IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Across Asia : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
C. G. MANNERHEIM
August3oth. Tsyni tchuenza village.
September Ist.
Santai village.
Yesterday's journey of about 20 miles was done on foot. The weather was dull and clouds hung over the hills on the right. Bogdo Olo was invisible behind the clouds. For 2 miles the road passed through the same cultivated zone. This was succeeded by a plain, on which some creeping plants and tufts of grass grew. On the right, at a distance of several miles, scattered groups of trees could be seen between the road and the hills. They cropped up inconsequently, running parallel to our direction, throughout the day. Not far from the edge of the tilled land a few houses were visible among these trees. A mile from the tilled area we passed some deserted houses. In some places the plain was very saliferous. About 3 miles further on we passed a house »Ta tchuenza» built for supplying caravans with a few necessaries. Water is obtained from a well.
At a great distance, on the horizon in the NE, a strip of mountains popped up, apparently running SE. The soil is löss, mixed in places with very fine gravel. E of Ta tchuenza, sparse and rather coarse grass, but edible for the horses, grew here and there. About 6 miles from the last house, we came to another, Siao tchuenza. Here, too, there was no tillage, the population making a living by trading with passing caravans. There was a sufficient supply of water from a well, but it was slightly salt.
3 miles further on a strip of land began, from S to N, covered sparsely with trees. Here there were many remains of deserted dwellings. We crossed a couple of streams and a marshy place. The village of Tsy'ni is situated in this tree-covered strip. It consists of 23 houses (io Chinese, io Dungan and 3 Sart) and has a bazaar with 14 shops, 3 sarais and an impanj with a shao (13 men) of the Tsimusa cavalry lianza.
The water supply depends on the heat, i.e., the melting of the snow in the Bogdo Olo mountains, from which the water is brought down by a stream, Peimia ho. The snow falls in November to a depth of r metre and melts in February. Severe western burans occur generally in the spring, sometimes for 20 days at a stretch, in the autumn at intervals of 2-3 days. Gaolyan, peas and wheat are grown and yield up to a tenfold crop. Two Shang-ja administer the village and the surrounding villages: Tchungko, 40 houses with Zoo inhabitants, Pa khu ko, 3o houses with 23o inhabitants, Shang khu ko, 20 houses with 230 inhabitants (Chinese), Sosoko 3o houses with 18o inhabitants, Ehrda kho, 28 houses with 120 inhabitants, and Tung tchyen, 30 houses with 15o inhabitants. — There is said to be copper, coal, iron and sulphur in the mountains to the S.
After a delay of two days Lukanin turned up at last with our »treasure» Izmail. In the meantime our food had been cooked by one of my new Chinamen, Tchang, who appeared to be unusually willing and proved to be a fairly good Chinese cook. If I had tasted his cooking before, instead of the awful stuff served up by my so-called new cook, I should probably not have wasted two days in waiting for Izmail. Well, we are often at the mercy of circumstances and they had made Izmail and his pälaw indispensable.
Life in the dusty and unusually uncomfortable sarai was anything but pleasant. During the day we were tortured by the wind that stirred up clouds of sweepings and dust, from which it was, if anything, more difficult to protect ourselves than from half-starved dogs and pigs. If I drove the latter out of my room, I was sure to find them in the kitchen, from
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