Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 185 (Color Image)

0185	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. viI.] THE UIGHURS. 149

at once struck me coming from China, was their

politeness to strangers. In passing through a

Chinese town the traveller has always to fear

insults from the mob. Here in Hami I could

move about if not unnoticed, at any rate

unmolested.

It is interesting to note that round H ami

was the seat of the Uighurs, the race from

whom the Mongols of Chengiz Khan acquired

what little learning and cultivation they ever

possessed. The men were tall, and some of

them really dignified. They were dressed in

long coloured cotton robes, and wore on their

heads either turbans or small skull caps. The

women were very different from the doll-like

Chinese women, with painted faces and wad-

dling about on contorted feet ; or the sturdy,

bustling women of Manchuria ; or the simple,

silly Mongol girls, with their great red cheeks

and dirty unintelligent faces. These Turki

women had good features, full round eyes, and

complexions not much darker than Greeks or

Italians. Dressed in a long loose robe not

confined at the waist, with their black tresses

of hair allowed to fall over their shoulders in

thick plaits, and wearing on their heads a

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