the shoulders* of my messenger, saying that he would
send the watch and chain to his son, after detaching
the whistle from the guard for himself, and thanked
me.
We left Shahr at 9.20 a.m. in the Emir’s carriage,
the road to Karshi lying through the Kashka-daria
oasis, t W e drove slowly for an hour through gardens
and cultivated fields, and then came to the open steppe,
sandy, but covered with vegetation. Not far from
Shahr is the little village of Sharmitan, and six miles
from the town is a second village, but we stopped at
neither. Several streams were crossed, and on our
left we had a distant view of mountains belonging to
the Hissar system.!
About a mile before reaching Chirakchi we were
* This giving of raiment reminds one of Jonathan stripping himself
of his garments and giving them to David (i Sam. xvii. 54), a custom
that lingered in Europe in the sixteenth century, when the Tsar honoured
Yermak, the conqueror of Siberia, by sending him a garment from his
owri wardrobe.
f Part of the upper portion of the oasis comprises the Chirakchi
bekship, where, in 1878, they reaped thirtyfold crops of corn. The
price reached, in 1877, barley 2s. 6d. to 2s. gd. per cwt., wheat 3X. yd.
to 3-r. 7d. per cwt. Sheep, when lean, cost from 8r. to 12s., and
homed cattle from 20s. to 24s. a head. The latter, however, can be
obtained only in small numbers. . Cattle are more plentiful in the
neighbouring bekship of Hissar, where some 4,000 .head are driven
weekly to the bazaars. The bekship of Shir-a-bad, further south, is
less productive than either of the former, so much agriculture only
being developed as suffices for the needs of the people. In the neighbouring
bekship of Kobadian there is but little corn sown, silk being
the staple produce. The settlement of Kilif on the Oxus does not produce
com, but only vegetables and lucerne. They get corn from
Afghanistan in exchange for salt. In the mountain valleys of the
Kilif bekship com is produced, but they lie far from the line between
Karshi and the Oxus, or the locality where a post could be established.
J This high range, called Hissar, is a direct prolongation of the
Thian Shan, and separates the valleys of the Zarafshan and Kashgar -
daria from the Amu-daria. The Hissar range, with its offshoots, serves
also for the northern boundary of the Bokhara khanate from the
met by half-a-dozen cavaliers, gaily dressed, who said
that the Bek, who was the Emir’s son, had sent them
to welcome me, and inquire for my welfare. They
preceded us to the town, as the place must be termed,
since it is surrounded by a wall, otherwise it might be
taken for a kishlak with a large bazaar; and they
informed us that, it being Friday, the Bek was gone to
the mosque, but that on his return he would receive
us.. We called about two hours later, and found the
Bek’s house standing almost on the bank of the river.
His residence is within a quadrangle, closeql in with a
high mud wall, and divided into smaller squares, in one
of which a row of chambers stretches along the wall.
On entering, an official first received my presents, and
then we were shown into a room, where sat a youth of
18, but looking much older, dressed in a khalat of
cloth of gold, with a pink turban, edged with gold lace,
the grandest get-up I had yet seen, and far outdoing
his father, whom we had found plainly dressed. He
said that as they had been visited by no Englishmen
before, he was glad I had come to see their country.
I asked if he would come to England.
“ That,” he said, “ depends entirely on my father.”
He had heard that I was fond of antiquities, and
orders had been sent to Bokhara to find them if
possible. I suppose, too, he had heard that I was
an author, about which I made no secret, and, in fact,
in this way explained why I was taking notes, which
is a deadly crime in Oriental eyes, and soon laid me
meridian of Samarkand to its eastward boundary on the Pamir, a line
of about 300 miles. There are 11 roads and passes leading over the
mountains, some for foot passengers only, and some for pack-
animals, but none for carriages. The most convenient for communication
between the valley of the Upper Zarafshan and the Hissar villages
is (considered to be) the Anzob Pass, 12,000 feet high.