole place. 
 The merchants here are all Eussian and Khocand traders, 
 and in the bazars are seen many Manchu, and Khitay, 
 and Tungani. The features of the citizens themselves 
 are more distinctly Tatar than in Yarkand, and present 
 a homogeneous type, unmixed with the Aryan forms of 
 the Badakhshi, Wakhi, Kashmiri, and Panjabi, which are 
 found in the southern city. 
 
 We returned from our visit to the Dadkhwah highly 
 pleased with his hospitality, and subsequently made 
 several excursions to the city, with a confirmation of the 
 favourable impression made on the first occasion. Its 
 streets and bazars always presented a scene of life and 
 activity on week-days as well as market-days. This is 
 probably due to the garrison located outside for whose 
 convenience omnibus carts ply daily between the city 
 and the fort gates. 
 
 On the 18th December we witnessed a review of the 
 Khitay or " Chinese troops " in the service of the Amir, 
 on the wide parade-ground some way to the north of our 
 Eesidency. It lies along the right bank of the Kizil Su, 
 and is covered with target butts in all directions, the 
 practice at which during our stay was constant. 
 
 There were twenty-eight companies of fifty men 
 each on the ground ; and they were divided into two 
 
3 i2 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 brigades of Tungani and Yangi Musalmans, both under 
 the command of the Kho Dalay of the latter, to whom the 
 Mah Dalay of the former acted as a second in command. 
 The men differed little in dress, and not at all in features 
 or language, and wore loose cotton robes, and a hand- 
 kerchief tied round the head with two ends flapping 
 over the ears. They manoeuvred systematically by signs 
 made with little flags which were waved by fuglemen in 
 attendance on the Kho Dalay, who with the Mah Dalay 
 occupied a position in the centre of the field, where the 
 band took its stand. 
 
 Each company carried two standards of a triangular 
 shape, and of two bright colours red and white, or yellow 
 and blue, or green and white, &c. and the men were in 
 sections of five, the complement required for the service 
 of the tyfu, which was the only weapon they carried. 
 This was a heavy wall piece, and not unlike a duck gun. 
 It was carried on the shoulders of two men, and fired 
 by the rear man, the barrel being rested on the shoulder 
 of the front man, who knelt for the purpose ; whilst the 
 other three in turn sponged, loaded, and primed the pan. 
 
 The evolutions consisted of marching and counter 
 marching, forming column and line, and volley firing in 
 the last formation. The skirmishing was done by a 
 different set of men who were clad in a peculiar uniform. 
 One company of these wore Grecian helmets, and carried 
 bows and arrows. They discharged these last at the im- 
 aginary enemy, and then retreated behind the line, widen 
 now fired a volley into them. As the smoke cleared away 
 a company of pikemen came forward, and piked the 
 fallen enemy as they were supposed to lie on the ground. 
 Then the whole line retreated covered by a company of 
 shield men dressed in yellow clothes jacket, trowsers, 
 and cap all in one piece with bars of black, and caps 
 
EXERCISE OF CHINESE TROOPS. 313 
 
 with ears to represent tigers. The buckler of their shield 
 was a gun barrel, and they loaded and fired it very dex- 
 terously in the midst of their performances. Their duty 
 was to retard the cavalry by dispersing their charges. 
 This they did by cutting antics and capers, and by 
 flourishing their big shields (which were brightly painted 
 with dragon's heads) and shouting, and then suddenly 
 turning somersaults, or rolling on the ground and firing 
 their gun-barrels as they did so, or dropping torpedoes 
 with slow matches which exploded all over the field. 
 And finally, as they retired, they stopped here and there 
 to sabre with their swords some fallen trooper. On 
 the conclusion of manoeuvres such as these the troops 
 formed column, and marched past the Kho Dalay and 
 his staff, whilst the band played some military music. 
 Their instruments were drums and flageolets and 
 cymbals ; and the big drum was carried on a frame of 
 wood by two men. They then marched off the ground 
 to their respective quarters the Yangi Musalmans to 
 their own fort on the river bank, .and the Tunganis to 
 their barracks near the city. 
 
 We were after this invited to a Chinese breakfast which 
 the Kho Dalay had prepared for us in a tent pitched on 
 the field, and divided our attention between the good 
 things set before us and the athletic exercises performed 
 by the band boys and tigers, who were summoned to 
 the front for our entertainment. They displayed a great 
 deal of skill and dexterity in single stick, cudgelling, 
 sword-swinging, and tumbling and kicking, and ended 
 with a theatrical scene in which their shields were held 
 in the form of a castle. This was assaulted by a party 
 of the others, and a stiff body carried head and heels 
 over its walls with a very clever run was the finale. The 
 Kho Dalay 's entertainment now claimed our undivided 
 
314 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 attention, and bewildered us with the variety of meats 
 crowded together, and succeeding one the other in rapid 
 succession. The breakfast was laid on a low table round 
 which were set stools, and it covered every inch of its 
 surface with the most opposite sorts of dishes, amongst 
 which there was barely room for the little saucer plates 
 from which we were to eat. These were placed round 
 the sides, each with its soup-spoon of china, its chop- 
 sticks, and its napkin of paper. This last was neatly 
 folded in a sort of book cover inscribed with a motto 
 in Chinese characters, and said to mean " Good appetite. 
 Good digestion " on one side, and stuck with a toothpick 
 on the other. 
 
 There were toasted almonds and walnuts and pistacios, 
 with mince pies, jam tarts, preserved fruits, syrups and 
 pickles to begin with. Then came rich soups, and stewed 
 meats, and pilao, and then roast goose, and roast joints, 
 with vegetables cooked simply, and in the thick sauce of 
 the yam or sweet potato. There were different sorts of 
 bread and pastry, and the yil kazan, a sort of " pot-au- 
 feu " in the shape of a tea urn with a broad cover. In 
 the central cylinder were live embers kept glowing by 
 the vent holes below the arrangement which gives the 
 utensil its name-Hand in the space around it was a per- 
 fect salmagundi of all sorts of meats, and vegetables, and 
 pastes stewed together in very tasty melange. 
 
 It seemed as if our host was determined to give us 
 at a single coup the full battery of his national cuisine 
 in all its wide range, and he certainly succeeded in con- 
 vincing us of the superior skill of his chef. There was 
 not a single dish of the many which had not its special 
 merit and excellence. 
 
 There are altogether about three thousand of the old 
 Khitay and Tungani troops now here in the service 
 
FATE OF THE CHINESE GARRISONS. 315 
 
 of the Amir. The latter number about a third of the 
 whole, and are mostly employed in the garrisons of 
 the city, and frontier posts of Chacmac in company with 
 Andijan troops. The latter, though all Yangi Musal- 
 mans nominally, are not trusted, and are only employed 
 to furnish sentries at the Yangishahr, and different bar- 
 racks. 
 
 They are the sole relics of the Chinese army which held 
 the country, and have survived the massacres and sieges 
 of the revolution to live out their lives under the favour 
 accorded them by the Amir. Their history is a strange 
 exception to the course of events which succeeded each 
 other with such uniform repetition in all the other states 
 of the territory. The Amban, with the Kho Dalay, and 
 other Chinese officers, civil and military, and eight thou- 
 sand Khitay, of whom one-half were soldiers, shut him- 
 self up in the mangshin, or Yangishahr or, as it is 
 usually called by the Tatars, Yangicorghan (New Fort) 
 as soon as he heard of the outbreak of the revolution 
 at Yarkand in the spring of 1863. In it he held out 
 against the repeated assaults of the Kirghiz under Sadie 
 Beg, and of the Andijanis under Coshbegi Yacub Beg 
 (now the Amir) until, the pressure of famine leading to 
 treachery in the garrison, he blew up his palace, and with 
 his family and officers perished in its ruins after having 
 bravely held out against all odds for full two years. 
 
 The mangshin was one of that series of forts which 
 the Chinese built outside the cities of Kashghar, Yangi 
 Hissar, Yarkand, and Khutan, to separate their troops 
 from the citizens, after the Khoja revolt under Jahangir 
 in 1826, and during which their former forts, called 
 Gulbagh, had been destroyed. They were strongly built, 
 and protected by a deep ditch, and were always kept 
 provisioned ; for they were in each place the residence 
 
316 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 of the Amban, and Chinese officers with their families, 
 and troops. 
 
 Here at Kashghar, the besieged garrison had from time 
 to time opportunities of foraging the suburbs, and getting 
 in supplies during the contest for the possession of the 
 city between Sadie Beg and Cutlugh Beg who was the 
 Wang, or Musalman governor appointed by the Chinese. 
 
 When Khoja Buzurg Khan arrived with his small party 
 under command of Coshbegi Yacub Beg, the city was 
 made over to him by the Wang, but the Amban held 
 out in his fort. The rivalry that now broke out between 
 the Kirghiz chief and the Andijani leader prevented a 
 proper siege of the fort at that time ; and then other 
 claimants for the possession of Kashghar appearing in 
 the field on the part of the king Eashuddin, who was 
 established at Acsu, a further delay occurred. For the 
 Andijanis were now involved in other operations which 
 carried them down to Yarkand, after they had defeated 
 the Acsu army at Khan Aric. 
 
 Their attempt to secure Yarkand failed, and then the 
 Coshbegi fell back to press the siege of Yangi Hissar, 
 where a garrison of two thousand Khitay still main- 
 tained themselves in the mangshin. The place was 
 taken after forty days by mining and assault, and most 
 of the garrison perished in its defence, or were put to 
 the sword in its sack after capture. The women and 
 children were made captives of war, and about two 
 hundred men saved their lives by accepting Islam. 
 
 A messenger was sent off by Yacub Beg to report 
 this victory to Alim Culi, who was at the time engaged 
 against the Kussians at Tashkand, and amongst the 
 presents he carried were nine Khitay virgins for the 
 Capchac chief. On arrival at Khocand, however, the 
 messenger heard of Alim Culi's death, and the capture 
 
CHINESE CONVERTS TO ISLAM. 317 
 
 of Tashkand by their enemy, and his fair captives with 
 others, and the presents were seized by Mirza Ahmad 
 and Beg Muhammad, who at this juncture combined to 
 try and secure the government of Khocand for themselves. 
 
 Meanwhile Yacub Beg, with a force greatly increased 
 by adventurers from Badakhshan and Khocand, and 
 favoured by the aid of a truce with Sadie, set to press 
 closely the siege of the Kashghar Fort, which had 
 hitherto been very lax. And he took it in the autumn 
 of 1865, with the connivance of the Kho Dalay who com- 
 manded the Khitay troops forming its garrison. He had 
 arranged, through the mediation of his Musalman secre- 
 tary and interpreter, to deliver up the fort and accept 
 Islam on promise of being spared his life, and being 
 allowed to take his family and adherents with him. 
 On the conclusion of his plans, he informed the Amban 
 of the course he had adopted, and advised his acquies- 
 cence to the surrender. 
 
 But the Amban, horrified at the proposal, and hope- 
 less of escape, immediately set fire to his palace, and 
 perished in its flames amidst the explosion of the 
 powder already stored in it. Yacub Beg, on finding 
 how matters went, called out his troops to take posses- 
 sion of the place, and sent messengers to protect the 
 Kho Dalay. He and his family, with some three thousand 
 Khitay troops and women, were taken under protection ; 
 and then the Andijan soldiers, rushing in, put the rest 
 to the sword, and for seven days plundered the houses. 
 
 Yacub Beg now restored order, had a mosque built on 
 the site of the Budhist temple, and his orda on that of 
 the Amban's palace ; and before the completion of the 
 latter installed himself in it, and signalised his assump- 
 tion of independent authority by a round of festivities, in 
 the course of which he married the daughter of the Kho 
 
3 i8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Dalay, who, with his men, was apportioned a residence 
 in a small enclosed barrack in an isolated position on 
 the other side of the Kizil river. He here kept them as 
 a sort of trump card during his rebellion against his 
 master the Khoja, and when, subsequently, he seized and 
 made prisoner of Buzurg Khan, and assumed the govern- 
 ment for himself, he kept faith with the Khitay, and 
 enrolled them as troops in his army. 
 
 The Kho Dalay was restored to his former position 
 over them, and entrusted with their entire control, with 
 power of inflicting death upon such as merited it. 
 Musalman priests were quartered amongst them to teach 
 them the formulae of the new creed, but in other respects 
 they were left to their own customs, so far, at least, as 
 they were in accord with the requirements of Islam. 
 
 Amidst the violence, and cruelties perpetrated in the 
 name of Islam against these people in all parts of the 
 country, this exceptional instance is a testimony greatly 
 to the credit of the Amir. For though they are not 
 trusted, and are more than suspected of keeping up their 
 Budhist rites in the secrecy of their dwellings, the for- 
 lorn situation of these Khitay converts is taken into 
 account, and they are generally treated with considera- 
 tion, so far as the nature of their case admits. 
 
 After the review of these troops, we witnessed the 
 practice of a battery of artillery, commanded by a native 
 of the Panjab who had been serving different masters in 
 Central Asia since the time of the Sikhs, when he first 
 left his own country. The gunners were mostly Afghans 
 and Panjabis, and seemed a handy though rough set of 
 men. The horses that drew the carriages appeared the 
 most commendable part of the equipment. 
 
 We saw no infantry troops in the country, nor any 
 regularly drilled or equipped regiments. In fact the 
 
DXESS OF THE AND1JAN SOLDIER. 319 
 
 troops all ride, and in the battle field dismount to fight. 
 And in their fighting, or marching costume they are 
 droll objects to the unaccustomed eye. All their loose 
 flowing robes are tucked into the capacious overalls 
 which are fastened about the waist tightly, and give the 
 wearer the appearance of a bolster tied in the middle, 
 and toddling about on two short stumps. However 
 unsoldierly the appearance of the men, the dress is not 
 without its merits in the country. It keeps the body 
 warm, and admits of the riders tumbling off from, and 
 into their saddles with surprising agility.. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON Christmas eve the Amir sent each of us a lambskin 
 juba covered with Khocand silk. No two were alike in 
 the bold patterns of their designs, and, enveloped in 
 their comfortable folds, we might easily have passed 
 muster as part of his own body guard, if we could but 
 sit on our heels without moving, and look solemn with- 
 out speaking by the hour together. 
 
 On new year's eve he sent over similar warm clothing, 
 only covered with linsey instead of silk, for each of our 
 followers. The mark of his good- will was very gratify- 
 ing and well-timed, for the thermometer had for some 
 days been in the habit of sinking several degrees below 
 zero, and giving a day maximum of only three or four 
 degrees below the freezing point. 
 
 On Christmas day we went to see some target practice 
 with the tyfu by the Khitay, and some artillery practice 
 by the battery we saw a few days ago. The former 
 made some very fair shooting at two hundred and fifty 
 yards range. On its conclusion our Guides' escort dis- 
 played the power of their Sniders, and astonished the 
 people with their tent -pegging and sword -cutting. 
 Hardly a spear went by without carrying off its peg, 
 whilst the succession of turnips which fell to their 
 swords elicited a hum of approbation from the crowd. 
 The crowd of spectators seemed puzzled which to admire 
 most the soldierly set-up of the men, and their splendid 
 horses, or the skill and dexterity of their exercises. On 
 
THE SHRINE OF HAZRA T A FA C. 321 
 
 our return to the Kesidency, we found its court occupied 
 by quite a menagerie of wild animals and tame, which 
 had been sent as a present to the envoy by Alish Beg 
 Dadkhwah. There were two fighting rams ready to 
 knock anybody off his legs, or the senses from each 
 other's heads, and there was a huge stag (mardl) stalk- 
 ing about the yard with two men holding the ropes that 
 stretched on either side his antlers. There were four 
 timid gazelles pacing round and round the court in 
 search of a way of escape, and there was a fox squeezing 
 himself against the wall for a hiding, and there was a 
 snow pheasant apparently quite at home on the scene. 
 
 The Amir had before this sent us presents of game 
 and fruits, and amongst the former pheasants, and hares, 
 and wild duck, and partridges very like the several Euro- 
 pean species. And subsequently we received many camel 
 loads of ovis Poli and ibex, brought in at intervals from 
 the hills to the north and west. They usually arrived 
 frozen stiff in the positions they had assumed during the 
 journey, or when loaded. They were magnificent speci- 
 mens, and we preserved their skins and horns and brought 
 them back with us to India. 
 
 On the 30th December we made an excursion to the 
 shrine of Hazrat Afac, which is situated two or three 
 miles to the north of the city. The road beyond the 
 bridge over the Tuman river passes along the side of a 
 vast cemetery which is kept in very good order, and 
 is inhabited by a colony of filthy beggars veritable 
 dwellers amongst the dead who claim their blackmail 
 from the passers by in no uncertain tone. It then 
 enters the gardens and fields attached to the shrine, 
 which is the most important in the country, being the 
 resting-place of its patron saint, Khoja Hidayatallah, 
 
 who is better known by his priestly title of Hazrat 
 
 x 
 
322 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 Afac, " The Most High Presence," and, in the history 
 of the country, is conspicuous as the founder of the 
 Khoja rule such as it was. 
 
 The mausoleum, with its attached monastery, was 
 restored and greatly enlarged by himself over the grave 
 of his father, which had been destroyed and burnt by 
 the Calmac invaders ; and, on its completion, he was 
 invited by his son, who, as governor of Kashghar, was 
 charged with its construction, to come and bless the 
 opening ceremony. The aged saint, however, sustain- 
 ing his miraculous character to the last, sent a reply 
 that he was coming immediately to lay his bones there ; 
 and within twenty-four hours, it is said, his body was 
 carried from Yarkand to Kashghar for burial, attended 
 by 10,000 of his family, and domestics, and retainers. 
 He died in the retreat of his palace in the beginning of 
 last century whilst in the act of theological conversation 
 with some of his disciples. On his death broke out that 
 family dissension which, in a few years, led to the 
 destruction of their ill-acquired, and worse maintained 
 government, and the final dispersion and expulsion from 
 the country of the whole fraternity of these shameless 
 impostors, and vile libertines. 
 
 But so great was the influence the Khojas had acquired 
 over the minds of the people that, during the two cen- 
 turies of the Calmac and Khitay (both Budhists) rule, 
 their intrigues and their rebellions kept the territory in 
 a more or less constant state of disaffection and turmoil. 
 And finally, on the overthrow of the Chinese authority 
 from a cause independent of the Khoja intrigues which 
 had so repeatedly before involved them in costly mea- 
 sures for their repression it was a lineal descendant of 
 this saint who emerged from his retreat in Khocand to 
 recover the patrimony of his ancestors; a possession which 
 
ACCOUNT OF THE KIIOJAS. 323 
 
 neither he, nor his successors, ever enjoyed otherwise 
 than as governors subordinate to the foreign rulers. 
 
 Of the lull which at this period immediately preced- 
 ing the Tungani revolt came over the previous activity 
 of the expatriated Khojas in Khocand, we are reminded 
 by the fact that, a year and a half elapsed between the 
 outbreak of the Tungani rebellion, and the appearance of 
 the Khoja Buzurg Khan as claimant of the government 
 by right of heritage ; and then only on the invitation of 
 the unsuccessful Kirghiz pretender, Sadie Beg. Of the 
 causes which produced this tardy action on the part of 
 the Khojas I mean the heirs of the former governing 
 family, and not the priests of Acsu who enjoyed the 
 same proud title, and in the tide of the Tungani revolt 
 rose to the surface for a time as controllers of the affairs 
 of the country about their own home the decline of their 
 influence after the establishment of the Russians on the 
 northern side of the Tianshan affords sufficient explana- 
 tion, coupled with the memory of the tyranny perpetrated 
 during the last Khoja invasion under Wali Khan. But 
 what mainly operated in checking their ardour against 
 Kashghar on this occasion was the attitude at that time 
 assumed by Eussia towards Khocand, and the fact of 
 the annexation of its northern parts being actually in 
 course of progress by her troops. 
 
 These events so engrossed the attention of the Andi- 
 janis in the defence of their own homes, that the Khojas 
 and their affairs were uncared for ; and when Buzurg 
 Khan got permission from Alim Culi to quit his army 
 assembled for the defence of Tashkand, to try his chance 
 in recovering Kashghar, he could raise no more than 
 sixty-six men to link their fortunes with his, although 
 he had Coshbegi Yacub Beg given to him as a general 
 by Alim Culi. 
 
324 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 On his arrival at Kashghar the city was immediately 
 surrendered to the Khoja. He installed himself in the 
 orda as king, and making over the control of affairs to 
 his general, devoted himself to the pursuit of pleasures 
 which soon deprived him alike of the respect of his 
 followers, and of the people who had surrendered the 
 country to him. He was deposed by his own general, 
 and, after being kept prisoner for several months, was 
 finally sent out of the country to go to Mekka, but in-- 
 stead of doing so he took his way back to Khocand. Of 
 the other Khojas of his family who on this occasion came 
 over from Khocand, Eshan Khan, Wali Khan, Kichik 
 Khan, and another died during the military operations 
 that established Yacub Beg in the possession of the 
 country. 
 
 After he had deposed Buzurg, and assumed the title of 
 Atalik Ghazi, or " Patron crescentader," the Amir, as 
 part of the scheme for reviving the decayed Islam of the 
 country, restored all the shrines and monasteries which 
 had fallen into neglect and decay under the Chinese 
 rule. And amongst the first to be so rebuilt and en- 
 larged were those of Hazrat Afac, Bibi Miryam, and 
 Sultan Satoc in the suburbs of Kashghar. 
 
 At each of these spots he built a new mosque, and 
 college, and almshouse, and, renewing their original en- 
 dowments granted other rent-free lands for their support. 
 These establishments are all very neatly and substantially 
 built of bricks and mortar, and are with the new saraes 
 for merchants, the only really durable structures we saw 
 in the country. There are, it is said, nearly sixty of 
 these religious establishments which have been built and 
 repaired by the Amir. 
 
 The college, mosque, and almshouses attached to the 
 shrine of Hazrat Afac are, taken all together, a very ex- 
 
REVIVAL OF ISLAM. 325 
 
 tensive range of buildings for this country, and shelter a 
 population of about three hundred souls. The instruc- 
 tion imparted in them is entirely of a religious nature, 
 and conducted by a numerous staff of priests. 
 
 The shrine itself stands in the centre of a court which 
 is entered under a lofty archway covered with Arabic in- 
 scriptions on glazed tiles of blue and white, and is con- 
 tained inside an oblong building which was not opened 
 to us. Its walls also are coated with glazed tiles ; and 
 its roof is flat and shows a small forest of poles, topped 
 with brass pointers below which are fixed yak tails. All 
 along the coping above, and on the ledge near the floor 
 below are ranged horns of the ibex, stag, wild sheep, and 
 gazelle ; and some of them are of extraordinary size. A 
 stag's horn of grand proportions elicited the admiration 
 of the envoy, and was sent to him as a present by the 
 superior of the establishment, Mutawalli Bashi, Sultan 
 Mahmiid Eshan. 
 
