National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

THE ROAD TO LANGAR.

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crystalline specimen; syenite or granite. From the left comes the valley Chirakunch. A little farther on an enormous block has fallen down and stands upright in the middle of the valley, resembling a gigantic morel when seen in fore-shortened perspective. It is called Nais a-lash. The mountains at the sides are very steep, reminding one of the houses at the sides of a street. The view to the sides is therefore completely hidden, and only from the mouths of the tributaries can one get an idea of the landscape. The brook is small and has to be crossed constantly.

Karik-atti is a wide part of the valley. Mara6 is a left tributary with a road to Almalik, a region with yeilaks situated between the Tong and Shinde valleys. Chucherak is a large open part of the valley with several habitations. From the left comes the tributary Guchman. Achema is a wide place with a hut in a poplar grove (Poj5ulus euj5hralica). 7unizerus is also seen. Kirg.ak is a valley from the right, Khan-g-eli-unkur from the left. By the large left tributary Chuan-chera6, a road goes to the village of Kogosh. The next two valleys from the left are Tichman, with a road to yeilaks, and Kader-kaan. The tributaries from the left or north are nearly always larger than those from the right. Finally we reach Langar, a little village surrounded by fields in which the harvest was piled in cocks awaiting dry weather. Wheat and barley are grown. At some places the fields were ploughed with wooden ploughs.

At Langar a side-valley nearly as large as the main valley comes in from the right. It is called Kichik-östäng in contradistinction to the main valley, which here is called Ulug-östäng. The brook of this valley is smaller than that of the main valley. By Kichik-östäng a road goes in two days to the pass Chuan-cheran, and thence in another two days to the valley of Boramsal where kishlaks or winter grazing spots are found; thence it crosses Bichan-art to Marian. Chuan-cheran, therefore, seems to be a pass in the same range as the Kandahar Pass and with the same water-parting importance as it. Bichan-art, on the other hand, probably is a secondary pass somewhere in a ramification from one of the two ranges we had crossed thus far. Chupan-cheran is said to be very difficult and gravelly, and is usually crossed on foot. In the winter it usually is closed by snow. For travellers from Langar to Marian, the road by the Kandahar Pass is shorter than the road by Chuan-cheran. The valley of Kichik-östänç has habitations only at its mouth. At Langar two masars are built; those of Sultan Bama fìl Vali and Sultan Rama, fìl Mujerat. At the first there are two very small mosques; the brook flows between them.

The Tong is a wild and picturesque transverse valley which has cut down its furrow through the eastern part of the range we crossed in the Kandahar Pass. The landscape is magnificent and fascinating. The earthquake had been strongly felt everywhere, and we were told of one or two men who had been killed by blocks falling down from the rocks above.