of my visit about forty families in Shahidula and its neighbourhood, living, like all Kirghiz, in the round felt-covered tents, called akois. They were well dressed in long loose robes and turbans, or round fur caps. They appeared to be in more flourishing circumstances than the inhabitants of Ladak, and they make considerable profits from hiring out their camels, yaks, and ponies, and selling their sheep and goats to the traders passing through Shahidula on the caravan route from Yarkand to Leh. About twenty or thirty of them possessed matchlocks of a primitive pattern ; the remainder were unarmed. All of them were in the most abject terror of the Kanjutis, and assured me that the first man who entered Hunza territory would be killed without a doubt. They proclaimed this loudly in a large gathering which I had called together, and when they said it I turned round and said in chaff to the naik (corporal) of the Gurkhas, " All right ; you shall go first." The little man was quite delighted, and beamed with satisfaction at the prospect. Little touches like this show up in a flash the various characteristics of different races. Asiatics interpret these signs even more
quickly than Europeans, and the six little Gurkhas produced by this and similar actions a marked impression upon the
people wherever they went. The Kirghiz soon discovered the difference between the Gurkhas and themselves, and the feeling of terror and despondency which had hung over them when we first arrived soon gave place to one of confidence and security.
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