 He received us on arrival at the gateway through 
 which we entered the grounds of the establishment, and, 
 after conducting us over it, entertained us at a frugal 
 dasturkhwan spread in a tent which had been erected 
 for us on a small platform of earth that stood near a 
 frozen tank around which grew some very fine silver 
 poplars. There was a grove of these trees in the court 
 of the shrine, and some extensive fruit-gardens and 
 vineyards surrounded the group of buildings, and con- 
 veyed the idea of a very agreeable retreat in summer. 
 
 Our host, the Superior, had lived in Constantinople 
 many years, and had visited Jerusalem and Mecca. He 
 treated us with extreme deference, and told us that, by 
 favour of Badaulat (the Amir), we were the first Christians 
 who had ever set foot within the sacred precincts. The 
 little gold pieces of conciliation which we dispensed 
 
326 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 amongst the darvash and priests at the different places 
 we came in contact with them bore excellent fruit, and 
 we found free access to all the most sacred shrines in 
 the vicinity, and as the king's guests were everywhere 
 received with respect, and the dasturkhwan of welcome. 
 This freedom from prejudice if the conduct was not in 
 obedience, as an exceptional case, to the Amir's com- 
 mands is more than we could have hoped for, and is 
 more than we find in other Muhammadan states, or even 
 in our own India. 
 
 The Hazrat Afac, by a visit to whose shrine we have 
 been so highly favoured, is described by a cotemporary 
 author and disciple, a resident of Yarkand, as a prophet 
 second only to Muhammad, and as a miracle worker 
 equal to Jesus. His fame was spread over the land 
 from the borders of Eussia to those of China, and from 
 the Steppes of Tatary to the plains of Hindustan. And 
 his disciples from all these quarters paid him tribute as 
 a free-will offering. 
 
 Nearer home, however, they appear to have lacked in 
 such one-minded faith, and we read of scoffers and 
 railers who charged him with hypocrisy, and taunted him 
 with robbing his dupes to keep his concubines in silks 
 and brocades, and his palace youths in gilded crowns 
 and jewelled cinctures ; and of others who denied his 
 miracles because he did not cure them of their maladies, 
 and did not banish evil from the country. 
 
 The author, Khaliduddin, from whose work I have 
 taken these particulars, and who was after the death of 
 the saint attached to the monastery in connection with 
 his tomb, was not amongst these unbelievers, and, in 
 support of the veracity of his great teacher's character, 
 relates how swiftly the scoffers were overtaken by the 
 just punishment of their infidelity. One of these, a 
 
WORKING OF MIRACLES. 327 
 
 powerful noble of Yarkand, was choked to death at the 
 dasturkhwan of him whom, on the way to partake of 
 his hospitality, he had wantonly traduced. His brother 
 and friends immediately falling at the feet of their host 
 offered all their possessions and wealth, and implored 
 him to resuscitate the defunct sinner. The saint with 
 a benign glance bade his neighbour strike him on the 
 throat, and with the blow out came the dislodged bone, 
 and the dead man returned to life. Through shame 
 he retired to privacy at Acsu for some years, and then 
 reappeared at court as a staunch supporter of the saint's 
 son and successor. 
 
 Such is a fair sample of the hundreds of miracles 
 attributed to this remarkable character, whose influence 
 upon the minds of the people was something extra- 
 ordinary. When he appeared amongst them in public 
 his glance seemed to mesmerise them. His disciples, 
 issuing from their houses on his approach, prostrated 
 themselves on the ground in his way, and gathered up 
 the dust from under his feet as some precious treasure. 
 Wayfarers stood still entranced ; and of the multitude, 
 some hailed him with shouts of delight, and others with 
 tears of joy. Some were excited into dancing wildly, 
 and others fell senseless in a swoon ; whilst all were per- 
 vaded with an ineffable sense of pleasure and security. 
 Amongst men he everywhere inspired a feeling of 
 reverential awe, and amongst women he exercised a 
 mysterious influence which penetrated to the privacy of 
 the most noble families. 
 
 Yet, with all these powers assigned to him, the country 
 was distracted by sedition and tumult during the whole 
 of his long career in it as governor of the territory from 
 Andijan to Turfan, and from Artosh to Khutan. And 
 after his death it was torn by the wars between his own 
 
328 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 sons, and between the sons of the hereditary rulers whom 
 he had deprived of their just rights, until the Chinese 
 annexed the territory, and restored order amongst its 
 turbulent elements. 
 
 And now with the revival of Islam here, the fame of 
 this modern saint is raised from the oblivion into which 
 it was sinking to be perpetuated afresh, for the benefit of 
 the rising generation, amongst the glorious deeds of the 
 army of martyrs who in bygone centuries shed their 
 blood here in testimony of the faith they propagated. 
 
 On the last day of the year 1873, Col. Gordon, accom- 
 panied by Capt. Trotter and Dr Stoliczka, set out on an 
 excursion to Chacmac, and Capt. Biddulph at the same 
 time went off in the direction of Maralbashi. The 
 former party returned on the llth, having experienced 
 a temperature of 26 F. below zero ; and the latter on 
 the 23d January 1874, without having fallen in with 
 the tigers said to be found there, and of which animals 
 the skins sold in the city had raised hopes of a success- 
 ful bag. Meanwhile, on the 8th January, the envoy, 
 accompanied by Capt. Chapman and myself, spent the 
 afternoon, and dined with our friend Haji Tora at his 
 residence at Pakhtaghlik. It is a neat garden-house, 
 situated on the plain about a mile or two to the north- 
 west of the fort, and was the residence built for the 
 Amir whilst he was engaged in the siege of the Yan- 
 gishahr which he now occupies. 
 
 The dinner was served entirely in the European 
 fashion, which our host said he hoped to be able to 
 introduce amongst his countrymen. There were none 
 of them present, however, to meet us and see how the 
 spoons, and knives, and forks, and glasses were used, or 
 to admire the white table-cloth and napkins ; nor yet to 
 taste of the rich and savoury dishes prepared by his 
 
DINNER WITH HAJI TORA. 329 
 
 Constantinople cook. Our host did the honours of his 
 table alone, and by his pleasant and profitable conver- 
 sation, in the absence of other interest, produced a 
 feeling of satisfaction that we had him all to ourselves. 
 
 On the table were set joints of roast beef and mutton 
 in dishes of China ware, and they were supported on 
 each side by decanters of what looked like milk and 
 water, but what was cumis. This is a fermented liquor 
 prepared from mares' milk, and has an agreeably acid 
 taste. It is only found amongst the Kirghiz, with whom 
 it is an every- day drink, and is considered very wholesome 
 and invigorating qualities for which it is held in high 
 estimation by the luxurious and enervated inhabitants 
 of the cities. The Amir is very partial to it, and his 
 harem is daily supplied with it by his Kirghiz subjects. 
 This is the only supply that comes to the town, and his 
 highness now and then distributes it amongst those 
 whom he may please to favour. And it was to his fore- 
 thought that we were indebted for our acquaintance 
 with its properties on this occasion. 
 
 A couple of Turkish servants glided noiselessly back- 
 wards and forwards with eight successive courses, and 
 then set the now familiar ash and yil cazan of the das- 
 turJchwan upon the table. These in turn made way for 
 the cheese and fruits of the dessert, including some 
 of the first brought from the Turkish capital. 
 
 On the 27th January a single gun fired at sunset, on 
 the parade in front of the fort, announced the commence- 
 ment of the Idi Curban, or " Festival of (Abraham's) 
 Sacrifice," and another gun the next morning announced 
 the prayers which the Amir, attended by his Court, pro- 
 ceeded on foot to perform in the mosque on one side of 
 the parade ground. We witnessed the procession from 
 the roof of our Eesidency, which stood on the opposite 
 
330 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 side of the parade, and observed the simplicity of dress, 
 and quiet demeanour which characterised the ceremony. 
 There were not so many people as one might have expected 
 in the procession, and there was no crowd of spectators at 
 all ; on the contrary, the ground was deserted except by 
 a few soldiers and servants of the palace. The next day 
 the envoy, attended by his officers, visited the Amir for 
 the customary congratulations, and out of compliment 
 we all appeared in the Andijan furs his highness had 
 very considerately presented to us. The ceremony was 
 conducted precisely as on previous occasions, and with the 
 same effects. It was refreshing to get out into the open air, 
 hear the hum of voices, and resume our wonted gaiety, 
 in place of the gravity assumed for the occasion in 
 accordance with the etiquette of the Atalik's Court. 
 
 On the 7th February we spent the afternoon and 
 dined with Ihrar Khan Tora, at his residence inside the 
 fort. As in the other case, so in this, our host had to 
 bear the burthen of our entertainment single-handed. 
 In the absence of other aid, the dasturkhwan and succes- 
 sive services of tea were opportune resorts to eke out 
 the long hours till dinner was announced. The enter- 
 tainment was in the Chinese fashion, and presented 
 a novelty which immediately engrossed our interest. 
 The table was set and served by a number of Khitay 
 servants the Yangi Musalmans, as our host proudly 
 styled them and did ample credit to their taste and 
 skill. The centre of the table was occupied in its length 
 by a row of china vases full of artificial flowers evi- 
 dently from Europe, and in alternation with them were 
 set plates on which were piled bits of melon and apple 
 cut and coloured in representation of roses, and tulips, 
 and so forth. 
 
 On each side of these were ranged handsome china 
 
PARTY AT THE RESIDENCY. 331 
 
 saucers full of candied fruits, toasted almonds, walnuts 
 crusted with a paste of sugar, slices of melon sunk in 
 syrup, &c., and pickles of sorts, with salads of young 
 lentil sprouts. Each plate had its china ladle, chop- 
 sticks, and paper napkin as before described, and the 
 only thing wanting was the tumbler or drinking bowl 
 of some kind. This, to us necessary adjunct, was never 
 seen, either at the ordinary dasturkhwan or at the 
 set dinners. It seems that it is not the custom of the 
 people to drink whilst they eat ; but we observed that a 
 draught of water is taken at the conclusion of the meal 
 to wash all down. 
 
 In return for their hospitality, the envoy invited 
 Ihrar Khan Tora, and Alish Beg Dadkhwah to an enter- 
 tainment at the Embassy mess, at which our friend Haji 
 Tora had on previous occasions honoured us with his 
 company, though it was not his lot to do so on this. 
 To meet all tastes our messman, with the aid of Kho 
 Dalay's chef and Haji Tora's Constantinople cook, laid 
 on the table a composite dinner of English, Chinese and 
 Turkish dishes, carefully excluding from the feast such 
 items as are known to be proscribed by the Shara' ; so 
 that our guests were able to dine free from misgiving 
 as to the risk of their unwittingly partaking of for- 
 bidden things. The Tora had acquired the use of knife 
 and fork during his visit to India, and acquitted him- 
 self very fairly with them on this occasion, but the 
 Dadkhwah was as awkward with them as a growing 
 infant, and finally, after very good-natured persever- 
 ance, laid them aside for the more natural use of his 
 fingers. The Tora, not so free in thought and action 
 as his pilgrim peer in rank, on finding that our own 
 goblets were charged with wine, took occasion in the 
 presence of his companion guest to express a pious 
 
332 KASHMIR AND KASHG&AR. 
 
 horror of the forbidden liquor, and begged that a cup 
 of tea might be set in place of the silver-plated vessel 
 which stood at the side of his plate. His example was 
 not unheeded by the Dadkhwah, who, after a curious 
 examination of the gilded interior and polished exterior 
 of the goblet placed for his use, quietly set it down and 
 asked for a bowl of water. The contents of some to them 
 very mysterious tin cases provoked serious misgivings 
 on the score of their lawfulness as food, so giving their 
 law the benefit of their doubts the pious Muslims denied 
 themselves the flavour of pate de foie gras and " pre- 
 served woodcock " to keep themselves undefiled from 
 meat killed contrary to canon. 
 
 Our guests, however, despite their punctilious Islam- 
 ism, found abundance of familiar and accustomed dishes 
 to invite their attention, and on the conclusion of the 
 entertainment went away highly pleased, and fully im- 
 pressed with the nature of the recreation we had pre- 
 pared for them as a sample of the English form of social 
 meeting. The model steam-engine, and the galvanic 
 battery, the air-pump, zootrope, gyroscope, and other 
 scientific toys which were set in action and explained 
 for their amusement during the afternoon ; the sounds of 
 the bagpipe which astonished their ears without entirely 
 distracting their attention from the array of meats set 
 before them at dinner ; and the wonders of the magic- 
 lantern which afterwards elicited their unqualified ap- 
 probation ; all these and other similar modes of diver- 
 sion stocked their minds with a fund of matter for 
 reflection, and repetition as marvels beyond their ken, 
 as the mysterious agents of the Briton's power. 
 
 On the 14th February the envoy, leaving Col. Gordon 
 and Capt. Biddulph in the Eesidency, set out with the 
 rest of his officers on an excursion to Artosh, and the 
 
THE SHRINE OF " LAD Y MAR K" 333 
 
 valleys at the foot of the Tianshan or Alatagh, and 
 returned after an interesting little tour on the 27th of 
 the month. 
 
 Our road took us through the ditched and fortified 
 cantonment bazar on the east of the Eesidency to the 
 Kizil Su, and which we forded stirrup-deep over a pebbly 
 bed a little way above a rough log-bridge. We then 
 turned N.W. to R, and passing along the cultivation of 
 Arawat and Besh Kirim on our left, at about ten miles 
 out, alighted at the shrine of Bibi Miry am or " Lady 
 Mary " for the inevitable dasturkhwan. 
 
 This is a shrine over the grave of Alanor (Eleanor ?) 
 Turkan the youngest of the three daughters of the 
 king whose mausoleum we are going to see at Altun or 
 " Lower " Artosh. Her elder sisters, Nasab Turkan 
 and Hadya Turkan, were married to influential divines 
 of the Sayyid family who were settled at Tashkand and 
 Samarcand, and there left families whose sons in their day 
 occupied prominent positions in the affairs of that country. 
 
 She herself was never married, and her history is one 
 of the most remarkable amongst the many marvellous 
 traditions of the martyr saints whose relics do here 
 abound in such multitude. As given in the Tazkira 
 Baglira Khan (which is not, as the name implies, only 
 a history of the Baghra Khan family, but an account of 
 the most noted of the martyr saints of the country he 
 ruled, translated into Turki from the original Persian of 
 Najumddin Attar, a co temporary priest of the eleventh 
 century) it is much to this effect : 
 
 " The history of Alanor resembles that of Hazrat 
 Miryam the mother of Jesus. She was distinguished 
 alike for her beauty and talents as for her piety and 
 virtues. When she had attained to the fresh bloom of 
 maturity she was one night engaged in the seclusion of 
 
334 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 her chamber with the performance of her wonted religi- 
 ous exercises, and the angel Gabriel appearing before 
 her poured a drop of light into her mouth. It pervaded 
 her whole body with a sense of ecstacy which made her 
 faint. On recovering her senses she completed her devo- 
 tions, and for some months continued to perform the 
 usual prayers with the prescribed regularity. 
 
 " At length one night she went out to the gate of her 
 dwelling, and was terrified into a swoon by the appear- 
 ance of a tiger standing before it. Finally, after some 
 months and days, on Friday the 10th Muharram (the 
 year is not given) when the king and his Court were 
 at prayers in the mosque, Alanor gave birth to a son 
 an infant with ruddy complexion, gazelle eyes, and 
 angelic voice. 
 
 " On hearing of this the people both great and small 
 were amazed, and exclaimed ' What manner of event is 
 this ? ' But the king was mighty wrathful, and ordered 
 an assembly of his nobles and grandees, of his doctors 
 and divines, to investigate the conduct and pronounce 
 on the character of his daughter, the princess Alanor. 
 
 "She was fully questioned by her judges, and with a 
 detail of all the particulars explained the mystery to 
 their satisfaction. She was pronounced a chaste lady, 
 and favoured servant of the Prophet ; and the priests, 
 considering the apparition of the tiger as a token of 
 future fame, named the boy Sayyid 'AH Arslan (or 'The 
 Lord Exalted Tiger'). He was brought up under his 
 mother's care, and at the age of five years was sent to 
 school. After six months tuition he mastered all science, 
 apparent and occult, and at seven years of age was be- 
 trothed to his cousin Toe Bubu, who subsequently bore 
 him three sons and several daughters. The sons all 
 grew up to be men of note ; and one of the daughters 
 
LEGEND CONNECTED THEREWITH. 335 
 
 married Sultan lylik, the king of Uzkand, and another 
 Sayyid Jalaluddin Shami." 
 
 The book from which I have taken the above parti- 
 culars further on gives the following account of the death 
 of Alanor. When her son was slain in fight against the 
 Chinese of Khutan at the Cum Shahidan and the victors, 
 besieging Kashghar threw his head against the walls, 
 she was so incensed with grief that she determined to 
 avenge his blood with her own hands. " Attended by 
 her maidens (Amazons for the nonce), she issued from 
 the seclusion of her palace at Artosh, and heaving cold 
 sighs of anguish entered the field of battle against her 
 foe. She sent twenty-five of their infidel souls to hell, 
 and then, overcome by their superior numbers, was put 
 to flight with her attendants. The ground in their 
 course miraculously opened, and received the fugitives 
 in the shelter of its caverns. Their pursuers following 
 close discovered their retreat and slew them all in their 
 hiding." 
 
 The shrine stands on the bank of a deep ravine, and 
 probably indicates the spot on which this fated party 
 met their death. It is called Mazar Bibi Miryam, or 
 " Shrine of Lady Mary," after the title by which she was 
 generally known in connection with the event of her 
 notoriety, and is surrounded by a number of more 
 humble graves within the low walls which enclose the 
 sacred area. 
 
 The legend attached to her name resembles that of 
 Alan Coa (the mother of Buzunjar Khan, the great 
 ancestor of the Mughal, and conqueror of the Turk in 
 Turan), as given in the Rauzat Assafa of Mir Khawind 
 Shah. Her case is compared to that of the mother of 
 Hazrat Isa or " Lord Jesus/' and to that of the "women 
 of the northern isles who conceived by bathing in certain 
 
336 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 fertilising springs." But the medium in her case was a 
 ray of light entering through the opening in the top of 
 the Khargah, or tent, and passing into her mouth as she 
 lay asleep at night. She was a noted beauty, and was, 
 as a matter of course in such a case, accused of unchas- 
 tity. She proved her innocence, however, before a con- 
 vocation of all the Mughal nobles and chiefs by showing 
 to a select committee of them, appointed to investigate 
 the matter, the light as it again poured into her tent at 
 night. 
 
 The existence of these legends in this region at the 
 present day is a remarkably interesting circumstance. 
 Whether they are to be viewed as outgrowths of the 
 Christianity which formerly flourished here, or merely 
 as grafts from the Islam which took its place, or whether 
 their origin is from some other native source, anterior to 
 both, I will not pretend to consider; though I may state 
 that, as they are the records we find in the Muhamma- 
 dan histories of the region, they probably owe their 
 origin to the priesthood of Islam. 
 
 During the Chinese rule the shrine of Bibi Miryam 
 was neglected, and fell to decay ; but on the establish- 
 ment of the Amir's rule, it has, with scores of others, been 
 restored from its ruins, and is now raised to the first 
 rank amongst the religious institutions of the country 
 by the construction in connection with it of a mosque, 
 and college, and quarters for four Cari or " Eeciters of 
 the Curan." Attached to the mosque also is a set of 
 quarters for the accommodation of the Amir when he 
 visits the shrine. 
 
 By the good favour of His Highness these quarters 
 were placed at our disposal, and had been prepared for 
 our accommodation during the proposed stay here for 
 the night ; but, as the day was yet early, we decided to 
 
RECEPTION AT ARTOSH. 337 
 
 go on to Artosh the same afternoon. All these build- 
 ings were completed only eighteen months ago, and 
 stand on their own ground, w^hich is enclosed by walls, 
 and entered through gates on two sides thereof. 
 
 We were met here by Musa Khoja, a young son of 
 Mahmud Khan the lord of Artosh, and he did the honours 
 of the dasturJchivan with unfeigned affability and good- 
 will. There was a tank here under some poplar trees 
 in front of the mosque, and seeing some men at work 
 on it with hatchets I went to see what they were about, 
 and found they were carrying away the ice in baskets 
 to store for summer use. Its thickness on the tank was 
 twenty-two inches. From the shrine our road went 
 north across a deep ravine on to a bare, wind-swept 
 waste, the surface of which was covered with little 
 gravelly knolls. These presented an abrupt bank to the 
 windward or north, and tailed away in slopes in the 
 opposite direction. Beyond them we crossed another 
 ravine, and then passing over a saline waste rose up to 
 the crest of a range of gravel ridges which separate 
 Artosh from Kashghar. It is called Cum Alatagh, and 
 extends for some fifteen miles from N.W. to S.E., and is 
 perfectly bare of vegetation. We crossed it near its 
 eastern end, and fording the two branches of the 
 Artosh river, and passing amongst the homesteads be- 
 yond, at about ten miles from the shrine, reached the 
 residence of our host at Mashhad. 
 
 Mahmud Khan received the envoy at the inner gate 
 of his mansion, where was drawn up a guard of forty 
 soldiers whose equipments was uniform only in their 
 white turbans and prong-rest guns, and conducting 
 him to his large reception hall welcomed us to his 
 home. It was noon when we left Kashghar, and it 
 was fast getting dark when we arrived here. By some 
 
 Y 
 
338 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 mistake, our baggage had gone to Ostun Artosh or 
 " Upper Artosh," and did not arrive till next morn- 
 ing. Our host, however, made us comfortable with 
 bedding for the night, and, after the evening das- 
 turkhwan, and the usual rubber at whist in the light 
 of candles placed on the floor, we fed the fire for the 
 night, and, Tatar fashion, stretched ourselves to sleep 
 on the carpets all over the room. 
 
 Mahmud Khan traces his descent from the Sultan 
 Satoc Bughra Khan whose mausoleum stands close out- 
 side his dwelling, and gives the little township its name 
 of Mashhad " The place of martyrdom." His family 
 have been lords of Artosh for seven centuries, and he is 
 now their humble representative. His fortune was 
 broken by the Chinese after they suppressed the revolt 
 in 1857 headed by Wali Khan. His father and two 
 brothers were captured and executed very barbarously 
 by the Chinese, in retaliation for the excesses they had 
 committed during the revolt, which they were the first 
 to join the father having given his daughter, our host's 
 sister, in marriage to the rebel Khoja. 
 
