was also a bedstead large enough for two persons,
a chandelier, presented by the Khan, a huge glass
lantern, big enough for a good-sized clock-case, and,
as the acme of Khivan refinement, coloured glass for
the windows. In the butler’s room were birds in
cages, musical instruments, and a board for chess, at
which they play skilfully. In the mirza s, or secretary s,
room was a Sart scraipka, or fiddle, a poor-looking
goldfinch, and a hawk in training for hunting wild
sheep. In one of the courts was a tent, erected
evidently for a permanency, and intended, in its
present position, for a Bek and his scribe, though one
could see the convenience of such a thing in Khiva,
inasmuch as if the Divan-beggi’s business called him
to travel in the khanate, he would have a habitation
to carry with him.
Thus far we had only seen the winter house, but
I was more interested in the summer house, not
yet completed. It had an upper story, and an outlet
on to the roof, where they commonly sit, and lounge
and talk. By mounting the roof we could see that
the outer walls were tipped, not with broken glass, but
with thorns, and the wall of the women’s apartments
was pointed out, whilst below us was the garden and
a pond, with adjacent trees of karagatch, whose dense
shade would make the spot cool and agreeable in
summer. T he karagatch is used for carvings, especially
for the two lofty ornamental pillars, which, in
palaces and great houses, support the roof of what
I must call the portico, covering the wide gallery or
platform in front of the principal dwelling-rooms.
A block of timber, to make such a pillar, costs in
Khiva from £ \ to £ 5 . Our host had given £2 for
his, and I measured the pedestal 30 inches square,
whilst higher the greatest circumference was 6 feet
7 inches.*
Besides the summer house of the Divan-beggi, we
visited, in a different part of the premises, the house
or rooms of his eldest son, and other apartments
reserved to another son, a good-looking boy of 15,
whose education was not finished, and who showed us
one of his copy-books illuminated. Near at hand, tied
up in a court, was an enormous ram kept for fighting.
It measured 5 feet from the horns to the extremity of
its fat tail, 3 feet across the wool on the back, and stood
3 feet high ; but the most interesting part, perhaps, of
the premises was the stud yards, a small one for the
sons horses, where they stood in the open, covered
with felt from ears to tail, and a larger one for the
steeds o f the Divan-beggi. Here we saw some good
Argamaks, the biggest and strongest of Turkoman
horses. One of them cost £ iy , another £24, and the
best, under cover in a stable, ¿4 5 . T he prices of
such horses at Petro-Alexandrovsk had been given us
as from £ 1 5 to £20, and of a cow £3 103.
After inspecting our host’s premises, we were sent
for, about half-past 3-, to see the Khan. Preceded by
* These pillars suggested a partial elucidation of the passage in
Ju ges (xvi. 29) concerning Samson’ s death. Given a man making
sport before these pillars, in a position to be seen best from the roof
ot the portico, and the adjacent portions of the building; then, having
been guided to the pillars (ver. 26), he could, sufficient strength being
granted, dislocate them quickly one after the other, before bringing
down the structure on his own head. This house of the Divan-beggi
would be no illustration for the size of the house of Dagon, with the
3,000 men and women stated to be on the flat roof, but, it is a question
whether this Khivan roof, being covered with people, and the two
pillars gone, the whole concern might not collapse. As to the numbers
on he roof, I may add that the Jurnma mosque, at Khiva, is said to
hold from 3,000 to 4,000 people, and as it is covered with a flat roof, so
it is to be assumed that as many could assemble thereon