had a “ skeleton in her cupboard,” even in the Ili
valley, for she had also a child idiotic, and, reading
“ Doctor” on my podorojna, she supposed there might
be a physician passing by, and brought her boy of
eight, saying that he had never spoken since he was
three years old, that he had fits, was never still, and
seemed like one possessed. Sevier, for some reason,
could not dispense for her satisfactorily out of our
medicine chest, but promised to bring on our return
some iodide of potassium, and gave hope to the mother
that her child might outgrow his malady.
Chinchakhodzi is inhabited by Dungans, and, being
a Mussulman town, escaped the general destruction at
the time of the war. It is surrounded by a wall, and
wears an aspect unmistakably Chinese, as did the
maize and harvest fields we next passed through.
From Chinchakhodzi there branches off a road by
which the traveller, after a journey of about 30 miles
into the Borokhoro range, reaches Lake Sairam, 6,000
feet high, and about 300 Square miles in area, above
the southern shore of which is situated the Talki pass.
The road in some places passes over steep declivities,
and in others upon cornices hanging over precipitous
cliffs, whilst here and there are preserved the ruins of
Chinese pickets or military posts. A t the bottom of
the gorge whirls, amidst roar and foam, the Talki
stream, and, in ascending, the appearance of the grey
and red piles of rock becomes wilder and grander. As
one mounts higher, the vegetation peculiar to a warm
climate, such as apricot, dwarf elm, and apple, is
replaced by the hawthorn, mountain ash, and willow;
higher comes the birch, and, higher still, a wide belt of
red fir, beyond which the road ascends a bare rocky
slope, and, when the crest is reached, there is presented
to the view a majestic and peaceful lake, held in its
mountain basin as water is held in a cup, or like a sheet
of clear glass softly reflecting the azure blue of the
heaven above. Skirting this lake is the great Chinese
“ Imperial Road,” connecting Kuldja, Urumchi, and
Pekin, by which some of the mediaeval travellers made
their way now to the Court of the Mongols, or further
to the land of Cathay.*
Our next station to Chinchakhodzi was Suidun. A s
we approached we saw the Cossacks exercising, and
coming nearer found the Chinese strengthening the
walls of the town. About 10 miles distant were the
ruins of what was the Chinese capital, variously called
Ili, New Kuldja, and Manchu Kuldja, in which 75,000
people were butchered in one day. We did not go
there, nor had we yet seen the last of the ruins by
the roadside, concerning the origin of which I have as
yet said nothing in detail, though I think an outline
thereof will better enable the reader to understand the
heterogeneous elements of which the Ili population is
now composed.
The history of the Ili valley dates back as far as the
second century before the Christian era, when the Usuim
were driven by the Huns to settle there from Mongolia.
* Concerning the roads of this region the principal artery is the great
Chinese carriage road leading from Nanking by way of Hankow,
Ngan-si-chow, and Hami to Turfan. Here it divides north and south
of the Ili province, one branch proceeding through Urumtsi, Manass,
and Chuguchak to Semipolatinsk (with the branch described above,
over the T alk i pass to Kuldja), and the other passing by way of
Karashaar, Korla, Kucha, and Ak-Su to Kashgar. There are also
two bridle passes from Kuldja to the carriage roads north and south
of the mountains, one by the River Kungess to the Yuldus plateau, and
the other by the Tekess river to the Muzart Pass near Khan T e n g r i;
but that over the Talk i only is constructed for wheel traffic, and even
this one in 1873 was in so ruined a Condition that Mr. Dilke spoke of it
as not passable for artillery.