 Mahmud Khan, with others of the family, escaped 
 a like fate by flight to Tashkand, whence they finally 
 returned in the party with Buzurg Khan. He has been 
 restored by the Amir to his ancient patrimony, much 
 curtailed, however, of its former extent, in return for 
 his services in the conquest of the country; and he 
 is now retained in the service of the Amir as leader 
 of 400 horsemen whom he maintains on his own estate. 
 He is a middle-aged man, and has strongly marked 
 Tatar features of the pure Uyghur stamp, with a 
 fair ruddy complexion very slightly tinged yellow. 
 His manners are very quiet and unassuming, but his 
 features are cast in an austere mould the impression 
 
HISTORY OF SATOC BAGHRA KHAN. 339 
 
 of which was not removed by civilities to us. He 
 has three sons, the eldest of whom, Abdurrashid, is 
 custodian of the family shrine. The second, Musa, is 
 enlisted in his body guard, and accompanied us in our 
 tour through his father's demesne. The third is a child 
 of eight years of age. 
 
 On the day after our arrival we visited the shrine, 
 and ranged its courts and cloisters with perfect freedom 
 as the guests of the king. The tomb itself we did not 
 see, as the door of the building covering it was closed, 
 and guarded by two aged priests, who, seated in front 
 of it, were repeating prayers with great volubility. This 
 mausoleum consists of a lofty dome supported on a 
 square structure, at each corner of which is a small 
 belfry-like tower topped with a cupola. The whole is 
 covered with glazed tiles of blue, green and yellow 
 ranged in cross lines. The door is lofty, and fills a nar- 
 row arch on the east face. Its sides are covered with 
 Arabic inscriptions, and the date 1244 H (1838 A.D.), 
 which appears amidst the writing on one side, indicates 
 the renovation of the building under the rule of Zuhu- 
 ruddin, at that time the Musalman governor of Kash- 
 ghar under the Chinese. 
 
 Satoc Baghra Khan (born 944 A.D.), was the son of 
 Tangri Cadir Baghra Khan who died during an expedi- 
 tion against Bukhara. He was six years old when his 
 father died, and, with his widowed mother, was taken 
 under the protection of his uncle, Harun Baghra Khan, 
 who succeeded to the throne at Kashghar. At twelve 
 years of age he accepted Islam at the hand of Abu Nasr 
 Samani, a proselytising merchant soldier, who entered 
 the country with a caravan of 300 men from Bukhara 
 by way of Andijan, and took up his quarters at Artosh, 
 at that time a flourishing trading mart. 
 
340 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 The account given in the Tazkira Baghra Khan is to 
 the effect that Satoc one day went out a-hunting with 
 forty attendants on the plain near Artosh. He started 
 a hare, and giving chase got separated from his followers. 
 The hare, heedless of the arrow strung at him, stood, 
 and assuming the form of a man, said, " Come ! my 
 son ! I am waiting for you. God be praised I have 
 found you alone. Come to me. Dismount. I have a 
 few words to say." 
 
 Satoc (the name signifies "merchant"), astonished at 
 the apparition, dismounted and knelt before the man, 
 who then thus addressed him. 
 
 " My son ! Why hold to such idolatry ? You 
 know your creator's name is Muhammad. Walk in 
 his way." 
 
 The youth thought to himself, " What man is this 
 who speaks thus ? There is no such person here. Whence 
 comes he ? " and then addressing the figure, he said, 
 11 What is it you tell me, sage ? " 
 
 The venerable man replied, " My son ! blessed 
 youth ! I wish not your tender body in hell-fire. It 
 grieves me." And Satoc asks, " What sort of place is 
 hell? Osage!" 
 
 " Hell," replied the great man, " is a place of much 
 fire, and full of scorpions, where unbelievers and sinners 
 are drawn in and tortured in every way." 
 
 Fear seized the heart of the youth, and he ex- 
 claimed, " Tell me, sage ! and I will do what you 
 say." 
 
 The sage repeated the creed, " There is no god but 
 God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God." 
 
 " What are these words ? " asked Satoc. " What do 
 they mean ? " The sage replied, " My son ! By repeating 
 these words you become a Musalman, and go to para- 
 
HIS CONVERSION TO ISLAM. 341 
 
 dise, where are beautiful youths, and maidens, and wine. 
 By refusing to repeat them you go to hell, and endure 
 all sorts of torments." 
 
 "Satoc accepted Islam, and repeating the creed, be- 
 came a Musalman. He asked the sage to teach him the 
 faith, but he told him his appointed instructor would 
 very soon arrive, and conduct him into the perfect 
 way, and then suddenly disappeared. Some say this 
 personage was the minister of Iskandar Padshah, and 
 some that he was Dajal ul ghayb Khoja Zinda, and 
 others that he was an angel, but the truth is he was 
 the prophet Khizr." 
 
 The account then goes on to say that some days later 
 Satoc again went out a-hunting with his forty men, and 
 on arrival at Bacu in Ostun or " Upper " Artosh, found 
 a caravan of well dressed and highly favoured foreigners 
 camped on the meadow. He drew near to see who they 
 were, and was accosted by their leader, Abu Nasr 
 Samani, who, recognising in Satoc the prince he had 
 come in search of, praised God, and, turning to his fol- 
 lowers, pointed to the object of their journey, and told 
 them their purpose was accomplished. He bid them 
 open their bales and bring out the presents, and mean- 
 while invited the prince to his tent. In the midst of 
 this was heard the muazziris call to prayer, and all at 
 once leaving everything just as it happened to be, the 
 whole caravan ranged themselves in the performance of 
 their prayers. 
 
 Satoc was wonder-struck at the ceremony, and the 
 confidence of the foreigners in a strange country, leaving 
 their property thus unprotected for their devotions. He 
 dismounted, and, on the conclusion of the prayers, 
 learning the name of their leader, he knew by in- 
 stinct that he was the teacher the prophet Khizr had 
 
342 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 foretold, and forthwith declaring himself he accepted 
 Islam from him. 
 
 Abu Nasr instructed him secretly for six months in 
 the doctrines of the religion, and then his uncle Harun, 
 discovering his apostasy, decided on killing him. But 
 his mother intervening claimed that her son should first 
 be put to the test to prove his innocence. The king was 
 just then about to build an idol temple, and Satoc, in 
 proof of his adherence to the national faith, was sum- 
 moned to appear on a certain day, and, in the presence 
 of an assembly of the nobles and grandees, to lay the 
 foundation of the temple of their god. 
 
 He consulted his teacher in the matter, and was 
 advised to conform to the king's command, with a mere 
 mental reflection that the stones he set were those of a 
 mosque, and not those of an idol temple. " For/' said 
 his instructor, " where one's own safety is concerned, the 
 perpetration of certain unlawful acts is permissible, and 
 in this case, provided in your mind you consider the 
 foundations as those of a mosque, the setting of the 
 bricks will be an act acceptable to God, and meritorious, 
 as enabling you to escape the wiles of the infidel." 
 
 Satoc acquitted himself to the satisfaction of Harun 
 and his Court, and was acknowledged as free from sus- 
 picion. He soon after with the aid of Abu Nasr and 600 
 men, to which number, during the six months of their 
 stay here, his party had swelled by the accession of new 
 converts and adherents, surprised the king's palace at 
 night, and equipping his men from the royal armoury, 
 fled with 400 horses to the hills of Tawa tagh (Camel 
 hill) on the north of the city. 
 
 In the morning Harun and his army, awaking from 
 the deep sleep into which a miraculous answer to the 
 prayer of Abu Nasr had thrown them, discovered the 
 
DEATH OF SATOC. 343 
 
 rebellion of the prince, and without delay took the field 
 against him. Many desperate battles were fought, and 
 thousands of infidels were slain, whilst at the same 
 time thousands of new converts joined the rebels. 
 
 After some days of fighting, the army of Islam became 
 hard pressed for provisions, and began to waver in its 
 steadfastness to the new cause. Abu Nasr now, to 
 satisfy the impatience of his troops and check the dis- 
 content of his followers, made a night attack upon the 
 city. The enterprise proved successful, Harun was killed 
 by his nephew, who then mounted the throne as king of 
 Kashghar. And he forthwith declared Islam the law of 
 the land. He converted 20,000 citizens in a day, and 
 established the SharcC throughout his territory. His 
 miraculous deeds of valour on this occasion were many, 
 but the two most so were these. His sword, which in 
 its sheath was like that wielded by other men, when 
 drawn against the infidels lengthened to forty yards, 
 and mowed them down like corn before the sickle. 
 When he charged amongst the enemy flames of fire 
 issued from his mouth and consumed many, and terri- 
 fied more to fall at his feet and become Musalmans. 
 
 He lived to the age of ninety-six years, and waged 
 Avars for the propagation of Islam during all his long 
 reign, and established its law up to Caracoram in the 
 north-east, and to Turmiz on the Amu river in the south- 
 west. He was carrying his successes into Khita, but 
 he got ill at Turf an, and returned to Kashghar, where, 
 after lingering a whole year, he died (1037). On his 
 death-bed he resigned the government, and care of his 
 family to Abul Fattah, the son of Abu Nasr, and he died 
 three years later. He thus charged him : " This is my 
 last will to you. Hold fast the faith of the Prophet. I 
 commit the Sharfat to your care. Observe it strictly. 
 
344 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 My children remain young. Educate them carefully so 
 that they commit no act to shame them before God 
 Abul Fattah ! copy me. Walk in my way and you 
 will attain to future honour. More than this I will not 
 say. In your prayers remember me. Hold high ambi- 
 tion and be manly. Seek aid of God and His Prophet. 
 Eemember me always and weep for me." 
 
 After this the aged king took leave of his friends and, 
 giving instructions for his burial, assured them that his 
 soul went only from one body to another, and died not. 
 " From a tray set before him he took a rose, and smelled 
 it ; he next took up a streaked red and white apple, and 
 ate it ; he then drank some sherbet from a goblet. He 
 repeated the creed, and standing up turned three times 
 in a circle and sang the Persian couplet 
 
 A drop taken from the sea lessens not its volume, 
 The departing soul rends but the veil of its durance. 
 
 He then sat down and, straightening out his legs to- 
 wards the ccibla (the Mekka shrine), resigned his soul 
 with the close of day. He was buried at Mashhad in 
 Altun Artosh with great pomp. Two perfect saints, 
 seventy thousand learned men, twenty -two thousand 
 crescentaders, and fifteen thousand common people at- 
 tended the funeral ceremony." Some miracles are re- 
 corded as attending the mournful ceremony, and amongst 
 others, that the deceased monarch appeared in the flesh 
 to his faithful subjects some days after his burial to 
 cheer and exhort them to a stedfast adherence to the 
 faith of the Prophet, and united action for its propaga- 
 tion amongst the heathen. 
 
 Four years ago the Amir visited the shrine with all 
 his court, and performed the customary religious exer- 
 cises at the tomb of the royal saint with great ceremony 
 and devotion, to testify his thanks to God for the sue- 
 
SPORT WITH THE HUNTING EAGLE. 345 
 
 cess vouchsafed to his arms. He besought a continuance 
 of the saint's blessing to his humble disciple in the pro- 
 pagation of Islam, and propitiated his favour by the 
 sacrifice to his memory of some hundreds of oxen, sheep, 
 horses, and camels, on which the poor of the vicinity 
 were feasted. He restored the ancient lands of the 
 monastery attached to the tomb, and built a college, 
 mosque, and almshouse around the shrine ; and enclosed 
 the whole within walls. We found about a hundred 
 boys and men in the college, and were told that two 
 hundred were borne on the rolls. It is as large an 
 establishment as that in connection with the shrine of 
 Hazrat Afac, and as there so here the' teaching is almost 
 wholly of a religious kind. A party of four or five 
 of the teachers who attended us over the establishment 
 received the gold pieces, or tila, presented by the envoy 
 with due deference, and holding up their hands invoked 
 a blessing on the donor, to which the crowd of students 
 replied Amin ! 
 
 In the afternoon our host's huntsmen brought in a 
 wild pig which they had captured in the reed jungle 
 near Kol Taylac. She was a huge creature, and looked 
 a clean and powerful brute.1 A strong ridge of long 
 bristles ran down the spine, and a thick layer of short, 
 curly, soft wool grew at the roots of the smaller bristles 
 all over the body encasing it, in fact, in a warm pad- 
 ding of crispy soft hair fully an inch thick on the back 
 and flanks. The short tusks were secured closed upon 
 a bit of wood in the mouth by strong cords, and the 
 animal was fastened down to a stretcher of rough poles 
 by a regular network of similar bonds. 
 
 A few days later, we had a day's boar-hunting near 
 Kol Taylac, and killed a very fine tusker with the aid of 
 the hunting eagle. We crossed the Fyzabad river on the 
 
346 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ice at about eight miles from the settlement, and entered 
 a thick jungle of reeds and tamarisks with about twenty 
 of our host's men, and two trained eagles. The men 
 armed themselves for the sport with clubs bent at the 
 end like hockey-sticks. As soon as the boar was started 
 one of the eagles was flown at him, and all the field fol- 
 lowed his flight with tremendous shouts and flourishing 
 of sticks. The bird followed the dodgings of his prey, 
 sailing close above the reeds, and pounced on him at the 
 first bit of open he came to with a sharp claw behind 
 which nearly upset him. The horsemen immediately 
 closing in from all sides, mobbed the brute thus checked 
 in his course, and stunned him with blows upon the 
 head, and then deliberately shot him. Our Andijani 
 attendants entered into the sport with great spirit and 
 some recklessness. They gave us a very interesting 
 account of the jirga, or hunting circle, which, in the 
 time of the Mughal Emperors, was a national custom ob- 
 served with state ceremony and minuteness of procedure. 
 Whole regiments were employed as beaters to a central 
 spot, and whole districts of hundreds of square miles 
 were included within the circle of their operations. All 
 people overtaken by the beaters were compelled to join 
 their ranks, and infringements of the laws of the chase 
 were visited with severe and exemplary punishment. 
 The Atalik, on return from his campaign against Turfan, 
 organised bjirga and beat up all the country between 
 Turfan and Acsu. Immense quantities of game of all 
 sorts were slain, and many of his men and officers lost 
 their lives and limbs by accidents of the sport. 
 
 Whilst engaged in this sport we put up a number of 
 pheasants in the cover of the brushwood, but a more impor- 
 tant business occupied our attention and they were left to 
 the enjoyment of their safety. The golden eagle which is 
 
A DAY AFTER WILD BOAR. 347 
 
 in this country trained for sport is a magnificent bird of 
 immense strength. It is called card cuch and burghtit 
 by the natives, and is hooded and jessied in the same 
 way as the falcon ; but, owing to its great weight, is 
 carried on a cross-tree of wood which is held in the hand 
 and supported upon the pommel of the saddle. At 
 Yarkand we saw a large number of them, and the Dad- 
 khwah informed us he had had one of them in his pos- 
 session for nearly twenty-five years. 
 
 They are used equally for the pig, antelope, stag and 
 wolf, and any large game such as geese, herons, &c. ; 
 whilst the ordinary falcons of northern India (the baz, 
 cliargh, ladiin, &c.), which are also trained for sport in 
 this country, are used for hawking pheasants, bustards, 
 wild duck, &c., &c. On our trip round to the Sughun 
 valley we had some charghs with us, and they gave us 
 some very good sport with the hare and partridge. Dur- 
 ing our stay at Yarkand we went out with the Dad- 
 kh wall's eagles on one occasion after wild geese and herons 
 on the marsh to the east of the city. They were not, 
 however, in good condition, and only one out of fifteen 
 or sixteen showed us any sport with the herons, though 
 another of them very cleverly overturned, with a cuff 
 behind, some of the pariah dogs prowling about the city 
 purlieus at which he was flown for our amusement. 
 
 In the enclosure of our host's fortified dwelling we saw 
 some very fine specimens of the double-humped camel 
 of the country. They were noble looking creatures, and 
 nearly white in colour ; of small size with clean slim 
 limbs, and bushy shags of soft, woolly hair on the 
 shoulders, haunches, and throat ; the head was hand- 
 somely formed, and the eyes were large and intelligent. 
 They have a peculiar sharp cry, quite different from the 
 noisy murmur of the ungainly but useful brute we are 
 
348 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 accustomed to in India. The deserts on the east of this 
 territory, in the vicinity of Lob between Turfan and 
 Khutan, are the home of the wild camel. It is still, as of 
 old, hunted there, and is described as a very vicious and 
 fleet animal, and of small size, not much bigger than a 
 large horse. A Kirghiz shepherd, who had resided for 
 some years at Lob, told me that he had frequently seen 
 them at graze, and had himself joined in many hunting 
 expeditions against them for the sake of their wool, 
 which is very highly prized for the manufacture of a 
 superior kind of camlet. 
 
 We left Artosh on the 17th, and went northward 
 through a gap in the range of gravel and clay banks 
 that separate it from Arghu (which is a narrow valley 
 similar to that of Artosh but much smaller), and, cross- 
 ing its cultivation near the village of that name, at 
 about eight miles came to a small outpost fort of the 
 Chinese, which is now held by a guard of twelve men of 
 the Artosh troops. 
 
 It stands on a small flat piece of ground at the 
 entrance to the Tangitar defile, and is surrounded by a 
 few fields of corn stubble, the last signs of cultivation in 
 this direction. Indeed, beyond Arghu there is no fixed 
 agricultural population, nor any trace of cultivation ex- 
 cept this bit. Here, just beyond the outpost, we entered 
 a long winding defile between hills of gravel and clay 
 resting upon limestone, and following up the course of 
 its brisk rivulet along a shelving bank covered with a 
 thick scrub of reeds, tamarisks, and thorny bushes, at 
 about ten miles arrived at Corghan Tangitar. 
 
 This is a small castellated fort built on the summit of 
 a rock at the entrance to the gorge which gives the place 
 its name, and is held by a garrison of twenty-two men. 
 On the rocks above on each side the entrance are four 
 
ON THE SKIRTS OF THE TIANSHAN. 349 
 
 little redoubts which look up the gorge and command its 
 passage. They are almost inaccessible from the side of 
 the fort, and quite so from that of the gorge, and are 
 only capable of holding five or six men each. 
 
 There is a clump of willow and poplar trees on a small 
 ledge above the bank opposite the fort. It is called 
 Mazar Sugat Carawal, or " The shrine of the willow out- 
 post," and is said to mark the spot where Satoc, in one 
 of his many campaigns in the cause of Islam, miracu- 
 lously produced a spring of water for his thirsty soldiers, 
 by striking his sword upon the rock. This is a wild little 
 spot, and we saw it in its bleakest aspect. The dark 
 cleft of the gorge between high overhanging cliffs of lime- 
 stone rock stood before us in all the asperity of its reality, 
 and in the obscuring shades of evening grew into the 
 most gloomy object on the limited scene fit abode of 
 the goblin and ghost with which local superstition 
 peoples its sombre and silent recesses. 
 
 The Corghan had been prepared for our accommoda- 
 tion, and five Kirghiz tents had been pitched for our 
 followers on the solitary bank below. We found the 
 little huts, however, so full of stable refuse and filth, and 
 so redolent of unwholesome smells, that we gladly ex- 
 changed their shelter for the little less dirty, and much 
 less efficient protection of the Kirghiz dwellings outside. 
 The evening set in cold and cloudy, and an icy north 
 wind, streaming out of the gorge, whistled through the 
 tatters of our felt acoe in a most uncomfortable manner, 
 and very quickly dissipated the charms of Kirghiz life 
 which our imagination had pictured. We had a taste 
 now of the reality of life in an acoe, and during the next 
 few days of our travel amongst them got a practical 
 experience of how the poor nomads fare, and with no 
 reason to envy their lot. Whatever the charms of a free 
 
350 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 life on the boundless steppe may be I will not attempt to 
 divine, but content myself with the belief that it re- 
 quires special] training to appreciate them. A broiling 
 sun, blinding glare, and suffocating dust, are the accom- 
 paniments of the summer ; whilst a cutting wind, wither- 
 ing cold, and forced inactivity, with more or less of 
 snow, are the concomitants of winter. To face these 
 and live through them is the struggle of the nomad's 
 life, and to help him in the battle he has only the shelter 
 of a tattered and battered acoe, and the comfort of a 
 stupifying cumis brandy. 
 
 In the morning we passed through a corner of the 
 Corghan, and turning round an overlooking rock, 
 descended to the passage of the Tangitar just inside its 
 southern end, which was barricaded with cross-poles and 
 bundles of thorns propped together by loose boulders. 
 The Tangitar, or "Dark Strait," is a tortuous and 
 tight passage, from ten to thirty paces across, between 
 lofty cliffs of limestone. We found its stream frozen 
 hard, and after ten minutes' ride over its winding and 
 slippery surface, emerged from it on to a basin in which 
 three large drainage gullies meet from the N.W. and N. 
 and N.E. respectively. 
 
 We proceeded up the centre one, and presently rose out 
 of its bed on to a wide rolling pasture valley some eight 
 or ten miles wide by twenty long from west to east. 
 Across it to the north is seen the range of hills which 
 separate this plateau of Yalghuz Say from that of Ac 
 Say, which lies at a higher elevation and is the favourite 
 summer rendezvous of the Kirghiz camps, as this is the 
 winter retreat of some of them. 
 
 The hills have a very dreary look and are topped 
 thinly with snow. Bears are said to abound upon them, 
 and when hard pressed for food to live upon the marmot 
 
CAMP AMONGST THE KIRGHIZ. 351 
 
 which they dig out of their burrows. At the present 
 time, however, their principal occupants are vast herds 
 of the wild sheep and ibex. 
 
 We went along the Say, or " Stony Pasture," a little 
 way, and then turned off eastward, and with the hawks 
 killed a number of hares and partridges in the scrub at 
 the foot of the hills. At about twelve miles from 
 Tangitar we alighted at a cluster of six or seven acoe 
 which had been prepared for us near a Kirghiz camp 
 that stood on the open plain in the vicinity of one of 
 their burying-grounds called Tigarmatti. These ceme- 
 teries generally have five or six large domed graves or 
 gumbaz, which at a distance deceive the stranger with 
 the hopes of an abode of the living, instead of the habita- 
 tion of the dead which he really finds them to be. 
 
 A few camels and horses, with horned cattle and sheep, 
 were scattered over the plateau around the camp, which 
 only numbered some twelve or fifteen tents, but all the 
 rest of its wide surface showed no signs of human life. 
 Our tents at this place were as wretched specimens of 
 human habitations as those at the last, and proved worth- 
 less as shelter from the weather except to the swarms of 
 vermin which nestled in the tattered felts of their walls 
 and floors and roofs. They were, in fact, simple man- 
 traps for the capture of fresh blood for these voracious 
 and vicious little creatures. 
 
