the Consul and another, we rode outside the inner
wall, receiving here and there a salaam, until we came
SE ID MUHAMMAD RAHIM, KH AN OF KH IV A .
to the summer palace. T h e Khan had not yet quitted
this building, and a troop of horses were waiting, their
riders having gone within, I suppose, on business with
the Khan, who, according to Vambery, holds public
audience for at least four hours daily, and is expected
to hear the most trivial cases his subjects bring before
him. The number of attendants about the building
appeared greater than we had seen about the Emir of
Bokhara. The Khan’s officers were all in sheepskin
hats, clothed in somewhat dowdy garments, and presented
a poverty-stricken appearance. We were shown
into an ante-room, and then through one court after
another, till we came to a room, only partially carpeted
and scantily furnished, wherein the most prominent
object was a sort of divan or bedstead, covered
with a Persian carpet. On this the Khan was
sitting, with a sword and revolver before him, and
behind were three chairs piled with books. His
Majesty shook hands with me, and motioned me
to a seat on the couch.
The Khan’s age had been given me as 36, but I
should have thought him older. He was dressed in a
dark-blue cloth khalat and black sheepskin hat, much
like the Consul or any of the others about the court,
and he displayed no pretence at grandeur of any sort.
He asked whence I came, whether the chief Russian
authorities were well, and whether they had been kind
and helpful to m e ; all of which I could answer in the
affirmative. Next he asked who was the Sovereign of
England, and whether things were going well. I told
him Queen Victoria, and repeated the old story about
the sun never setting on her dominions, whereupon he
told Yakoob privately that he did not believe th a t ;
and when he was further informed that the earth went
round the sun, his Highness inquired whether it did so
straight or upside down, meaning, I suppose, vertically
or horizontally. I asked if he had any ancient books