THE CHANTOS 231
never has grasped the idea of responsibility for any one except himself or those who can do him good. It was a puzzle to my servants when I told them to find out whether a man lying in the middle of the road was sick, or only tired. In crossing the Karakash River near Khotan, our ferry-boat ran aground a hundred feet from the shore. The poorer people waded to the land, a few richer ones rode on the backs of the boatmen, and I, being a "Sahib," had to forego the pleasure of wading, and have a horse brought to me. In the confusion I saw a woman with a baby fall down in water up to her knees, to the imminent risk of the baby, which might easily have been drowned as the mother floundered to get up. Three or four men and women were near her, but it did not seem to occur to any one to lend a hand.
The saddest result of the weakness of will of the Chantos is immorality, flagrant and well-nigh universal. Khotan and Keriya have the reputation of being the most immoral cities in Asia, and other places are but little better. Not only is there an enormous proportion of women who confessedly lead lives of impurity, but divorce and temporary legal marriages are extremely common. These are so cheaply and easily arranged, and marriage ties are so lightly esteemed, that a so-called respectable woman may have three or four husbands in a year, and a husband similarly may legally marry several successive wives in a year, and two or three score in a lifetime. Of course, in many cases the same husband and wife live together permanently, especially among the peasants, but it is easy to see the deplorable results to which the prevailing system must lead. Dunmore is perhaps putting it rather strongly when he says : —
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