 The night was clear and starlight, and a sharp north- 
 west wind swept over the plain. It blew off from the 
 acoe which I occupied the felt that covered the smoke- 
 hole in the centre of its roof, (which was a shallow 
 vaulted dome formed of ribs of willow wands concen- 
 trating from the circumference of the walls below to the 
 hoop of wood they supported above, and was covered in 
 by some large felts spread over it and secured by fasten- 
 
352 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ings round the circumference,) and immediately the cold 
 air poured in like so much icy water. It chilled the tent, 
 in which we had no fire, for the rest of the night, for 
 though stopped from above by the replacement of the felt 
 after a good deal of trouble, it poured through a dozen 
 holes in the ragged covering of the walls. Sleep, or even 
 rest, was banished by the acute pain of cold in the hands 
 and feet which completely outweighed the torments of 
 the vicious little creatures whose activity our presence 
 had aroused. Yet I was warmly clad in a huge sheep- 
 skin cloak worn over all the usual winter clothing of 
 England, and had my feet encased in capacious bags of 
 sheepskin with warm socks inside their coat of wool. In 
 the morning the minimum thermometer set outside the 
 tent registered the temperature at 20 below zero. 
 
 The Kirghiz nomads of the Artosh district are 
 reckoned at one hundred families. They are depen- 
 dents of the Khan, who styles them his Fucara or 
 " Poor." They certainly bear all the appearances of their 
 title, for of a party of some thirty men we saw here not 
 one had a look of independence or respectability. They 
 are not a fair sample, however, of their people. They 
 are poor outcasts from various camps of the Burut 
 Kirghiz who are now under Eussian rule, such as the 
 Chong Baghish, Sarigh Baghish, Sayak, Chirik, Kochin, 
 &c., whose steppes are on the north of the Alatagh. 
 
 The Kirghiz of Kashghar are reckoned at thirty thou- 
 sand tents, but of this number not more than a third are 
 acknowledged subjects of the Amir. The rest are 
 divided between the Eussians on the north, and the 
 Khan of Khocand on the west. Of those now attached 
 to Kashghar the Chong Baghish of Actagh, and the 
 Sayak of Caratagh are the most important camps, and 
 next to them the Nayman of Sarigh cul and Caracash. 
 
BASH SUGHUN. 353 
 
 The Nayman, who are here reckoned at a thousand 
 tents, were formerly Nestorian Christians, and came here 
 from the north-east of Ila in the beginning of the thir- 
 teenth century with their prince Koshluk, who was 
 driven out of his own hereditary pastures by the rising 
 conqueror Changiz. Koshluk seized the government of 
 the Cara Khitay from their aged king Gorkhan and 
 established himself with his Nayman at Kashghar, and 
 waged a war against the people for the suppression of 
 Islam. He was soon, however, chased out of the country 
 and fled for shelter into the glens of Sarighcul and 
 Wakhan, where he was overtaken and slain by his 
 pursuers. 
 
 From Tigarmatti we marched to Bash Sughun or 
 " Head Sughun" fifteen miles and next day to Ayagh 
 Sughun or "Foot Sughun" twenty miles. Near the 
 former place we quitted the plateau and entered the 
 narrow valley of the Sughun river which drains it to 
 the eastward, and were accommodated for the night in 
 some tents borrowed from the Kirghiz camp hard by. 
 It numbered sixteen tents, and had some large herds of 
 horses at graze on the plain close by. The river, which 
 was more or less frozen, flows on a loose shingly bottom 
 between low shelving banks of sand and clay, encrusted 
 with salines, and covered with patches of reed and 
 tamarisk thickets. Here and there on its course are thin 
 forests of poplar and willow, myricaria and elceagnus, 
 wild rose and ephoedra, and some traces of Kirghiz culti- 
 vation. 
 
 At Ayagh Sughun we found a camp of twelve tents. 
 Here Capt. Trotter and Dr Stoliczka with a small escort 
 of Andijanis left us for an excursion to the Balauti range 
 of hills which separate this from the Acsay valley of Ush 
 Turfan, whilst the Envoy and the rest of our. party pro- 
 
 z 
 
354 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ceeded down the course of the river through a winding 
 valley covered with snow. We turned off from the river 
 some way below a small outpost fort, and a little be- 
 yond it, emerging from the hills, went down a sirt or 
 "slope" which extends along their base and sinks 
 gradually to the level country, and then crossed a wide 
 waste of salines and sands on to the cultivation of Kol 
 Taylac on the Kashghar plain. After a halt there of two 
 days we returned to Kashghar by way of Artosh, where 
 we met our polite host again, and thanked him for his 
 kind hospitality* His son Musa, who conducted us on 
 our tour, completed the role of his attentions by accom- 
 panying us as far as Bibi Miryam, where, on taking his 
 leave, the Envoy acknowledged his good service by 
 robing him in a very handsome silk Jchilat. 
 
 He was an intelligent and spirited young man of 
 about twenty-two years of age, and proved an agreeable 
 companion by his frank cordiality and varied informa- 
 tion. He gave me an account of the atrocities com- 
 mitted by the Chinese in suppressing the Khoja revolt 
 under Wali Khan, and described how they executed his 
 own grandfather and uncles. They were ripped open 
 and their hearts cut out whilst alive, and thrown to the 
 dogs in the street. Their heads were then cut off, and 
 placed in cages along with dozens of others that lined 
 the roads in front of the city gates as a warning to evil- 
 doers. On my expressing horror at such barbarities, 
 he said, " Not at all. It was their turn and they did 
 as we had done to them. We are much alike in war." 
 
 " And in what do you differ ? " I asked. 
 
 " We are Musalmans and they are idolaters. That's 
 all" 
 
 "Is there no other difference ? " I inquired. " Are you 
 not much superior to the Chinese ? " 
 
ISLAM AND THE CHINESE RULE. 355 
 
 " In religion we are. In nothing else." 
 
 "But you speak a different language, and are of a 
 different race," I interposed. 
 
 " That's true, but we are all Tatars, whether called 
 Turk, Mughal, Manjhu, or Khitay, and our languages are 
 as different as the number of our nations. In the time 
 of the Khitay some seven languages were spoken in this 
 country." 
 
 " Amongst their troops and officials, you mean, I pre- 
 sume," I said. 
 
 " Yes, and traders who came from all parts of 
 Mungholia. Even now, everything you see in this 
 country is Chinese. Our dress is Khitay, our food, 
 domestic utensils, and industries are Khitay. Our 
 manners are Khitay. And so was our trade." 
 
 " Of course you speak of the time when the Khitay 
 were your rulers. Everything is not now as it was 
 then." 
 
 " Yes. Everything is much the same as then except 
 the Shariat. But things are changing every day ; and 
 now we never see any signs of the Khitay trade, nor of 
 the wealth they brought here." 
 
 " You talk as if you were a Khitay yourself." 
 
 " No. I hate them. But they were not bad rulers. 
 We had everything then. There is nothing now." 
 
 And he was not the only man I met in the country 
 who held the same opinions. In fact many spoke to me, 
 and others in our camp in comparatively very favourable 
 terms of the rule they had lost. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 OUR excursion to the foot of the Tianshan, or Alatagh 
 as it is locally called, despite the severity of the cold, and 
 the emptiness of the country, was a very interesting 
 tour, and afforded us an insight into the character of the 
 region immediately beyond the settled and cultivated 
 suburbs of the city. Here as elsewhere in the tracts we 
 had traversed it was but a step that took us from a 
 scene of population, plenty and industry, to one of lone- 
 liness, poverty and barbarity. 
 
 We saw the country in the depth of winter, and met 
 its few wandering camps which in the shelter of its 
 valleys find that pasture and protection which the higher 
 elevations at this season deny them, but nowhere did we 
 find the indications of a more thickly peopled condition 
 than that it actually presented to us. In spring the fresh 
 pastures of its wide plateaux and rolling downs are 
 roamed by the camps we found sheltered, or " wintered," 
 as the term here is, in the nooks and hollows of the low 
 hills of bare rock and gravel which shut them off from 
 the plain country, and in summer their parched wastes 
 are deserted for the higher parts of the boundary range, 
 on the other side of which are the camps of the same 
 people, subjects of Russia. 
 
 On the 7th March, according to arrangements pre- 
 viously made, the envoy, attended by his officers in 
 undress uniform, paid a visit to Beg Culi Beg, or as 
 he is usually called Beg Bacha. He is the eldest son, 
 
VISIT TO THE HEIR APPARENT. 357 
 
 and heir apparent of the Amir, and now rejoices in the 
 title of Shahzada. He arrived here a month ago from 
 Acsu, when his next brother, Hacc Culi Beg, set out from 
 this to take his place on the frontier. We alighted at 
 the gate of the court of his residence inside the fort, 
 and were received in the verandah of his reception room 
 by our friend Haji Tora, who was present to manage the 
 ceremony. 
 
 He conducted our chief into the room, and introduced 
 him to the prince who rose from his seat in the opposite 
 corner and shook hands. We were introduced in turn, 
 and shaking hands bowed politely to his perfunctorily 
 interrogative Salamat, and fell back to seats on the 
 carpet along the wall in the corner of which he sat, at 
 one side of the window which there opened into the 
 verandah, whilst Haji Tora seated himself opposite to 
 him on its other side. The usual conventionalities of 
 salutation were then exchanged between the envoy and 
 the prince, and with the interchance of compliments a 
 double barrelled gun was presented, whilst a file of men 
 went past the window with other presents, all of which 
 were accepted with becoming indifference. And then 
 followed a pause of silence, truly Oriental in its dura- 
 tion and gravity, and the tedium of which was at length 
 cut short by the welcome appearance of the dastur- 
 Jchivan an institution, which as the occasion illustrated, 
 possesses merits other than those of a merely alimentary 
 nature. 
 
 The prince was extremely reserved, and assumed an 
 air of self-conscious dignity, which he did not relax 
 during the interview. He spoke little, and that mostly 
 in monosyllables, curt and to the purpose ; but our ac- 
 knowledgements of the hospitality and kindness of the 
 Amir in so handsomely providing for our comfort 
 
358 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 elicited no response. Haji Tora came to the rescue, 
 and made a conversation into which he drew our re- 
 ticent host by very deferentially addressing his remarks 
 to him. 
 
 On the removal of the dasturkhwan we all rose, and 
 the prince, folding his hands in the opposite sleeves of 
 his juba, acknowledged our bows with a nod for the 
 envoy, and a stare out of the window for the rest of us. 
 He is a powerfully built young man of 26 years of age, 
 and is of darker complexion than most of the people 
 here. His mother is a Capchac of Juelik in the Ac 
 Masjid territory, and he bears some of the uncouth 
 characters of that tribe in his features, which are thick- 
 set and heavy. The lips are thick and the mouth pro- 
 jects forward, but the nose is slightly arched and well 
 formed. His general expression is that of pride and 
 severity. Even in his conversation with Haji Tora, who 
 spoke in tones of submissive deference, he did not relax 
 the stern set of his looks. 
 
 He is very popular amongst the Andijani troops, and 
 enj oys a reputation for bravery, and military skill. Many 
 stories are current of his valiant deeds against the enemy 
 on the Orumchi and Manas frontier, and if there be any 
 truth in them, the sentiment of mercy must be foreign 
 to his nature, for from all accounts his troops have 
 reduced that formerly populous and thriving country 
 to a waste of desolation and ruin. 
 
 He maintains as strict a discipline in his Court as 
 does the Amir, and is dreaded for the severity of his 
 punishments ; but he is popular amongst the troops on 
 account of his liberality in the distribution of plunder, 
 and his protection of Islam. He is said, however, to be 
 illiterate, and proud, and wanting in judgment; but 
 considering his sudden rise from a position of obscurity 
 
TOLERANT CHARACTER OF 2 HE NATIVES. 359 
 
 to that of heir apparent to the rule of this newly con- 
 quered territory, in the subjugation of the eastern dis- 
 tricts of which he has taken so active a part, this is not 
 to be wondered at, and doubtless the pride of royalty, 
 so jealously guarded in its infancy, will assume a more 
 conciliating form in its maturity. At all events, for the 
 sake of his subjects, let us hope so. 
 
 In all our dealings with the Court, and officials of this 
 state we met with uniform civility, but on terms of an 
 equality, the largest share of which was naturally reser- 
 ved for themselves. And consequently when we visited 
 their magnates, the ceremony was taken as a proper mark 
 of respect, without necessitating any return of the com- 
 pliment. This was in keeping with the dignity assumed 
 by the government, for in other respects our treatment 
 was most liberal, and wherever we went it was plain to 
 perceive that the most minute orders had preceded us 
 for the reception of the king's guests, and the conduct 
 of the government officials even in the smallest matters. 
 
 As to the people of the country, from what we were 
 enabled to see of them, they appear to be singularly free 
 from prejudice against foreigners, and altogether indif- 
 ferent, on the score of his nationality or religion, of his 
 presence amongst them, so long as he pays his way, and 
 does not wantonly offend against the customs of the 
 country. On one occasion, shortly after our arrival in 
 Yarkand, I visited the city with Capt. Chapman, and 
 as we entered the grain-market our usual cicerone 
 loitered behind in some thoroughfare on the way. 
 We went about from shop to shop, and examined the 
 weights and measures, and made our inquiries at the 
 different stalls without even attracting curious idlers 
 about us, though a vagabond darvesh on the other side 
 of the square did his best to direct attention to us by 
 
360 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 denouncing us at the top of his voice as infidels, and 
 shaking his club at us menacingly told us to depart. 
 His declamation fell upon indifferent ears, however, for 
 beyond staring at him and laughing, the crowd gave no 
 response to his sentiments, and, we taking no heed to 
 hurry our movements, the rascal went away capering, 
 and gesticulating, and shouting after the wanton fashion 
 of his order. If he only foreknew how many tilas 
 his brethren were to net in the peregrinations of these 
 same infidels he would have concealed his feelings, and 
 deprived me of the opportunity of chronicling a solitary 
 illustration in this country of what in other countries 
 not so far off his fraternity are no way chary in dispens- 
 ing curse and insult to the Farangi the Frank, the 
 European. 
 
 This was the only instance in which, during our stay 
 in the country, I saw the fanaticism of Islam escape from 
 the check set upon it, and I can judge how much we are 
 indebted to the liberal-minded counsels of our friend Haji 
 Tora for the freedom with which, under the Amir's favour, 
 we visited its holy places ; a freedom we are strangers 
 to in our own dominions in India, and one I doubt 
 not withheld from less favoured guests at Kashghar. 
 I hope my opinion will prove wrong, and that the 
 liberality extended to us is but an earnest of the en- 
 lightened policy the Amir is about to adopt towards all 
 foreign visitors, irrespective of their creed or nationality. 
 
 The business of the envoy with the Amir having been 
 brought to a conclusion, and the projected tour through 
 his territory being found impracticable, it was decided 
 that we should proceed to Yangi Hissar, and there await 
 the intelligence expected from Kabul, as to whether the 
 route to India by that way was available to us, whilst a 
 party from our camp proceeded to explore the route 
 
DEPARTURE FROM KASHGHAR. 361 
 
 through Sarigh Cul and Wakhan, up to the frontier of 
 the Kashghar Amir's territory. 
 
 These preliminaries settled Haji Tora and Ihrar Khan 
 Tor a, on the 9th March, came over from the palace with 
 the parting presents from the Amir, which included a 
 horse for each of us, and talked over the arrangements 
 for the journey. These extended over two or three 
 days, and finally, the 16th was fixed for our farewell 
 visit to the Amir. 
 
 Meanwhile messengers were sent off with orders to 
 Husen Shah, Tocsabay, the governor of Sarigh Cul, to 
 smoothe the path for our party coming that way with the 
 requisite supplies and carriage ; and carts and horses were 
 collected for the carriage of our heavy camp from this. 
 
 The weather at the time was very variable, though the 
 intense frosts of the winter had ceased. The snow and 
 heavy clouds of the 8th and 9th had disappeared, and 
 on the 10th the sun shone out brightly in a beautifully 
 clear blue sky, and for the first time since our arrival 
 gave us a really good view of the mountains to the north 
 and west a magnificent barrier of snow culminating at 
 their point of junction in the towering mass of the Tirak 
 Dawan, " The poplar tree pass." 
 
 Next day all was again hidden from view by a dense 
 nimbus, and snow which fell all night and up to noon 
 of the 12th, when it covered the ground to a depth of 
 between eight and ten inches. And the sky continued 
 gloomy till our departure. 
 
 According to previous arrangement at 3 P.M. on the 
 16th March, the envoy, attended by all his staff in full 
 dress uniform, visited the Amir to take leave and thank 
 him for the hospitable reception accorded to the embassy. 
 Haji Tora and Ihrar Khan Tora came over from the 
 palace to escort our party. The same ceremony was 
 
362 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 observed as on previous occasions, except that Haji Tora 
 was present, and took a seat on the floor opposite to us, 
 and some way on the left of the Amir. The envoy, 
 through one of his staff, thanked the Amir for his un- 
 bounded hospitality and many favours, and assured him 
 of our gratitude for the very kind reception we had met 
 on all sides from the day we entered his territories. He 
 acknowledged the attentions of his officials on the march, 
 and on the excursions to Chacmac, Maralbashi, and 
 Artosh, and expressed a hope that no act of any member 
 of his party had caused offence to the humblest of his 
 subjects. In allusion to the business of the embassy he 
 hoped that the treaty of commerce would prove mutually 
 advantageous to both countries, and concluded with a 
 prayer for the long life and prosperity of His Highness. 
 The Amir was highly pleased, and relaxing the usual 
 gravity of his features, placed his hand upon his heart, 
 and with much animation repeatedly exclaimed, " God 
 be praised! " " Please God it will." " The country is 
 your own." ic You are welcome here at all times." " I 
 am highly honoured by your visit," &c., &c. The das- 
 turJchwan was now brought in, and over it His Highness 
 spoke with more animation and suavity than on any 
 previous occasion, and on our rising to depart, said, " I 
 will stand up," and suiting the action to the word, shook 
 hands with each in turn, and wished us a safe journey 
 back to India. Haji Tora accompanied us back to the 
 Eesidency, and after congratulating the envoy on the 
 success of the meeting, returned to the palace, whilst 
 Colonel Gordon and Captain Biddulph rode off to the 
 city to bid adieu to the Dadkhwah on the part of the 
 envoy. Next morning we marched away from Kash- 
 ghar, and staying the night at Yapchang, on the 18th 
 March alighted at the garden-house we formerly rested 
 
DEPARTURE OF THE WAKHAN PARTY. 363 
 
 in at Yangi Hissar. The country still wore its wintry 
 aspect, and vegetation had not commenced to sprout, 
 but here and there we saw the plough at work as the 
 herald of the approach of spring. The atmosphere was 
 intensely hazy, and obscured the prospect beyond a ra- 
 dius of a couple of miles more or less. 
 
 As we rode out of the gate of the Eesidency a salute 
 of nineteen guns was fired on the parade in front of the 
 fort, and we found a large crowd of soldiery, and camp 
 people collected to see us start. Haji Tora and Ihrar 
 Khan Tora escorted us three miles on our way, and then 
 bidding us farewell, returned to report progress to the 
 Amir. We went on our way with a Yuzbashi and On- 
 bashi (centurion and decurion) and half a dozen soldiers 
 who did the honours of the dasturkhwan as usual. 
 
 At Sogholoc we were met by our old friend Khal 
 Muhammad, and his guard of men in yellow buff with 
 the dasturkhwan, and they accompanied us on our way. 
 On arrival at Yangi Hissar we were received by Mulla 
 Najmuddin, a native of Oratappa, and commandant of 
 the troops here. He had about 400 men seated in a 
 long line along the road in front of the fort. They all 
 wore white turbans, and had their prong-rest guns set 
 on the ground in line before them, and as we rode past 
 looked respectfully down to the ground. 
 
 As far as one could judge from the faces of the forms 
 wrapped up, as it seemed, in so many bundles of clothes, 
 they are a fine body of men; and seen thus together 
 present a notably different physiognomy to that of the 
 people of the country. They are in fact Uzbak and not 
 Turk, and show a stronger development of the Tatar 
 type than the peasantry of the country do. 
 
 Najmuddin informed us that he had received orders 
 to attend to our wants here, and, before taking his 
 
364 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR, 
 
 leave, accompanied us to our quarters where he saw us 
 comfortably settled in the rooms prepared for us on the 
 previous occasion of our halt here. The next two days 
 were occupied in the providing of carriage, &c. for the 
 party proceeding under command of Colonel Gordon to 
 Wakhan. He set out on the 21st with Captain Biddulph, 
 Captain Trotter, and Dr Stoliczka, and about twenty- 
 five or thirty natives of India attached to the embassy, 
 including Easaidar Afzal Khan of the llth B.C., and 
 Munshi Abdussubhan of the Survey. We accompanied 
 our fortunate comrades some miles out on their envi- 
 able journey (the one above all others I had hoped to 
 make when we set out on this march), and bidding them 
 God speed returned to our quarters. We did not meet 
 again till after our return to India. . 
 
 Captain Chapman at the same time turning off at a 
 branch in the road took his way to Yarkand to arrange 
 for the despatch of our heavy baggage thence to India, 
 and he returned to Yangi Hissar on the 28th March. 
 Meanwhile the envoy and I explored the suburbs of our 
 dwelling, and after the return of our comrade, leaving 
 him to rest after his labours, set out for an excursion 
 to the Cum Shahidan to visit the shrine of Ordam 
 Padshah. 
 
 We left our quarters after an early breakfast on the 
 1st April, and going through the town followed an 
 E.S.E. route through the suburbs beyond it. They 
 extend for ten miles in a continuous succession of fields 
 and farmsteads, which are surrounded by their orchards 
 and vineyards, and connected by rows of polled willow, 
 and poplar, and mulberry, and oeleagnus, and other trees 
 along the water- courses. We crossed several of these 
 irrigation canals en route, the largest of them by bridge 
 at seventy-five minutes out. It is a considerable channel 
 
SUDDEN CHANGE OF SEASON. 365 
 
 from the Shahnaz river which irrigates all the southern 
 portion of this settlement. With the exception of a few 
 weeping willows on which the buds were beginning to 
 form, we saw no signs of reviving vegetation. 
 
 In two hours we reached the last house of the village 
 of Syghan on the verge of the desert, and alighted in a 
 plantation of plum and mulberry trees for the dastur- 
 khwan there spread for us. 
 
 In this distance of ten miles (eight from the town) we 
 passed through the villages or parishes, here called kand, 
 of Mangshin, Khoja Aric, and Sayghan. They are col- 
 lections of scattered farmsteads, seldom more than thirty 
 appearing within the range of vision at one time from 
 any part of the plain, and are planted along the course 
 of a canal which is. drawn off from the Shahnaz river 
 near Tawiz or Tabriz, a village ten miles or so to the 
 south-west of the town of Yangi Hissar. 
 
 From Sayghan our route continued E.S.E. over an 
 arid desert waste of coarse gravel and sand, skirting low 
 ridges of clay and gravel on our right, and showing a 
 thin strip of cultivation away to the left which extended 
 for a couple of miles on to the desert like a long feeler 
 projected out from the main body of the settlement. 
 
 In two hours from Sayghan we came to a roadside 
 well, in which was a little brackish water at six fathoms 
 down, and then turning S.E. rose up to the crest of the 
 ridges along the base of which our path lay. The view 
 of the country from this slight elevation was weird 
 and desolate in the extreme. On the other side, at a 
 mile we passed a roadside well, and at two miles more 
 another like the first, both were mere shafts sunk in 
 the sand to a reservoir of salt water below. A little 
 way further on the ground becomes hillocky, and sup- 
 ports a thin growth of reeds in the hollows ; and be- 
 
3 66 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 yond this again it slopes away to a wide undulating 
 waste of sand and gravel. 
 
 At an hour and fifteen minutes from the ridge we 
 came to some miserable little huts on the side of the 
 road, and further on, passing a few others, came to a 
 collection of three or four houses where the friars of this 
 little monastic colony met us on the road with, according 
 to Tatar custom, an offering of bread and salt. Beyond 
 these a little way, and at two hours, or eight miles from 
 the ridge, we alighted at the monastery of Hazrat Begam 
 (whose grave is outside its walls to the S.E.), where we 
 were met at the door by the Shekh, an old man of 
 eighty years, named Shah Macsud, who gave us a hospit- 
 able welcome to his poor abode. 
 
 The monastery is a wretched little place cast away in 
 a blank waste of arid desert, and is apparently fast fall- 
 ing to decay. It has a chapel and refectory, with half 
 a dozen small chambers for the monks, and a large well 
 of insipid water in one of the chambers of the inner 
 court, the area of which is shaded by the spreading 
 branches of three very aged poplar trees. In the outer 
 court are some stables, and outside it, on the plain to 
 the south, are eight or ten huts crowded together. They 
 are miserable hovels, and in front of their doors are 
 heaps of old bones, ashes, and filth, about which grovel 
 some semi-nude, demented beggars, in company with a 
 few mangy dogs, and emaciated donkeys all covered with 
 sores, the very personification of poverty, misery, and 
 dirt. There is no trace of cultivation in this place, and 
 all supplies for the community of fifty or sixty friars, 
 and their families here, come from Yangi Hissar and 
 Kizili where are situated their glebe lands. 
 
 The lady whose sainted memory this shrine per- 
 petuates was the cousin of Khoja Ahmad Yasawi (the 
 
A MONASTERY IN THE DESERT. 367 
 
 patron saint of Turkistan, and whose tomb there is called 
 Hazrat Sultan), and the wife of Hasan Baghra Khan 
 who was killed near Yangi Hissar in the wars with the 
 Chinese of Khutan in the middle of the eleventh cen- 
 tury. On the defeat of the king's army she fled into 
 the desert, and was here overtaken, and slain by the 
 enemy. Her grave is marked by a low mound of sand 
 and clay on the top of which are stuck a number of poles 
 with yak tails, and streamers of rags. On the plain 
 half a mile to the south are the remains of an ancient 
 fort, now barely traceable in the sand, which is said 
 to have been occupied as an outpost by the Khutan 
 prince, Nuktarashid, during the war against Kashghar 
 and the princes of the Baghra Khan family. Its area 
 is covered with bits of coarse gritty pottery, and frag- 
 ments of green glass ; and coins are sometimes found 
 after strong winds have blown away the sand. 
 
 Next day we went twelve miles in a northerly course 
 to Ordam Padshah. At first the road slopes down to a 
 wide hollow which drains to the south-eastwards, and 
 then rises up to the ridge which we crossed yesterday 
 a few miles higher up to the N.W. On the way to this 
 we passed a number of shallow wells and superficial 
 cisterns on the sides of the road. In all the water was 
 so salt that most of our Indian cattle refused to drink it. 
 
 From the top of the ridge of clay and gravel, which 
 here forms a high and broad bank, we got a good view 
 of the desert away to the east, for the ridge soon breaks 
 up and subsides in that direction to the level of the 
 plain. The plain in that direction presents a vast 
 undulating surface drained by shallow and very wide 
 water-runs in which is a thin growth of reeds and rough 
 bushes, but no sign of running water. 
 
 But to the north it presents a perfect sea of loose sand 
 
368 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 advancing in regular wave lines from N.W. to S.E. 
 The sand-dunes are mostly from ten to twenty feet high, 
 but some are seen like little hills, full a hundred feet 
 high and in some spots higher. They cover the plain, of 
 which the hard clay is seen between their rows, with 
 numberless chains of two or three or more together in 
 a line, and follow in successive rows one behind the other 
 just like the marks left by wave-ripples on a sandy 
 beach, only on a large scale. 
 
 Towards the south-east these sand-dunes all present a 
 steep bank in the shape of a crescent the horns of which 
 slope forwards and downwards to points on the ground. 
 The horns start from the high central part of the body 
 of the crescent, which, in the opposite direction, tails off 
 in a long slant down to the plain. These dunes cover 
 the whole country towards the north and north-west as 
 far as the eye can reach, but towards the east they cease 
 at four or five miles to the right of our road, and beyond 
 that distance is seen the undulating smooth surface of 
 the desert. 
 
 From the ridge up to the shrine itself, and next day 
 for some miles further, our path wound amongst and 
 over these sand dunes. At about four miles from the 
 ridge we passed a deserted post-stage half submerged 
 under the advancing sands. One of the priests of Mazar 
 Hazrat Begam, who was with us as guide, told us it was 
 called Langar Bulghar Akhund, and said that it was built 
 eighty years ago on an, at that time, open space in the 
 sands, but had been abandoned since thirty years owing 
 to the encroaching sands having swallowed up its court, 
 and risen over its roof. 
 
 I got down to examine the place, and found the wood- 
 work, and fire-places, and shelves in two rooms, and also 
 a part of the roof in a perfectly fresh, and well preserved 
 
THE SANDS OF THE DESERT. 369 
 
 state as if but just vacated. About half the building was 
 buried under a dune the sand of which stood above the 
 rest of it to a height of six or eight feet ; and on each 
 side in rear were much larger dunes whose regular cres- 
 centic form was perfect, and uninjured by any obstruc- 
 tion. At one side of the two rooms still uncovered, 
 and which faced to the S.E., was another room filled to 
 the door with sand which seemed to have crushed in the 
 roof. 
 
 At Ordam Pasha, where we halted a day, we found 
 some tenements actually occupied whilst in course of 
 submergence ; showing that the process is usually a very 
 gradual one, until the symmetry of the dune is so broken 
 by the obstructing object that its loose materials subside 
 by a sudden dissolution of its component particles, and 
 thus overwhelm the obstruction. In this particular 
 instance a chain of three crescentic dunes side by side 
 had advanced in a line across the plain till one of the 
 outer crescents had struck the walls of the court of the 
 tenement, and growing up against it had in time over- 
 topped, and then overflowed and filled its area by its 
 downfall ; whilst the other two crescents at its side con- 
 tinuing in an unobstructed course, maintained their 
 proper form uninjured. The same cause which propelled 
 them gradually forward also operated to drive the re- 
 mainder of the broken dune forward, and it would in 
 course of time not only bury the whole tenement, but 
 would ultimately pass on beyond it, and resume its 
 original form on the open space further on, in line with 
 the other two crescents of the chain, thus leaving the 
 tenement more or less uncovered, till it was again sub- 
 merged by the next following row of similar sand-dunes. 
 
 These sand-dunes are formed by the action of the 
 periodical north and north-west winds which here blow 
 
 2A 
 
370 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 over the plain persistently during the spring months. 
 And the reason of their progress is this. That once 
 formed the wind drives forward the loose particles on its 
 surface, so that those on the sides, where there is least 
 resistance, project forwards in the form of long horns, 
 whilst those in the centre ride over each other till they 
 produce the high curved bank between them ; and on 
 being propelled still further they topple over the bank 
 out of the influence of the wind, but ^subject still to 
 that of their gravity, which carries them down the steep 
 slope till they reach the ground. And this action con- 
 tinued for a length of time is the cause of the gradual 
 and symmetrical advance of the dunes. The rate of their 
 progress it is impossible to determine, as it depends 
 entirely on the varying force of the propelling power, 
 the slope of the land and the obstructions on its surface. 
 But the phenomenon as we saw it actually in course of 
 operation explains the manner in which the cities of 
 Lob, and Katak, and others of this territory have be- 
 come overwhelmed in a flood of sand. And it con- 
 firms the veracity of the statements made by the 
 shepherds who roam the deserts, to the effect that in 
 these old ruined sites the houses now and then appear 
 for awhile from under the sand, and again for awhile 
 disappear under it. 
 
 The "Tarikhi Kashidi" gives a very interesting ac- 
 count of the destruction of Katak from this cause, just at 
 the time that Toghluc Tymur ascended the throne at 
 Acsu about the middle of the fourteenth century, which, 
 in the light thrown upon it by the examination of the 
 sand-dunes at Cum Shahidan, is perfectly intelligible. 
 
 From the account given in the work quoted it would 
 appear that the fate of the city had long been foreseen, 
 and that portions of it must have passed under the sands 
 
CITIES BURIED UNDER SAND. 371 
 
 before the catastrophe which finally led to its abandonment 
 drove the hero of our author's story out of it. Mirza 
 Hydar states that for several months the priest of the 
 city, Shekh Jamaluddin (a descendant of the celebrated 
 divine, Maulana Shujauddin Mahmud, who was spared 
 from the general butchery of the priests when Changiz 
 took Bukhara, and sent with his family to Caracoram, 
 whence, on its subsequent destruction, his sons moved 
 to Katak), repeatedly warned his audience in the Friday 
 sermons of the impending calamity ; and that finally, 
 seeing the danger imminent, he informed his congrega- 
 tion of a divine order to himself to quit the city and flee 
 from the coming wrath of God. He then formally bid 
 them " farewell" from the pulpit and forthwith took 
 his departure from the doomed abode. 
 
 He left the city, it would seem, in a violent sand- 
 storm, and hurried away "with his family, and such 
 effects as he could carry with them. After he had gone 
 some way one of his companions the muazzin or " crier 
 to prayer " of his mosque returned to fetch something 
 left behind, and took the opportunity to mount the 
 minaret, and for the last time chaunt the " bed-time " 
 call to prayer from its tower. In descending he found 
 the sand had accumulated so high up the doorway 
 that it was impossible to open it. He consequently 
 had to re-ascend the tower and throw himself from it 
 on to the sand, and thus effect his escape. He rejoined 
 the Shekh at midnight, and his report was so alarming 
 that the fugitives immediately rose and renewed their 
 flight, saying, " Distance is safety from the wrath of 
 God." 
 
 That portion of the city was buried the same night, 
 but it does not appear that the entire city was over- 
 whelmed at once, for there is no mention made of a 
 
372 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 general stampede or sauve qui peat flight. On the con- 
 trary, it would seem that the citizens abandoned their 
 homes in small parties, carrying their effects with them, 
 though doubtless in some instances the carelessness en- 
 gendered by a foreseen, and slowly advancing calamity 
 overtook some in their neglect, and buried them in their 
 false security. 
 
 Of the probability of this we had a remarkable illustra- 
 tion in the tenement mentioned above as still occupied at 
 Ordam Padshah, though the court up to its verandah was 
 already full of sand from the dune which had broken 
 over its walls. Had the court, in this case been on the 
 opposite side, and the house been the first to pass under 
 the advancing sand, as we saw at the Langar Bulghar 
 Akhund, it is easy to perceive how on toppling over the 
 front walls (if it did not suddenly, by its weight, crush 
 in the roof) it would shut up the inmates in a living 
 tomb. 
 
 That this actually did occur at Katak in many in- 
 stances is evidenced by the skeletons and desiccated 
 bodies which are still occasionally seen in unearthed 
 houses, with their apparel and furniture intact and un- 
 injured, as is told with such apparent truth by the shep- 
 herds who roam that spot at the present day. 
 
 Shekh Jamaluddin, on quitting the doomed city, made 
 for Acsu, and does not appear to have travelled with any 
 large party, for when near the end of his journey he met 
 the hunting circle, or jirga, of the new king, Toghluc 
 Tymur, and unaware of the Mughol regulations against 
 transgressing the cordon, was seized and carried to the 
 presence of the king for the punishment of death which, 
 according to the strict rules of the sport, he had merited, 
 Toghluc was at the time feeding his dogs on the flesh of 
 a wild boar they had killed, and on seeing the Tajik (a 
 
SHRINE OF ORDAM PADSHAH. 373 
 
 term applied here to all people of Arab and Aryan 
 descent in distinction to those of Turk and Mughol 
 descent), and hearing his plea of ignorance in excuse of 
 his fault, contemptuously asked him, " Say Tajik ! art 
 thou the better or these dogs ? " The priest replied 
 boldly, " Since I have the Faith I am the better. Were 
 I without it, the dog would be the better." 
 
 The words made an impression upon the young 
 Budhist, and led to his conversion at the hands of this 
 priest. And a couple of years later, when he was firmly 
 established as Khan of the Mughol, Toghluc Tymur, 
 made a public confession of the faith before the Mulla 
 Arshaduddin, son and successor of the Shekh who had 
 died in the interim. The new convert was followed in 
 his example by most of his nobles, and speedily revived 
 Islam throughout his territories. But to keep to our 
 subject. 
 
 The storm which drove the Shekh from Katak is de- 
 scribed as of exceeding violence, and is stated to have 
 filled the air with sand which fell as does rain from the 
 sky. This description is illustrated by what we saw at 
 the Cum Sbahidan in the Langar before mentioned, and, 
 if the dunes about Ordam Padshah were as high as some 
 others further off, it is easy to understand how a violent 
 wind or hurricane would carry the sand off them in vast 
 quantity, and deposit it on buildings below to the lee- 
 ward like rain falling from the sky, for once off the dune 
 its own gravity carries it out of the force of the wind, 
 which is intercepted below a certain level by the dune 
 itself. 
 
 The shrine of Ordam Padshah is itself buried in sand, 
 and poles tufted with yak tails mark the spot of the 
 grave. But the monastery, and some almshouses around 
 are built on small, clear spaces on the plain, which 
 
374 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 appear here and there amongst the heaps of sand, and 
 form as it were lanes running in the direction of the 
 march of the sand-dunes. Some of the larger dunes, at 
 a distance of three or four hundred yards off, are directed 
 obliquely upon the monastery, but as they seem to 
 advance here at a very slow rate twelve years having 
 passed since the dune broke into the court of the tene- 
 ment mentioned without having yet completely filled 
 its area, which is only ten or twelve paces wide the 
 confident faith of the venerable Shekh who presides 
 over it may prove justified. " The blessed shrine has 
 survived the vicissitudes of eight centuries/' he said, in 
 reply to our forebodings of the danger threatening its 
 existence ; " and please God it will survive to the end 
 of the world." 
 
 The martyr whose memory is perpetuated by this 
 shrine over his body, and by that of Hazrat Padshah at 
 Daulatbagh near Kashghar over his head, was Sayyid 
 'Ali Arslan Khan, the supernatural son of the Bibi 
 Miryam whose history has been before related. He took 
 an active part in the wars for the propagation of Islam 
 which were waged during the first half of the eleventh 
 century between the brother kings Hasan and Husen 
 Baghra Khan of Kashghar and the Chinese princes 
 Boktarashid and Choktarashid of Khutan. The grand 
 battlefield of their prolonged and bloody conflicts was 
 the country immediately around and to the north of 
 the range of sand hills called Cayragh, through which 
 flows the Shahnaz river a site now marked amongst the 
 ruins of ancient towns and cemeteries by the victors' 
 impress in the name of Yangi Hissar or " New Fort." 
 
 The whole ]ocality abounds in interesting memorials 
 of this sanguinary twenty-five years' war, and its records 
 are scattered about in the keeping of the custodians of 
 
HISTORY OF >AL2 ARSLAN KHAN. 375 
 
 the several shrines by which are perpetuated the, to Mus- 
 lims, holy memory of the noble martyrs for their faith. 
 To notice half of them as they deserve from a historical 
 point of view would require a volume to itself. Here 
 I must only allude to the manner of the death of the 
 martyr at whose shrine we have found so much to in- 
 terest the mind. The account, as given in the Tazkira 
 Baghra Khan, is much to the following effect. 
 
 The indomitable bravery and valiant deeds of arms of 
 'All Arslan against his infidel foes had rendered his name 
 terrible to the Khutan troops, and he more than once in 
 single combat put to flight their renowned champion, a 
 prince named Choktarashid. On these occasions 'Ali 
 Arslan is described as performing his prayers with great 
 solemnity at the head of his troops, and then proceeding 
 to the field of battle, his heralds in front proclaiming 
 his name and lineage, his dignities and titles, to meet 
 the champion from the other side. 
 
 Both were always accompanied by a body of their 
 own troops, and the combat usually became general at 
 once before the adversaries could engage each other 
 singly. The Muhammadan account naturally always 
 claims the best of the encounters, but their heavy losses, 
 and repeated failure to drive the enemy from his posi- 
 tion on the Cayragh heights is proof that their arms 
 made no very rapid progress. However, they inflicted 
 such losses upon the enemy that their general, called 
 Jagalu Khalkhalu, offered a handsome reward to any 
 one who would devise a means of overcoming their 
 renowned leader 'Ali Arslan. 
 
 There was an aged and poor jdtlic, or " Christian 
 priest," who used to seek a living by passing from one 
 camp to the other in search of odd jobs, and probably 
 he was employed as a spy by both, who hearing of this 
 
 I 
 
376 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 offer volunteered to impart to the Khutan general a 
 secret by which he might overcome his Muslim anta- 
 gonist. He was taken before the Budhist leader, and 
 told him that if he timed his attack so as to fall upon 
 the hostile army whilst they were performing the prayers 
 of a particular festival close at hand, he would find 'Ali 
 Arslan and his men unprepared, as they removed their 
 arms and armour when engaged in their devotions. 
 
 Jagalu Khalkhalu took the hint, arid dismissing his 
 informer with a handful of gold, laid his plans accord- 
 ingly. And on the day indicated fell upon the pious 
 devotees with such secrecy and impetuosity that he 
 immediately put their army to the rout, and surround- 
 ing 'Ali Arslan and 300 of his body-guard put them all 
 to the sword. The victorious general then, carrying 
 the head of his vanquished foe with him, pursued the 
 fugitives into the shelter of the walls of Kashghar, 
 and laid siege to the place, exhibiting the head of 
 their prince to tempt them out to open fight. The date 
 of this event is given as the 10th Muharram, 489 H. 
 (1095 A.D.) 
 
 They were driven off by a relieving army from Andijan 
 under Hasan and Husen Baghra Khan, and pursued with 
 great loss to Kokyar, whence they effected a safe retreat 
 to Chinshahr or Khutan. Hasan Baghra Khan then re- 
 turned by way of Yarkand, which at once surrendered, 
 and securing possession of the city by a garrison left in 
 it, marched with a large army to perform the funeral 
 rites of ; Ali Arslan and his fellow-warriors on the spot 
 of their martyrdom. During the ceremony (so says the 
 "Tazkira Baghra Khan") a burdn, or hurricane blacken- 
 ing the sky with dust, overwhelmed the country in 
 -darkness, and buried the bodies in the sand. Hence the 
 name of the spot Cum Shahiddn or " Martyr's Sands." 
 
HIS DEA TH AND B URIAL. 3 7 7 
 
 He built a khdncdh or " Monastery" here, and ap- 
 pointed a Shekk or "Superior" and forty attendants 
 for the service of the tomb, which he pronounced a sacred 
 shrine and place of pilgrimage. He gave some land, and 
 the tithes of certain villages for the support of the esta- 
 blishment, and promised all sorts of benefits to accrue to 
 those who visited it for prayer and supplication, if they 
 conciliated the superior with gifts, and the martyr's soul 
 with candles, and food for the poor, and recitals of the 
 Curan. 
 
 No allusion is made in the Tazkira to the existence 
 here of any fort or town, though the people of the place 
 assured us there was formerly a town here, which is 
 now buried under the sand ; but its exact site is now 
 quite unknown. 
 
 The name Ordam Padshah means " My camp, or Court 
 King," just as Khojam Padshah means " My Khoja or 
 Priest King," and does not necessarily imply the exist- 
 ence here of any court or royal edifice, though it is pro- 
 bable the Kashghar army may have had an outpost fort 
 here similar to that held at Mazar Hazrat Begam by the 
 Khutan army. 
 
 The monastery, as we found it, is a large court in which 
 are contained a chapel, refectory, and kitchen, with about 
 a dozen dormitories capable of accommodating, after 
 the fashion of the country, about a hundred inmates. 
 The whole has been recently restored by the Amir, and 
 some new houses have been built in the hollows between 
 the sand-dunes around it. The shrine is a very popular 
 one, and three or four fairs are held here for its benefit 
 every year. The principal one is held in Ashur 'Ay, the 
 third month, and attracts between fifteen and twenty 
 thousand people, it is said, during the five days it lasts. 
 It has a permanent population of about fifty families 
 
378 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 who are as well to do and comfortable as those of Hazrat 
 Begam are poor and miserable. They are quite isolated 
 in the sand, and derive all their supplies from Yangi 
 Hissar, which is twenty miles to the west by a direct 
 path across the sands. 
 
 We halted a day here and were feasted on horse flesh, 
 roast and boiled. If the European animal is only half 
 as good in the flavour of his flesh, the diet is by no 
 means to be despised. On resuming our journey we 
 went due north for six miles, and then passed on to a 
 wide saline-encrusted desert which was dotted here and 
 there with little desiccated pools and patches of reeds. 
 
 At a mile from the shrine we passed three huts 
 close together with a sand-dune in process of passing 
 over them. The court-yard of one was full, and of the 
 others nearly so. They were all occupied as usual by 
 their owners, poor beggars dependent on the bounty of 
 the monastery. 
 
 A couple of miles further on the dunes diminish in 
 size and regularity of form, and finally end as small flat 
 tumuli scattered about on the surface, and not much 
 raised above its level. They present, however, an indis- 
 tinctly striated appearance from N.W. to S.E. 
 
 Beyond the sands our path turned N.W. and led past 
 some shallow pools to a roadside hospice around which 
 were clustered eight or ten hovels occupied by beggars. 
 Then past a long strip of shallow water, on which we 
 found numbers of, wild duck apparently returned from 
 their winter migration, for they quit the country when 
 the frosts set in across a bit of dry and blistered soil, 
 in which our horses off the narrow track sunk to their 
 knees, and, at about nine miles from the shrine, we 
 came to a small hamlet called Dasht Bulac, or " Desert 
 Spring." It is an hospice on the way to the shrine, and 
 
SUDDEN CHANGE OF SEASONS. 379 
 
 has eight or ten huts clustered round it under the shade 
 of some trees. 
 
 At this place our route turned due west towards along 
 strip of settlement which we reached in one hour. It 
 extends out from Yangi Hissar in a N.E. direction like 
 a long arm stretched out to the desert. We went on five 
 miles, or an hour and ten minutes, through its fields, and 
 alighted at the village of Arab, where we were accom- 
 modated in the house of a farmer blacksmith who had 
 vacated his home for us. It was a comfortable and clean 
 house, though of unpretending character, and was shaded 
 by some splendid poplars, in the branches of which were 
 set some empty gourds for the starlings to build their 
 nests in. The fruit and other trees were just beginning 
 to bud, and the fields were fresh ploughed for the spring 
 crop. Here and there we saw fields of winter corn, 
 and found the peasants at work laying on a top dressing 
 of sand and manure to kill the salines that whiten the 
 surface with their efflorescence. 
 
 Next day we rode twenty miles "W.S.W. across a 
 mostly waste tract of sodden saline land, and returned to 
 our quarters at Yangi Hissar. 
 
 On the 17th April, after three weeks of more or less 
 hazy weather, and persistent N. and N.W. winds which 
 sometimes blew with sufficient force to obscure the air 
 with a thick fog of impalpable dust, the sun shone out 
 in a cloudless sky, and gave us a splendid view of the 
 snowy hills to the west. The range runs N.W. to S.E. 
 and the nearest spurs are only twenty miles off. 
 
 It presents three prominent masses which are separated 
 by depressions that sink below the snow level. The 
 southern-most is called King Cul Tagh and is above the 
 road to Sarigh Cul. The second is called Tawiz Tagh, 
 and the third, to the north, Chish Tagh ; and between 
 
380 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the two latter is the road from Kashghar to Sarigh Cul 
 by Tashmalik and Opal, and from it a road branches off 
 westward over the Alai to Caratakin. 
 
 The hills are the home of the Kirghiz of the Nayman, 
 Caraterit, and Chalterit tribes, with a few refugee Sayak 
 and Capchac from the Caratagh and Tirak Dawan. The 
 Caratagh hills connect Chishtagh with the Tirak Dawan, 
 and beyond them to the west is the Alai plateau. 
 
 After this the weather again became hazy, and increas- 
 ingly hot with sudden rapidity. The sun usually shone 
 through a dense haze, which fortunately served to miti- 
 gate the intense glare of its light reflected from the 
 white, sandy, and saline soil, as well as to diminish 
 the force of its rays. When it shone in a clear sky 
 the glare was insupportable to eyes unprotected by 
 spectacles, and the power of its rays was very consider- 
 able. On the 17th and 30th April the sun thermometer 
 registered their force at 139 F. and 140 F. respectively. 
 The sudden transition from winter to summer was at- 
 tended by an equally sudden transformation in the 
 appearance of the country so far as concerned its culti- 
 vated tracts, for the desert portion hardly changed its 
 character up to the time we left the country. Vegeta- 
 tion now burst forth all at once as it were, and filled 
 the spot, but a few days before bare of any such traces, 
 with foliage and verdure, and converted the whole settle- 
 ment into a seeming paradise. During the whole month 
 a N.W. wind blew with more or less steady persistence, 
 and occasionally freshened to a gale which raised storms 
 of dust lasting for hours, and more severe, both in inten- 
 sity and duration, than those one usually experiences in 
 the Panjab. 
 
 The appearance of spring was a welcome sight to the 
 people, for their winter stock of forage and corn was be- 
 
BENEFITS OF OUR STAY AT KASHGHAR. 381 
 
 ginning to run low owing to the extra consumption of our 
 party added to the usual demands upon the stores of the 
 place. Amongst other supplies allotted for the daily 
 consumption of the embassy as guests of the Amir were 
 sixty charyak (1200 Ibs.) of maize corn (in place of bar- 
 ley which is seldom seen here), ten of rice, and six of 
 flour, twenty loads of fire-wood, fifty of straw, and two 
 hundred bundles of lucerne, and three sheep. The pro- 
 duction of this daily ration soon fell heavily on the 
 resources of the place, and some delay occurred once or 
 twice in its collection. 
 
 Yangi Hissar is a dirty and decayed little market-town 
 of perhaps five hundred houses. Its people are in keep- 
 ing with their abode poorly clad and ill-favoured, if not 
 horribly ugly. Amongst them are a great manyKhitay 
 converts who seem to have been brought together here 
 from all parts of the country. The place is an important 
 military post and has a strong fort on the plain north of 
 the town. In it are kept the government treasures, and 
 some political detenus, and some members of the Amir's 
 harem. 
 
 "Whilst here we had an opportunity of making some 
 inquiries into the character, and habits of the people of 
 the country, of which I had received no very flattering 
 description from the Turkish officers at Kashghar, whose 
 impressions regarding their brethren in the far east ap- 
 pear to have been far in advance of the reality of their 
 condition. "Without concurring in the wholesale con- 
 demnation of them as "brute beasts" with one whose 
 opinion was formed mainly from his experience of the 
 Uzbak soldiery of Andijan in the garrison of Kashghar ; 
 and whose liberal education in the modern school of the 
 Turkish capital perhaps raised him above the intellectual 
 status of those he was here thrown amongst on terms of 
 
382 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 brotherhood and equality very different from the circum- 
 stances of our contact with them as foreign guests 
 enjoying the favour of the king I find some difficulty 
 in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion for myself. 
 
 We were so hedged in by the Andijani officials ap- 
 pointed to do us honour, and found everything so prepared 
 to convey a good impression, that we saw next to no- 
 thing of the social life of the people amongst them- 
 selves ; though we were constantly reminded by little 
 incidents of every day occurrence of the vigilance of the 
 domination under which they are kept. Our presence 
 at the capital seemed to put everybody on his best beha- 
 viour, and we found matters going smoothly enough, 
 though under an undefined sense of fear and insecurity 
 prominent everywhere; but during our stay here (at 
 Yangi Hissar), reports reached us of how much our de- 
 parture was regretted by the people at Kashghar, because 
 the capricious tempers in the palace had resumed their 
 sway, and the bastinado and thumbscrew were making 
 up the arrears of lost time. 
 
 Allowance must be made for the difficult position of 
 the Uzbak conquerors, who hold the wide territory of 
 their conquest with an army of less than twenty thousand 
 Khocandi troops, as well as for the naturally to be ex- 
 pected hardships of a sudden transition from the tolerant 
 rule of the Chinese to that of an intolerant Islam ; and 
 then the rulers may be justly accredited with holding 
 what they have won with no more than the requisite 
 vigilance and determination. 
 
 Under the Chinese rule, from all accounts, there seems 
 to have existed a much wider range of personal liberty 
 than is now permitted under the strict code of the 
 Sharidt, and so far as the physical welfare of the people 
 is concerned the change does not appear to be of un- 
 
OPIUM SMOKERS. 383 
 
 mixed benefit, particularly in the matter of meats and 
 drinks and public morals. 
 
 Fermented liquors and spirits, and some kinds of flesh, 
 which under the Chinese rule had become common to 
 Muslim and Budhist alike, are now religiously sup- 
 pressed as prohibited by law, and any infraction of the 
 ordinance on this point is punished very severely. 
 But opium and hemp, which are not included in the 
 list of unlawful meats, are set under no restrictions, and 
 are consequently abused to an alarming extent by all 
 classes and both sexes. One of the Turkish officers in 
 describing to me the society he had found at Kashghar, 
 said that the people had no sociability or conversation, 
 and that they stupefied their intellects with these drugs, 
 and conducted themselves in their dwellings regardless 
 of decency in the presence of strangers. 
 
 At Yangi Hissar are three divans for opium smoking. 
 They are dark low chambers with a number of pillows 
 arranged along the floor with a lamp at the side of each. 
 And against the walls are shelves full of labelled and 
 neatly folded bundles of the clothes and chattels left in 
 pawn by the victims of the habit. The smoker on pay- 
 ing for his dose gets a pipe charged with a moist paste 
 of the drug applied round the sides of a small orifice at 
 one end of the tube. He lies down with his head on a 
 pillow and turning to the lamp at its side draws two or 
 three good whiffs of the flame through the opium paste, 
 and then falls off to sleep. 
 
 In the time of the Chinese, it is said, the habit was 
 not attended with such ill effects as now because the 
 smokers, as generally the eaters, worked off the ill 
 effects of the drug by active exercise in the pursuits of 
 daily life, but now the people are deprived of this safe- 
 guard, and succumb more rapidly to its enervating effects. 
 
384 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 How this can be does not seem very clear, though of 
 the prevalence of the use of both drugs to an almost 
 general extent there is abundant evidence. Under the 
 Chinese the morality of the people in the relations of 
 the sexes appears to have been very lax. Besides the 
 painted sirens of the public markets, there was the 
 chaucdn always ready to contract an alliance for a long 
 or short period with the merchant or traveller visiting 
 the country, or with anybody else. Both the jalab and 
 the chaucdn are now suppressed, and the sex is subjected 
 to the seclusion imposed by Islam, with its unequal dis- 
 tribution and concomitant vices. The sudden abrogation 
 of their wonted privileges was not submitted to by the fair 
 Tatars until many of their rebellious sisters were sacri- 
 ficed as an exemplary warning to offenders against the 
 law, and it is said that sixteen defiant champions for the 
 liberties of the sisterhood were publicly executed at Acsu, 
 before the marriage law of the Sharia't was accepted. 
 
 "With the loose example set by the ruler and his 
 army, however, the Tatar ladies find no great difficulty 
 in evading the restrictions of the law, and amongst 
 certain classes they avail themselves of the facilities for 
 divorce to change their husbands much at their pleasure, 
 and to no small profit to themselves personally. 
 
 For example a woman marries a man at Yarkand, and 
 after two or three months she quarrels with him, and 
 gets a letter of divorce from the Cazi, and the dower 
 fixed on her. After the 'iddat term fixed by law, she 
 will marry a second in the same city and treat him like- 
 wise. She will then, without waiting the 'iddat term, go 
 to Yangi Hissar, and there, showing the first letter of 
 divorce as proof of her freedom, marry a third husband, 
 and having secured his dower get rid of him in the 
 same way, to repeat a similar rdle at Kashghar, and so 
 
EXPERIENCES OF A PANJABI TRADER. 385 
 
 on back to her home at Yarkand, where with a small for- 
 tune at command she may marry the man of her choice. 
 
 "Whilst halted here there arrived from Yarkand to see 
 the envoy a Panjabi Sikh who had come over the passes 
 late in the season with a venture of goods for this 
 market. He had experienced hard weather on the 
 passes, and had been obliged to abandon some of his 
 loads for other following caravans to bring on, or to lie 
 there till his return homewards. He was now exultant 
 in the success of his speculation, having cleared upwards 
 of fifty per cent, profit. He asked me to do something 
 for his feet which had caused him much suffering on the 
 journey, and which still crippled him in his gait. I told 
 him to remove the long Tatar boots he wore, and in 
 doing so he left the tops of the great toe and its next of 
 one foot in the boot, and presented the other foot with 
 the top joints of the great toe and two next perfectly 
 black and mortified from frost-bite some three months 
 ago. They were in process of separation from the living 
 flesh, and little was required but patience and a little 
 simple dressing. 
 
 He had travelled with hardly more care and expense 
 on himself than he had expended on his hired cattle, 
 and apparently shared the hardships of the journey 
 much on a par with them. The difficulties of this route 
 are not to be properly appreciated till one has expe- 
 rienced them. The inconveniences of absolute desert, 
 and the risks of high elevation, are permanent and un- 
 changing, whilst the hardships of frosts and snows in 
 winter are changed for the difficulties of floods and, 
 avalanches in summer. 
 
 Yet so great is the spirit of commercial enterprise that 
 merchants are found to risk them all for the sake of the 
 profits to be derived under the fostering encouragement 
 
 2B 
 
386 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 they find on both sides. Much has been heard during re- 
 cent years of the prospects of trade in this direction, and 
 the capability of its assuming important development. I 
 will not pretend to offer an opinion on the subject, but 
 may state some facts regarding it within my knowledge. 
 
 On the overthrow of the Chinese rule ten years ago the 
 trade relations of Kashghar from Turfan westward were at 
 once and completely severed from China. The southern 
 states of Khutan and Yarkand then turned for the supply 
 of their wants to the nearest markets, those of Kashmir 
 and the Panjab, whilst the northern states from Kashghar 
 to Turfan resorted in like manner to the markets on the 
 Russian side of the passes in that direction. The trade 
 connections thus formed in opposite directions have 
 remained distinct to the present time. That is to say, 
 the two southern cities are in the hands of British 
 traders, and the rest are in the hands of Eussian 
 traders. 
 
 The ruler of the whole territory has concluded a Com- 
 mercial Treaty with each of these two governments on 
 terms equally favourable to both, and the question of 
 success depends now upon the merits of the rival traders, 
 and the suitability of their merchandise to the require- 
 ments and tastes of the people. 
 
 With the Kashghar government the goods of the 
 British trader up to a certain limit will, so far as appear- 
 ances indicate, find a ready market, if not with the local 
 merchants ; because cotton-prints, muslins, broadcloths, 
 silks, &c., are in great demand for the troops and 
 officials, amongst whom they are distributed by way of 
 presents, and in lieu of pay. 
 
 With the people the wares usually brought by Russian 
 traders, such as brass candlesticks, iron cauldrons and 
 other hardware, with tea, and some coarse cotton-prints 
 
PROSPECTS OF TRADE. 387 
 
 of peculiar pattern, promise to keep the favour they at 
 present enjoy. 
 
 As to the comparative facilities for transit on the op- 
 posite sides I can say nothing more than that, if they 
 are as great on the north as they are on the south, the 
 competitors will have a fair field for their peaceful 
 rivalry, and that, too, over as hard and wearying bit of 
 ground as is nowhere else to be found. 
 
 Having received intimation that the Kabul route was 
 not available to us, and Col. Gordon having reported 
 his departure from Panjah on the return journey towards 
 India, the envoy on the 3d May marched with his camp 
 from Yangi Hissar en route for Yarkand by the road we 
 travelled before. We reached Yarkand on the 6th, and 
 alighting at the Eesidency in the Yangishahr, on the 
 following morning paid a visit to the Dadkhwah. He 
 received us with his former hospitality, and very atten- 
 tively forwarded the preparations for our onward journey 
 by the Kokyar route, on which we soon after found 
 supplies laid down at the several stages up to the Kash- 
 mir frontier. 
 
 The weather during our stay here was thick and hazy, 
 and clouds of dust.w r ere raised by every puff of air. The 
 temperature during our stay from the 7th to the 17th 
 May inclusive ranged between a maximum of 93 F. and 
 a minimum of 40 F., and on the 8th the sun's rays 
 showed a heating power of 135 F, 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON the llth May Haji Tora arrived from Kashghar with 
 presents from the Amir for the Queen and for the 
 Viceroy ; and after delivering them to the envoy, he 
 prolonged his stay here for a few days to see us fairly 
 started on our journey. He was accompanied from the 
 capital by a M. Ladislas Berzenczey, a Hungarian tra- 
 veller, who had, so he told us, set out from Buda Pesth 
 to investigate the early history of the Magyars in the 
 ancient seat of their forefathers. He had arrived at 
 Kashghar some days after our departure thence, and 
 now, on our making his acquaintance, favoured us with 
 a very interesting account of his varied life and travels, 
 and of the long journey he had just made through Russia 
 and Siberia down to this place. 
 
 He did not at all approve of the customs he found in 
 force in the ancient home of his ancestors, and was loud 
 in complaint of his treatment at the capital. The six 
 weeks of his hospitable detention there as the guest of 
 the Amir appears to have weighed upon him more 
 heavily than did the six months' durance of our travellers 
 Messrs Hayward and Shaw upon them, and he altered 
 his plans to proceed to India with us. The envoy, ac- 
 ceding to the wishes of the lonesome traveller, exerted 
 his good offices on his behalf with the authorities, and 
 they, with their well-known hospitality, furnished the 
 stranger with an escort, and the necessary provisions for 
 his journey, and conducted him in safety to the frontier ; 
 on arrival there he was received as a guest, and for- 
 
DEPARTURE FROM YARKAND. 389 
 
 warded on his way to Leh by Mr Johnson the Maharaja's 
 governor of Ladakh. 
 
 On the 17th May, having received intelligence of the 
 return of Col. Gordon's party to Sarigh Cul, the envoy, 
 attended by Capt. Chapman and myself, paid a farewell 
 visit to the Dadkhwah to thank him for his many kind 
 attentions, and next morning we set out on our home- 
 ward march. 
 
 We left the Yangishahr at 5.30 A.M., and passing 
 through the city went out at the gate by which we 
 entered it on first arrival. There were few people in 
 the streets, and we passed out more quietly, and unob- 
 servedly than such a party as ours would have done from 
 any Indian town. 
 
 For an hour we went across a tract of cultivated land, 
 delightfully fresh and green, and fording the Zilchak 
 canal above a rickety rustic bridge, which was supported 
 on two piers of boulders and faggots between the banks, 
 alighted at some trees on the other side to drink a part- 
 ing cup of tea with our friend Haji Tora. We here 
 took leave of him with sincere feelings of respect for his 
 talents, and gratitude for his friendship towards us, and 
 with hearty good wishes for his prosperity and success. 
 
 We went on through the homesteads of Aral and 
 Otunchilik, and in an hour and five minutes came to 
 the Yarkand river. We forded it barely stirrup-deep in 
 two wide streams, and in fifteen minutes more alighted 
 at the Yangichak rest-house, twelve miles. 
 
 Next day we marched to Yakshamba Bazar, eighteen 
 miles. The route went S.W. to S.S.W. over the cul- 
 tivated meadow tract of lykisu Arasi or "Mesopotamia" 
 (between the rivers Zarafshan and Tiznaf) to Posgam, 
 where we alighted for breakfast under the shade of 
 some fine poplars, from the lofty boughs of which 
 
390 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 issued the note of the cuckoo, and the call of the golden 
 oriole. 
 
 From this we turned due south, and at six miles came 
 to the staging bungalow, where we alighted. The country 
 is remarkably well wooded, and presents a rich cham- 
 paign freely irrigated by canals. The corn was just 
 coming into ear, and the peasant was seen scattering the 
 seed for the cotton crop. The common English field 
 flowers and weeds abounded everywhere, and the path 
 was overgrown with wild liquorice and blue iris. 
 
 Our next stage was Karghalik, sixteen miles, through 
 a similar tract, crossing the river Tiznaf at the second 
 mile out. Here we were accommodated in the rest-house 
 which we occupied on our up journey. On the march, 
 for the first time since our arrival in the country, we 
 saw large flocks of sheep and goats at graze, and also 
 some small herds of cattle. 
 
 At Karghalik we struck off the road by which we came 
 last year for another to the right, and going due south 
 camped at Beshtarik or "Five Poplars," twenty miles. 
 In forty-five minutes we cleared cultivation, and entered 
 on a wide gravelly and stony waste sloping to a ridge of 
 sand-hills that run across the plain west and east. In 
 one hour more we entered a gap in this ridge, and fol- 
 lowed a gully, from half a mile to a mile broad between 
 steep banks of conglomerate and shingle, up to our stage, 
 where we camped under the shade of the clump of trees 
 which gives it its name. A cold wind blew against us 
 from the mountains to the south, and during the day 
 raised clouds of dust about us. There are a few huts 
 here, and some small patches of cultivation, but all 
 around is desert waste and sand. 
 
 At this place we were glad to see the faces of two of 
 our old Bhot coolies. They had just come in with a 
 
THE KOKYAR ROUTE. 391 
 
 letter for Captain Chapman, from Mr Johnson at Nubra, 
 detailing the arrangements he had made for our passage 
 of the Caracoram and Saser. They were very complete, 
 and amongst others, included the collection of fifteen 
 hundred coolies in Nubra, for the service of our camp. 
 
 Yolaric, twelve miles, w^as our next stage, route south. 
 A few minutes' ride took us out of the Beshtarik gully 
 on to a wide, wind-swept, pebbly desert crossed by a 
 ridge of sand-hills to our right and front. We passed 
 between them, and camped on the " Eoad rivulet " out- 
 side the village of the little settlement of that name. 
 Yolaric consists of a collection of about twenty houses 
 clustered together, and as many scattered farmsteads to 
 the eastward in the direction of Ushac Bash, which is 
 not visible from here, owing to the intervening banks 
 and ridges of ground. A violent dust storm blew all 
 the afternoon, and obscured even the orchards and trees 
 around our camp. 
 
 Next day we marched to Kokyar, twelve miles. Koute 
 west, across a sandy ridge two miles off, and then up the 
 gully of the Kokyar river, which flows in a narrow wind- 
 ing valley from south to north, between high ridges of 
 sand and gravel, to the town itself which is the capital 
 of this district. 
 
 It is a flourishing village of about a hundred houses 
 crowded together under the shade of some large trees, 
 and its suburbs extend as farmsteads up and down the 
 river course for several miles. We found here numbers of 
 yellow-hammers in the fields of corn, and a blue- throated 
 warbler in the bushes along our route. 
 
 On the top of the ridge at the outset of this march we 
 passed a shrine half buried in loose sand. As we ap- 
 proached it all our attendants dismounted, and, saying a 
 prayer, led their horses past the hallowed spot. It is the 
 
392 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 first time we have seen such veneration amongst this 
 people. The shrine is called Sichcanluc Mazar or " The 
 Mouse Shrine," and marks the spot where Calich Burhan, 
 a son of Hazrat Afac, died in his flight towards India, as 
 our guides informed us. In connection with the punc- 
 tual discharge of their devoirs at the grave of the great 
 saint's son, one of the party related to us an incident in 
 proof of the sanctity of the spot, if it was not intended 
 also as a rebuke to those of us who rode past without 
 according to the memory of the martyr that reverence 
 which it was, in this country at all events, held en- 
 titled to. 
 
 He said that there was formerly an irreverent Beg of 
 this place (Kokyar) who neglected to dismount at the 
 hallowed spot, and as he rode by a crow hovering over- 
 head made a strike, and pecked his horse in the eye. 
 The animal plunged, and reared with the agony of the 
 wound till it threw the Beg, who, falling on his face upon 
 the sand, knocked out his front teeth by'the concussion, 
 and bled to death there and then. The circumstance is 
 notorious in the country, and nobody ever thinks of riding 
 past Sichcdnluc Mazar without dismounting at the shrine, 
 and repeating a blessing on the saint and asking his 
 protection on the road. 
 
 Next morning, the 24th May, we passed beyond the 
 limit of the settled habitations, and entered the hills. The 
 route goes mostly south, but turns from side to side to- 
 wards south-east and south-west alternately. On leav- 
 ing camp we crossed the muddy little stream of Kokyar 
 on a firm pebbly bottom, and at three miles, clearing its 
 cultivation, entered on a sandy and gravelly plain limited 
 in extent by ridges of some height. We went across it 
 to the south, and at another three miles again crossed 
 the stream at Posar, which is a cluster of eight or ten 
 
THE WHITE MOSQUE." 393 
 
 huts surrounded by small patches of cultivation, and 
 shaded by some large poplar trees. 
 
 At this spot we left habitation and cultivation behind 
 us, and entering the hills followed up the course of a 
 long, winding, and narrow gully, and at twenty-four 
 miles from Kokyar camped on an open flat above the 
 dry watercourse which here runs between high banks of 
 clay and shingle. The stage is called Ac Masjid, " the 
 white mosque," and is a mere camp ground at the foot 
 of the Topa Dawa*n, and apparently is not much used. 
 
 The hills on either side are of brown shale resting on 
 limestone and sandstone, both of which here and there 
 present outcrops between beds of shingle. The rocks are 
 stratified, run from west to east, and dip suddenly to the 
 north at an angle of from 70 to 80. Vegetation is very 
 scanty. The arnebia or " Prophet Flower," and the 
 orobanche were found growing along the roadside on 
 the gravel path and sandy banks on either hand. The 
 artemisia and peganum covered the surface on the level 
 tracts, and the thorny astragalus, and a kind of sedum 
 formed little brakes here and there in the hollows. 
 
 The wheatear and a large rose-coloured finch fluttered 
 about from stone to stone, whilst the chough sailed 
 amongst the cliffs uttering his loud shrill cry ; and the 
 magpie flew backwards and forwards seeking a hiding 
 place from the strange intruders on the privacy of his 
 solitude. 
 
 The rise throughout the last half of the march is very 
 appreciable, though nowhere sudden. The elevation of this 
 place is about 8500 feet. It is a dreary spot on the verge 
 of the sandy plain and its populous oases on one side, and 
 the mountain waste and its desolate plateaux on the other. 
 Our next stage was Chighlic, twelve miles. We left 
 camp at 4.5 A.M., and reached the crest of Topa Dawa"n 
 
394 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 or "The Earthy Pass" at 5.35 A.M. The road wound 
 between south-east and south-west up a narrowing sulcus, 
 and then rose by a steep ascent to the top of the pass. The 
 path was deep in dust, and the slopes of the hills were of 
 loose dry earth covered with tufts of artemisia and blue 
 iris ; whilst in their hollows was a thin and stunted brush- 
 wood of the astragalus, rose, and honeysuckle, and a 
 number of little flowering plants upon their banks. 
 
 At about half way up we saw, through the gap of one 
 of the collateral drainage gullies, a herd of six wild yak 
 or cutas (Bos grunniens) at graze on the upper slope of 
 a hill about a mile to our left. They appeared to be of 
 huge size, and much more shaggy than their domesticated 
 fellows. Two of them were crouched on the hill slope, 
 and looked like great black rocks. All were of a dark 
 colour, and one of enormous size probably the bull of 
 the herd stood staring at us as we went by. 
 
 The elevation of the pass is about 10,200 feet, and its 
 slopes are occupied by colonies of the marmot. The 
 descent on the other side is at first south-west down a 
 steep zigzag path, several inches deep in loose dry earth, 
 on to an outcrop of white marble and slate rocks. 
 
 Here the road becomes narrow and difficult, and is 
 much obstructed by fragments of rock. Below them it 
 passes through a gap in which is a small spring. In its 
 little pool I found some thread worms of a black colour, 
 and two or three inches long. 
 
 Beyond this the road becomes easy, and descends gra- 
 dually down a widening gully into the bed of the Tiznaf 
 river. We reached it at 7 A.M., and turning due south up 
 its course, in ten minutes arrived on our camp ground. It 
 is on the beach under a ledge of green trap rock, and is 
 shaded by a grove of poplar and willow trees. The 
 shingly bed of the river occupies the whole of the narrow 
 
MARCH UP THE RIVER T2ZNAF. 395 
 
 valley here, except this little flat, which is grown over 
 with coarse reeds of the kind called chigh (whence the 
 name of the spot), and supports a small patch of brush- 
 wood of rose, tamarisk, honeysuckle, &c. 
 
 We here found a party of Yarkandis who had been sent 
 out by the Dadkhwah in charge of the supplies laid 
 down on this route for our camp ; and a similar party of 
 five or six of their fellows met us at each stage in ad- 
 vance up to the frontier. 
 
 The elevation of this place is about 8250 feet. The 
 weather was changeable and chilly, and for two hours 
 after noon thunder showers fell on our camp. 
 
 We did not march till 7 A.M. next morning, in order 
 to allow the river flood to subside somewhat. It is 
 caused at this season by the melting of the snows and 
 glaciers of the Toraghil range, and sets in here daily 
 at about sunset. It goes on increasing during the night 
 till daylight, and then gradually subsides till the next 
 flood comes down at sunset. 
 
 Our route wound from S.S.E. to S., and led up the river 
 to Khoja Mazar, 18 miles. We forded the stream from 
 side to side twenty-four times en route. The water was 
 running swiftly girth-deep, and the passage was difficult 
 owing to the great boulders in the way. The hills on 
 each side are bare and wild, and consist of lofty granite 
 and serpentine masses, which are here and there overlaid 
 by hills of shale. They slope steeply to the river, along 
 whose course, now on one side and then on the other, is 
 a succession of small flats covered with a more or less 
 thick brushwood of buckthorn, myricaria, tamarisk, rose, 
 willow, fig, &c., with an abundant growth of coarse 
 grasses. 
 
 At about three miles below camp we crossed a rapid 
 noisy torrent coming down from the hills to the west. 
 
396 . KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 In its valley there is, we were told, a copper mine which 
 was worked in the time of the Chinese. On the way up 
 to this tributary stream, which is called Kughda Su, we 
 passed a number of abandoned and decayed smelting 
 furnaces on the roadside. 
 
 Mazar Khoja is a camp ground on a shelving bank 
 overlooked by a bare hill, at the foot of which stands a 
 solitary shrine dedicated to the memory of a demented 
 Khoja who perished here nobody could tell us when, or 
 how, or wherefore. His name, our guide informed us, 
 was Sultan Shekh Hisamuddin, surnamed Diwana or 
 " The Demented." He died on some converting expedi- 
 tion against the infidels of this country whilst making 
 his way up the Sugatlik Jilga, and the exact spot is, so 
 our authority stated, marked by a stone pillar the size of 
 a man, at two task, or ten miles, up the glen. Its body 
 is black, but the head is white like a turban, and it is 
 propped up in a pile of stones resembling melons. 
 His dying injunctions to his servants were, to load his 
 body on a camel, and, setting its head homewards, to 
 bury him at the spot on which the brute first rested. 
 The camel sat down on the spot where the shrine marks 
 his grave. If it serves no other purpose, it at least 
 gives the locality a name. Next day we marched to 
 Duba, 6 miles, and halted a day, the 28th May. We 
 crossed the river, and followed up its right bank due 
 south, and, crossing a tributary torrent from the east, 
 camped on a turfy flat in the angle of junction between 
 the two, where the banks are fringed with a belt of willow 
 trees. The elevation here is about 10,000 feet. 
 
 The stream from the east is called Sugat Jilga, and 
 that from the south Toraghil Jilga. When we arrived 
 in camp, at a little after 8 A.M., the streams were rapidly 
 subsiding, and just before the flood came down one could 
 
THE PAKHPU HIGHLANDERS. 397 
 
 cross dry shod stepping from stone to stone. At 4 P.M., 
 however, the water came down with a sudden rush and 
 tumultuous roar, and in a few minutes filled the channel 
 from bank to bank with a muddy torrent of great force. 
 .Some of our party happened to be on the opposite bank 
 at the time, and they had to spend the night there 
 round their camp fires, with such supper as we could sling 
 across to them in little bundles weighted with a stone. 
 
 Duba is a favourite pasture-ground of the people of 
 this country, who are called Pakhpu or Papii. They are 
 a tall, very fair, and handsome race of a purely Aryan 
 physiognomy, to judge from the few of their men who 
 were here in attendance on our camp. They were very 
 poorly clad, and carried matchlocks the first armed 
 men, other than government servants, we have met in 
 the country nevertheless they appeared to be very 
 timid and subdued, and were very cautious in giving 
 any information regarding themselves ; and, as I thought, 
 tried to mislead on a hint from one of our Yarkand 
 attendants who on previous occasions had exercised his 
 authority to such purpose. On the approach of our 
 party they had removed their cattle and families into 
 the glens off our route, and consequently we saw but 
 little of them. They spoke Turki to our people, but I 
 heard two of them speaking together in quite a different 
 language. In the time of the Chinese there were fifty 
 families who used to camp here, but now their number 
 is reduced to fifteen or twenty. 
 
 They are spread through the vallies and glens of the 
 district called Khalistan, which extends from the Topa 
 Dawdn to the Toraghil glacier, and embraces within its 
 limits the head waters of the Tiznaf, and the upper 
 courses of the streams that form the Yarkand river. 
 Their chief town is called Chukchii, and is said to be two 
 
398 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 days' journey west of Chiglilik. It contains, according 
 to one account I received, fifty houses, and according to 
 another nearly two hundred. 
 
 The Pakhpu are hereditary enemies of their neighbours 
 to the west the Kunjud people and, for centuries, 
 have been habitually raided by them, and their captives 
 sold into slavery in Wakhan and Badakhshan. Since 
 the establishment of the Amir's rule, however, they have 
 enjoyed security from this source of loss. 
 
 They are professedly musalmans of the ShicC sect like 
 the Wakhi and Badakhshi, but they shave the head like 
 the people of the plain. They live by tending cattle, and 
 cultivating small patches of corn in the lower valleys. 
 They denounce the Kunjud people as infidels, and 
 describe them as a very powerful, handsome, and fair 
 skinned people who wear long ringlets, and speak a 
 language which is intelligible to the Wakhis, but not 
 to themselves. Kunjud is said to be fourteen days' 
 journey west of this, and beyond a branch of the Yar- 
 kand river which flows through a valley to the south- 
 west of Toraghil glacier. 
 
 From Duba we marched to Gurunj Caldi, nine miles. 
 Eoute south to south-east up the course of the Tiznaf 
 river which we crossed at starting, and three times more 
 en route, as well as two tributaries from the west. The 
 river bed is obstructed by large boulders of granite trap 
 which render the fords difficult. In winter the passage 
 is made over the ice, and with more ease. 
 
 At Gurunj Caldi, which means " Eice left behind " 
 in allusion to some local tradition of a party of mer- 
 chants being put to flight by the sudden rush of the 
 river flood, which necessitated the abandoning of the 
 rice in process of preparation for the evening meal 
 we camped on a turfy slope on which were a number of 
 
PERIODICAL FLOODS. 399 
 
 marmot burrows, and some boggy springs. Its eleva- 
 tion is about 11,900 feet. On the way up we found 
 rhubarb sprouting at the foot of some schistose banks, 
 but vegetation generally, even along the river course, 
 is very scanty. 
 
 The flood here came down at 2 P.M. a violent tor- 
 rent of liquid mud to all appearance. 
 
 Our next stage was Chiragh Saldi, " The lamp blew 
 out " in reference to the winds of the locality four- 
 teen miles. Route south-east up the course of the 
 river, which here flows in a wide, shingly bed deep 
 down to the left of the road. At four miles the river 
 forks. One stream comes from the south-east, the other 
 from the south-west. The former comes from the water- 
 shed of the Toghrasu tributary of the Caracash which we 
 crossed on our upward journey. 
 
 We followed the course of the latter by a path high 
 up its bank (where it flows in a narrow, rocky gully, the 
 slopes of which are covered with granite boulders), and 
 then crossing some moraine banks and bits of turf came 
 to a wider and shingly channel, from which the moun- 
 tains slope away in vast banks of granite and schist. 
 
 At about ten miles we passed Kirghiz Tarn, which is 
 a ruined outpost, originally erected here to protect the 
 route against the Kunjud robbers. At this spot the 
 river bends round a spur (across which there is a path 
 when the channel is impassable) to the right ; and 
 beyond it we entered a wider channel, which we found 
 was covered with a sheet of hard snow, under ledges 
 of which the river flowed in four or five streams. 
 
 Our road went along the surface of this snow, now 
 fast breaking up, and brought us to our camp in the 
 angle of junction between two branches of the river. 
 That to the south comes from Yangi Da wan, and that 
 
400 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 to the south-west from Toraghil glacier. The elevation 
 here is about 14,200 feet. Our camp was pitched on a 
 pebbly surface in the midst of a thin jungle of tamarisk 
 and hololachne. 
 
 Culan Uldi, " The wild horse died," twelve miles, was 
 our next stage. Koute south-south-east to south-east 
 up a winding and narrowing gully to the Yangi Dawan 
 or " New Pass." At the foot of the rise, which is short 
 and steep over clay and shingle, but not difficult, there 
 is a branch gully leading up to a snowy ridge close by 
 to the west. On both sides of the pass we found a num- 
 ber of snow buntings and rose finches, searching about 
 for what they could pick on the path. We reached the 
 crest of the pass in fifty minutes from camp. Its eleva- 
 tion is about 15,800 feet, and its summit presents a 
 wide view to the north-west, in which direction are seen 
 some high snowy masses. In other directions the dis- 
 tant view is obstructed by high intervening ridges in 
 the vicinity. The descent is easy for the first three 
 miles, or less, down an earthy and stony gully. It 
 then drops suddenly into a deep and narrow gorge, 
 which we found blocked by a small glacier in process 
 of dissolution. Its passage was by a very steep and 
 slippery path, and very difficult now across the ice, 
 then along a ledge of rock with barely footing for the 
 horse, and anon through little streams flowing in grooves 
 on the surface of the melting ice. Here and there great 
 fissures ran across the ice, and presented obstructions 
 which occasioned some delay in the passage. The rocks 
 in some parts were no more than twenty feet apart 
 across the ice, and towered aloft in steep cliffs whose 
 shade threw a gloom upon the passage below. We 
 found five recently dead horses on the ice, and noticed 
 that rump steaks had been cut out of one of them. 
 
PASSAGE OF YA.NGI DA WAN. 401 
 
 And we passed six or seven others standing on little 
 ledges under the rock, unable to move backward or for- 
 ward ; poor creatures abandoned to die, for they were 
 stripped of clothing and halter, and presented raw 
 withers and famished barrels. They were some of the 
 cattle employed to lay down the provisions for our camp. 
 
 Below this mass of ice, which we were told would 
 entirely disappear in another month, though it yet fills 
 the gorge for a length of nearly two miles, we entered on 
 a wide and flat shingle bed which slopes gently between 
 perpendicular banks of conglomerate. We went down 
 it for a couple of miles, and emerged into the valley of 
 the Yarkand river, and crossing the stream went east up 
 its course for a mile, and then camped in a patch of 
 tamarisk jungle. 
 
 The river bed here seems nearly level, is fully half 
 a mile wide, and its low banks slope away in long sweeps 
 up to the hills on each side. The elevation here is about 
 12,650 feet. 
 
 Next day, 1st June, we marched up the river to Kuk 
 At Aghzi, " The mouth of the blue horse," fifteen miles. 
 Here and there we went across great fields of hard snow, 
 and through long stretches of tamarisk, myricaria, and 
 hololachne jungle, and forded the stream from side to 
 side several times en route. 
 
 The hills on either side are schists and slates, of con- 
 siderable height, and perfectly bare. At about half way 
 we crossed a tributary torrent from the south-west, and 
 observed a glacier at the top of its gully. Further on, 
 on the opposite side of the river, we crossed a dry gully 
 full of granite boulders, apparently from a high glacier- 
 topped mountain to the north-east. The ascent in this 
 march is very gradual, and barely perceptible. The ele- 
 vation of the camp stage is about 12,870 feet. On the 
 
 2c 
 
402 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 ground we found the carcase of a wild horse which had 
 evidently only recently died, if one were to judge merely 
 from its fresh state, and the marks it bore of having 
 been eaten by wild animals. I counted its vertebrse, 
 and found seven cervical, eighteen dorsal, and five lum- 
 bar ; the same number as in the skeleton of a baggage 
 horse which, a few days earlier, I examined on the Topa 
 Dawa"n. During the afternoon a live one, probably its 
 companion, created some excitement in camp by gallop- 
 ing right through it. 
 
 Weather cloudy and gusty, with rain at sunset, and 
 snow during the night. Our next two stages were 
 Kashmir Jilga, twenty-six miles, and Khapalang, twelve 
 miles, up the river course. At two miles from Kuk 
 At Aghzi we passed the ruins of an outpost fort, situated 
 at the mouth of a glen which leads over a ridge to the 
 east down to Shahidulla a journey of two days. Beyond 
 it, turning south, we went through a long stretch of 
 tamarisk brushwood and grass in the river bed. It is 
 called Kirghiz Jangal, and is a favourite summer resort 
 of those nomads. A thunderstorm with hail passed over 
 camp at Kashmir Jilga. 
 
 At Khapalang we camped in the angle of junction of 
 two branches of the river, in a patch of jungle which 
 extends several miles up and down the valley. At this 
 place next morning, the 4th June, we parted from our 
 Yarkand companions, Yuzbashi Tash Khoja, and the 
 Beg of Kokyar, and their small following. Their good 
 offices had been of the greatest service to us, and were 
 received with many thanks, and some substantial keep- 
 sakes by way of acknowledgments of their attentions ; 
 and they were at the same time charged with kind mes- 
 sages to the Dadkhwah for the supplies laid down so 
 satisfactorily for us. They then went back to render 
 
MOUNTAINS SPREAD INTO PLATEAUX. 403 
 
 to Colonel Gordon's party, following in our route, the 
 same good offices they had performed for us, and we 
 proceeded on our way up the course of the river which 
 comes down from the watershed of Caracoram. At Actagh, 
 twenty miles, we joined our former route, and met our 
 old friends the Bhots, and received their salutations of 
 " Jo! Jo!" with that satisfaction which the feeling of 
 returning to tried friends produces. We found they 
 had ample supplies for us, and had brought over about 
 a hundred ponies for the service of the camp. At about 
 five miles out of camp, crossing the river three times on 
 the way, we came to a sheet of hard snow which filled its 
 bed for the rest of the march, up to within a few hundred 
 yards below our camp at Actagh, where it ceased. Our 
 road led over its surface from side to side, or through tor- 
 tuous fissures through its thick stratum as it passed from 
 bank to bank. In some parts the snow was twelve or 
 fourteen feet thick, and the sides of its fissures pre- 
 sented a greenish icy surface fast melting away into the 
 several streams of the river flowing beneath it. 
 
 As we went on over its surface we entered on a scene 
 quite different to anything we had seen before, and unique 
 of its kind. The low vertical banks of the river bed 
 slope away in wide sweeps of bare shale up to low ranges 
 on which, between the snow patches still adhering to 
 their broad sides, are seen the varied shades of the clays 
 and shales composing them. The light earth stands out 
 amidst the black, and the yellow mottles the red, and 
 their wide surface rolls away into low ridges and banks 
 against the sky, at intervals projecting into it some 
 snowy cones, which seem to struggle up from below to 
 show themselves here on the top of the world. Not a blade 
 of vegetation is anywhere to bq seen, and in the wide 
 waste of departing snow and reappearing soil not the 
 
404 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 least remarkable feature of the scene is its drainage 
 system. 
 
 Great, shallow, shingly water-runs mark the ground 
 on either hand with wedge-shaped gullies whose points 
 penetrate the hills, and whose broad bases stud the 
 river course, spreading it out as it were over the whole 
 face of the country, whilst themselves merge into it by 
 slopes that are barely perceptible. The long line of ridge 
 in front of our route looks, seen as it is here against the 
 sky, like the edge of a platform raised above the world ; 
 and the increasing effects of a rarefied atmosphere tell 
 by their inconveniences that we are really mounting 
 beyond its ordinary levels. 
 
 From Actagh we marched to Brangtsa at the foot of 
 the rise to the Caracoram pass, and crossing it next day 
 camped at Daulat Beg Uldi. About the pass there was 
 a good deal of snow in the process of thaw, and the soft 
 soil on either side was saturated with its water. Off the 
 beaten track, and in parts on it, our cattle sunk to the 
 knees in its bogs, and throughout the march laboured 
 over the heavy soil, whose mixed shingle and clay was 
 as soft as a ploughed field after a fall of rain, and con- 
 siderably deeper in mire. 
 
 From Daulat Beg Uldi, leaving the Cumdan route, 
 now impracticable owing to its floods, on the right, we 
 went south-east to south across the Dipsang plateau to- 
 wards the Burtsi camp ground, 26 miles distant. 
 
 The plateau rises -up in front of our position by a long 
 and wide sweep of the ground, and we ascended to it 
 over a long upland after crossing a boggy ravine at a 
 mile and a half out from camp. It drains the eastern 
 part of the Daulat Beg plateau into the stream formed 
 by the rivulets from the heights on and about its western 
 part at the Caracoram pass. We were camped on one of 
 
VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE WORLD. 405 
 
 these below the pass, and which lower down joins the 
 Shayok at Gyapthang. After crossing this ravine we 
 went up the course of a frozen stream draining into it, 
 and rising on to the Dipsang plateau, found ourselves on 
 the veritable top of the world. All around appeared 
 mountain ranges, none of which are less than twenty thou- 
 sand feet high, whilst to the west rose two lofty peaks of 
 much greater height ; yet in the distance they seemed 
 below us, for the land around sloped away down on all 
 sides. In whichever direction we looked the sky ap- 
 peared below us, and the world sunk down out of view. 
 , In fact we felt as if we had risen above the world, and 
 were now descending to it in front of us. -The Caracoram 
 left behind us appeared like a mere crest on the undu- 
 lating surface of the country, and the mountain ranges 
 in front, and on each side seemed to struggle up from 
 below to reach our level. 
 
 It was an extraordinary scene, and one not to be easily 
 effaced from the memory, impressed there as it is with 
 the recollections of its utter desolation and solitude, and 
 the hardships of its inhospitable air. 
 
 It was on the passage of this plateau, whose elevation 
 is about 17,500 feet above the sea, that our lamented 
 and talented comrade, Dr Stoliczka, suffered that de- 
 rangement of the vital functions which terminated in his 
 death at Murgi, two stages further on. 
 
 The Dipsang plateau is about eight miles across from 
 north to south, and presents an undulating surface, the 
 soil of which is a spongy saline charged mixture of clay 
 and gravel. When we crossed there was very little snow 
 left, and the path was strewed with the bones and 
 skeletons of dead cattle, though in no greater abundance 
 here than in many other parts of the route. A solitary 
 antelope crossed our path on the rise up to the plateau, 
 
406 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 and in its passage we saw some small flocks of the 
 Siberian grouse ( syrrhaptes ) , of which I shot some speci- 
 mens the day before on our way across the Caracoram. 
 
 The descent from the plateau is down a steep gully 
 into a deep and tortuous chasm, which is overhung by 
 high cliffs of red clay, and conglomerate. The passage 
 is very steep and narrow, and goes through the midst 
 of a turbid torrent which fills the channel, and is as red 
 as the ground it passes over. In six minutes we passed 
 out of this gap, and with its stream entered into a 
 widening river bed which opens into a broader channel 
 coming down from the north-west. We entered the 
 latter at a camp ground called Kizil Langar, about six 
 miles from the plateau. 
 
 The hills on each side are very lofty, and present long 
 slopes of crumbling debris, which now and then are set 
 in motion downwards by stone avalanches from above. 
 At Kizil Langar we found the river channel strewed with 
 great stones which had recently rolled down from the 
 hill tops, but fortunately none were falling at the time 
 of our passage. 
 
 Beyond this we went south-east down the course of a 
 wide-spread stream, crossing it repeatedly on a loose 
 pebbly bed, and at ten miles on camped at Burtsi on a 
 ledge above the river bank. The elevation here is about 
 15,660 feet. On the way down one of our Bhot coolies 
 lost his footing whilst crossing the stream below Kizil 
 Langar, and was drowned, and carried away by the flood 
 which overwhelmed him in its passage. 
 
 Next day we marched to Murgi, twelve miles. Below 
 camp, just opposite a glacier-topped hill, the route turns 
 sharp from south to south-west and west down a very 
 rough and winding defile. The road is very difficult, 
 and crosses the river repeatedly, and avoids narrows, and 
 
DIFFICULT BIT OF ROAD. 407 
 
 rapids, and rocks by steep paths, but little better than 
 mere goat tracks, which run across along the face of the 
 slopes of the debris that cover the projecting bluffs now 
 on one side then on the other of the torrent tumbling 
 down between them. 
 
 The hills are of quartzose limestone, similar to those 
 at Cumdan, and present many caverns on their upper 
 slopes ; whilst the hollows of their spurs are occupied by 
 small glaciers. For the last five or six miles of the route 
 the river is a foaming torrent, and dashes noisily over 
 huge rocks which fill the dark, deep, and narrow pas- 
 sage through which its waters buffet their way. It is 
 only passable at one or two places, and always with diffi- 
 culty, at this season owing to floods, and in winter owing 
 to snows. 
 
 At Murgi, the elevation of which is about 14,800 
 feet, it receives another gully from the west (in which 
 we camped), just below where it passes through a deep 
 cleft in the hills ; and at that spot the road goes over the 
 high terraced flat which projects into the angle of their 
 junction. On it are the remains of a breastwork of con- 
 siderable strength originally. It runs up and down and 
 across the hill slope, and ends at the edge of a cliff which 
 drops straight to the river. It was built, as was a 
 similar one at Tutyalac, some four hundred years ago by 
 the Bhot Kahlon, or "governor," of Nubra, who was, so 
 we were informed, called Suttim, as a bar to the progress 
 of Mirza Ababakar in his attempts to invade Tibat. But 
 they were both forced, and demolished some half century 
 later by his successor the Sultan Sa'ld. 
 
 We found the weather at Murgi very bleak and cold, 
 and next day, the 9th June, set out for the Saser 
 Brangtsa, ten miles, in a heavy fall of snow. We halted 
 there a day, weather-bound by what proved to be a very 
 
4 o8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 opportune fall of snow. For despite its discomforts and 
 difficulties, it rendered the pass ahead safer of passage 
 than it would have been under the more agreeable sun- 
 shine, with its danger-working action on the glaciers. 
 
 Our route led up the gully to the west, and at two miles 
 passed the Chongtash or " Big Stone " camp ground, 
 which is a turfy flat around a great erratic block of stone 
 that rests on the saddle-shaped watershed of the pass. 
 At five miles beyond it we descended a steep bank into 
 a deep gully full of sheet snow, and, crossing it, rose by 
 a steep climb up to a path high up on its other side, and 
 then, turning south, followed it down to its junction with 
 the river Shayok a mile or so below the Brangtsa ford. 
 
 Here we were met by Mr W. H. Johnson, who had 
 prepared a couple of boats to take us across the river 
 in case its flood were otherwise impassable, and was now 
 waiting our arrival with a small army of Bhot coolies, 
 and yaks, and horses to help us through the Saser. 
 Amongst the other signs of our welcome back to British 
 territory were supplies of champagne, sherry, and other 
 liquors, with tins of Europe delicacies of sorts, &c., which 
 the Maharaja's kindly forethought had sent forward to 
 revive us after the hardships of the journey across the 
 passes. 
 
 We found that the cold weather which had just set in 
 had materially diminished the flood of the river, and our 
 camp, in consequence, made its passage with comparative 
 ease, though an unfortunate coolie was, like his comrade 
 above Burtsi, carried away and drowned in its current. 
 
 From this point we marched along our former route 
 by the Saser pass and Tutyalac to the inhabited valley of 
 Nubra. We entered it at Changlung, which now in the 
 fresh verdure of spring shone in its belt of sand and 
 rocks like an emerald set in silver. We passed over the 
 
RETURN TO CIVILISATION. 409 
 
 glaciers of Saser in the midst of a snow storm, and saw 
 nothing of its glorious and majestic scenery, of which 
 our former passage had left such vivid recollections. 
 Instead of its noisy torrents, and crushing avalanches 
 we experienced only the less hazardous difficulties of snow 
 drifts and cold winds. 
 
 At Changlung, with the sight of the peopled world 
 before us, we shook off the memories of the desert pla- 
 teaux and all their asperities, and in the charming vallies 
 of the Nubra and the Shay ok lived again amongst friends, 
 and found freedom and confidence in place of what we 
 had left behind us. From Changlung we marched by 
 the stages of Panamik and Tagar to Satti through a 
 prosperous and fertile valley in the full radiance of 
 spring foliage. At Satti we diverged from our original 
 route, and, continuing up the course of the Shayok for 
 twelve miles more, turned out of its bed to the right, 
 and, rising round a high hill, at another seven miles 
 camped at Diggar, an inconsiderable village on an elevated 
 terrace high up in the mountains, and through the 
 midst of which flows a brisk and clear mountain torrent. 
 Its elevation is about 12,900 feet, and the change affected 
 several of our party severely, and in some produced 
 alarming symptoms of prostration. It is a very wild 
 spot, surrounded on three sides by lofty hills, and look- 
 ing down on the other to the low spurs which conceal 
 the Shayok valley from view. 
 
 Several of our cattle sickened here, and three died 
 from eating the wild herbs growing along the roadsides. 
 Amongst them I noticed the hyosciamus was very 
 abundant. 
 
 At this place, near the top of the village, there is a 
 gigantic figure of Chamba, similar to the one we passed 
 on the march from Shargol to Kharbo. It is carved on 
 
410 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 the east face of a large isolated block of granite, and in 
 front of it are the decayed walls of a hut, which had 
 been built evidently to conceal the figure from the eyes 
 of a destroying enemy. 
 
 Next day, the 17th June, we marched to Leh, twenty- 
 four miles. We left the village by a path that wound 
 amongst a rough waste strewed all over with large gra- 
 nite boulders, and rose on to a moorland between high 
 hills of bare rock. Picking a way over this, amongst 
 peat bogs and masses of broken granite, we at six miles 
 came to some Polu huts at the foot of a long gully which 
 slopes up to the pass. The ground was covered with snow, 
 and dangerous to cattle off the path owing to the rough 
 stones hidden under its soft covering. At six miles more 
 we arrived at the crest of the pass, 17,600 feet high, 
 and, there dismounting, descended on foot to some Polu 
 huts on the other side by a very steep and zigzag path. 
 Beyond this we followed the glen down to the Sabbii 
 village, and then, turning west across a sandy slope, 
 passed through a gap in a ridge of granite into the basin 
 of Leh. And then the route went north up to the town 
 at the top of the slope. 
 
 At two or three miles out we were met by Captain 
 Molloy, the British Joint Commissioner at Leh, and a 
 number of the merchants of the place, and with their 
 welcome greetings as the first symptoms of the civilisa- 
 tion, liberty, and order that we were returning to, we 
 went on through the little town to our camp in the 
 Eesidency compound beyond. 
 
 At the entrance to the bazar the envoy was received 
 by a military guard, and a salute of fifteen guns was 
 fired from the fort away to the left, whilst the house- 
 tops and the balconies along our route were crowded 
 with the Tatar residents of the place, bowing their wel- 
 
RECEPTION AT LEH. 411 
 
 come to the usual tune of " Jo, Jo," with that look of 
 good-nature for which they are noted. 
 
 "We felt we had now left all difficulties behind us, 
 and had once more returned to security, freedom, 
 and justice. And none appreciated the change more 
 thoroughly than our native camp followers, who were 
 again at the threshold of their own homes, and more 
 than ever grateful that their lot was not cast under the 
 despot's rule. 
 
 For myself, as we n eared the end of our journey, I 
 viewed the change under a different aspect, and my 
 mind ran over the countries beyond on this side of our 
 Indian possessions, and over those beyond on their 
 western side, and, comparing their past history, and pre- 
 sent conditions, with the progressing course of events, 
 very speedily perceived, and gave form to the indica- 
 tions of the coming future. It has been my lot to 
 travel over the countries beyond the western frontier of 
 our Indian Empire, and I have now seen a little of 
 those beyond its northern frontier, and, though still 
 lamentably so, I am not altogether ignorant of the 
 region which lies beyond our north-west frontier and 
 between those two points, for I have enjoyed the ad- 
 vantages of a position on that part of the frontier which 
 offered least obstacles to its study. And I can now, 
 from personal observation, and many years of attention 
 to the subject, very easily understand how it is that 
 every invasion of India has been from the west, whether 
 the conqueror came originally from that direction or 
 from the north. And I believe that, had the country 
 beyond our western frontier been similar to that beyond 
 its northern, history would never have had to chronicle 
 any one of those invasions, which from the time of 
 Alexander to that of Nadir, form the great epochs 
 
4 i2 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 in the varied annals of India. Nay, I believe that, 
 had the geography been reversed, that is, had the 
 western frontier been like the northern, and the northern 
 like the western, then all those invasions would have 
 been recorded as following the northern, and not the 
 western route. 
 
 The Musalmans of India class themselves under the 
 four great ethnic divisions of Arab, Pathan, Mughal, 
 and Shekh. This last comprises all the indigenous 
 tribes converted to Islam, and the others represent the 
 different conquering nations of India. They may be 
 likened to the Norman, Dane, and Saxon of our own 
 history, the Gael being represented by the Shekh. Not- 
 withstanding their very widely different seats, these 
 conquering nations all entered India by the same route. 
 In fact, all the invasions of India, of which we have any 
 knowledge prior to the time of Nadir, followed the 
 same route by the Kabul passes, and owed their success 
 to the co-operation of the highlanders in that direction, 
 who always sided with the invader, because their country 
 was open to assault from that quarter; and because, 
 whilst resistance was hopeless, co-operation with the 
 assailant promised a glorious career of success on the 
 wide field of India's rich domain. This result, however, 
 which has been so often proved by the facts of history, 
 is not possible on the northern frontier, because the 
 circumstances are reversed, and the conditions are in- 
 compatible in that direction. The highlanders in that 
 direction are open to assault from the south, but they 
 are protected against the north by the nature of the 
 country which forms their barrier in that direction. 
 
 Of the prohibitive nature of this natural barrier we 
 have abundant proof in the mere fact of its neglect as a 
 trade route, or even as the route for direct communica- 
 
REFLECTIONS AND COMPARISONS. 413 
 
 tion with the home country during the flourishing period 
 of the Mughal Empire in India. 
 
 Even the Afghans, those hardy and enterprising 
 warrior-merchants, who for successive centuries have 
 supplied the markets of Central Asia with the mer- 
 chandise of the southern countries, prefer the difficulties 
 of the Suleman and Hindu Kush passes with the perils 
 from their robber bands, the uncertainties of battle with 
 their predatory tribes, and the endless exactions of their 
 hosts of tax-collectors to the more terrible obstructions 
 of nature which face .them on the death-dealing heights 
 and desert plateaux of the Tibat mountains. More than 
 this, the very liberal expenditure and fostering protec- 
 tion of the paramount government during recent years 
 have not produced results commensurate with the means 
 employed in this direction for the promotion of its trade. 
 And I have no doubt that, were the total of expenditure 
 on fairs and trade commissioners, and missions, &c., 
 during the past ten years, balanced against the profits 
 of the entire trade over the Tibat passes during the same 
 period, the impracticability of the route as a general 
 highway would derive further confirmation from the 
 revelations of the respective figures. 
 
 The subject is a suggestive one, and of the highest 
 importance to us in India on the south of these grand 
 barriers, because of the material interests connected with 
 it. And at this juncture the more especially so on ac- 
 count of the steady growth of the Eussian dominion 
 over the wide region to the north of them. The pro- 
 gress of Eussia there now is but a repetition on the 
 steppes to the north of the mountains of our own career, 
 not so very long ago, on the peninsula to the south of 
 them. 
 
 The might which was our right we must remember 
 
4 i4 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 this point against the Aryan nations of the south is 
 none the less her right against the Tatar peoples of the 
 north. For each on his own side gives to a kindred 
 race the blessings of civilisation in place of the curses of 
 barbarism. Each has for its object the prosperity, peace, 
 and freedom of its subjects, according to its own estab- 
 lished forms of government. 
 
 The main difference is that Britain on the south has 
 matured her conquest and grown up in the full vigour 
 of the strength acquired by a long term of tenure ; 
 whilst Eussia on the north is yet in the course of 
 growth, and lacks the vigour of maturity. 
 
 As the Sutlej and the Indus have not served to give 
 us a frontier on the plains of India, neither can we 
 expect the great rivers of the steppes of Tartary to give 
 them such a limit on the plains of Central Asia. As 
 we on the south side have been compelled to advance 
 to the foot of the hills, and exercise sovereign influence 
 over their princes on our side of the great watershed of 
 the Asiatic continent the great natural division of its 
 northern and southern climes and nations so may we 
 expect a like force to impel them on to similar positions 
 on its north side. 
 
 There is much to be said and studied on this most 
 interesting and important subject, but as the inquiry is 
 beyond the purpose of this work, I will content myself 
 with this brief allusion to it. In this place merely re- 
 minding the reader that the foreshadowed approximation 
 of the frontiers of the two great Christian powers in Asia 
 is an eventuality, the consummation of which cannot 
 be considered very remote from this time, unless indeed, 
 the present rate of Kussia's advance towards the interven- 
 ing boundary receive an unforeseen, however improbable 
 such may be, check. And that, what, under any circum- 
 
FUNERAL OF STOLICZKA. 415 
 
 stances, concerns us is the proper appreciation of the 
 nature of our own position on this same frontier of junc- 
 tion, and the assurance that we are there prepared to 
 keep our own rights and respect theirs. If in these 
 points we are found to be as we ought to be, then we 
 may shake hands across the passes with our Northern 
 neighbour, and, with the rest of the Christian world, 
 bid him God speed in his mission of civilisation in the 
 greatest sinks of iniquity in all Asia. 
 
 We halted a few days at Leh, and were to have 
 resumed our march on the 22d June, but during the 
 night an express messenger arrived from Colonel 
 Gordon's camp with the melancholy intelligence of the 
 death of Dr Stoliczka at Murgi on the 19th instant, and 
 the information that his body was being brought on for 
 interment. This sad news was a great shock to us all, 
 for our friend and comrade had won our esteem no less 
 by the high order of his scientific talents than by the 
 genial character of his social virtues. 
 
 The body arrived during the afternoon of the 23d, 
 and we had the melancholy satisfaction of performing 
 the last offices to the remains of one whom we had 
 learned to admire, and whose loss we lamented. 
 
 The next day we resumed our march, and arrived at 
 Srinaggar on the 6th July, receiving on the way even 
 more abundant assistance and more assiduous attention 
 than on the upward journey. In fact, such a large 
 number of men and cattle had been withdrawn from 
 their usual occupations for the service of the embassy, 
 that the tourists who annually flock into the country 
 were for the time somewhat incommoded in their move- 
 ments. 
 
 We passed several families on our way down from 
 Sona Marg (where since our passage last year a couple 
 
4 i 6 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 of new houses had been built by the Kashmir authorities 
 for the British Commissioner), who were delayed in their 
 camps for want of carriage. I felt less pity for the 
 pleasure-seekers than for the unfortunate men who are 
 pressed into their service during six months of every 
 year, and on this occasion into ours. 
 
 Between three and four hundred European tourists 
 roam this country during six months of every year, and 
 as a rule none of them make any provision for their car- 
 riage. They are all dependent on the country for their 
 means of transport within its limits. This necessitates 
 the abstraction from their homes and fields of something 
 like six thousand men during half the year, in order 
 to carry their camps about from place to place ; and of 
 the amount of oppression it leads to few can have an 
 idea. 
 
 Of the hundreds of English officers and their families 
 who, during six months of every year, visit the Kashmir 
 territory and enjoy the hospitality of the Maharaja, 
 there are few, very few, who appreciate the benefits and 
 privileges they are freely accorded within the territories 
 of this most hospitable of Indian princes. 
 
 It is the fashion to abuse the native administration of 
 Kashmir, and charge it with every species of oppression 
 and corruption. Whether this is just or unjust I will 
 not take on me to say. But this I do say, that of those 
 who join in the outcry against the authorities of this 
 tributary state, there are few, if any, who consider the 
 part they themselves play in bringing about the very 
 oppression they complain of. 
 
 I resided in the valley on duty during the season of 
 1869, and had ample opportunity of ascertaining the 
 effects of our annual invasion of the country upon 
 the people, as well as the impression our conduct in 
 
INVASION OF KASHMIR. 417 
 
 it made upon the strangers who, in the pursuit of 
 their commercial business, frequented the capital from 
 all the outlying countries on the north, west, and east 
 - men who carried away their opinion of the English- 
 man from what they had seen of him in Kashmir, and 
 spread it as the character of the nation in the cities 
 of Afghanistan, Turkistan, and Tibat. I observed 
 also the benefits and privileges we enjoyed in the 
 country, and the benefits we are satisfied that we 
 confer upon it ; and as to the last it is my posi- 
 tive conviction that they are outweighed by the evils 
 attending them. 
 
 It is needless here to enter into detail. It is enough 
 to say that the roaming of hundreds of Europeans, inde- 
 pendent of each other all over the country, necessitates 
 a vigilant activity on the part of the authorities, and 
 the employment of a large body of police officers, pur- 
 veyors, clerks, coolie drivers, and others to look after 
 their safety, attend to their wants, supply their carriage, 
 procure their provisions, &c. &c., in all parts of a thinly- 
 peopled and wild mountainous country. How well this 
 is done is proved by the fact that instances of insult, 
 robbery, or assault, are never heard of. 
 
 From my own knowledge and observation, I can state 
 that in no other part of India with which I am ac- 
 quainted (and I have travelled in the three presidencies), 
 not even in territory under our own administration, is 
 the European so promptly and cheerfully served, and so 
 safely protected, as he is in Kashmir, and nowhere else 
 does he exercise the liberty of the subject to the extent 
 that he does in that same territory. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding these facts, there is a chronic 
 outcry against the governors of the country, and the 
 local English press rails at their shortcomings with a 
 
 2 D 
 
4i 8 KASHMIR AND KASHGHAR. 
 
 vehemence unbefitting the occasion, and altogether for- 
 getful of their claims upon our forbearance. Our con- 
 duct towards Kashmir does not escape notice in the 
 neighbouring states, and whilst Kabul and Nepal hold 
 up the finger of caution saying, " Beware ! keep out the 
 European," others, less independent, remark on the 
 boldness of our words against Kashmir, and compare 
 it with our discreet language towards her neighbours. 
 
 To us, returning from the independent state of Kash- 
 ghar, the change in the character of our experiences in 
 point of treatment was most remarkable, and no less so 
 was the facility with which, on entering Kashmir, we re- 
 covered our conscious superiority as lords in the land. With 
 the Indian there was none of that air of superiority of 
 which we had seen so much, and which the Tatar official so 
 courteously appropriates in his dealings with those whom 
 he means to honour ; and in its absence, accommodating 
 ourselves to the circumstances of the case here, disap- 
 peared the deference it naturally drew from us as guests 
 in their country. In its place we here found a cheerful 
 readiness to meet our every wish, and a solicitous care 
 to provide our every want, and with these ready atten- 
 tions naturally returned the sense of our position as 
 servants of the paramount government, and we felt at 
 home amongst our own people. The change indeed from 
 Foreign to British territory was complete in other re- 
 spects too, and for the third time was I made practically 
 acquainted with the relative merits of the governments 
 ruling on the one side and on the other. 
 
 Beyond the border prevail disorder, oppression and 
 despotic caprice. The natural resources of the soil are 
 undeveloped, commerce struggles for bare existence, 
 and society is sunk in the barbarism of ignorance. 
 Within it are found order, prosperity, and established law. 
 
RETURN TO MURREE. 419 
 
 The land is worked, trade is active, and the people 
 advance in the path of knowledge. And with such dif- 
 ferences between the influences of civilisation and bar- 
 barism, who can wish to deny to the oppressed States of 
 Central Asia the blessings of good government which 
 are pressing upon them, whether they receive them 
 from the north or from the south, or from both in their 
 just proportions ? 
 
 At Srinaggar the life and activity, the wealth and 
 prosperity, the freedom and enjoyment that met the eye 
 seemed something great by contrast with what we had 
 left behind us to the north of the passes. We stayed 
 here a couple of days as the Maharaja's (His Highness 
 being absent at his winter capital, Jammu) guests in the 
 Ranbir Bagh, where we met Mr Shaw who was on his 
 way up to Kashghar, accompanied by Dr Scully and an 
 escort of the corps of guides ; and then I accompanied 
 the envoy as far as Murree. 
 
 We set out on the evening of the 7th July and went 
 by boat to Baramulla, and thence travelled by express 
 " dooly dak," and arrived at Murree on the 12th July, 
 having left it on the 18th of the same month in the 
 preceding year. 
 
 The camp marched on by the regular stages, and in 
 due course the Embassy was dissolved, and its members, 
 after sending in their several official reports, dispersed 
 to their different departments. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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