Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 196 (Color Image)

0196	Among the Celestials : vol.1

160 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. VII.

knew Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Lahore, and all

the cities of the Punjab.

He asked me if Peking was as big a town as

Calcutta, and was much struck when I told him

the latter was the larger, repeating what I said

to the Andijanis. Peking is so distant that

these Central Asian merchants never visit it,

and the only accounts they have of it are from

the Chinese, who exaggerate to any extent the

greatness of the capital of China and of its

emperor.

The Andijanis were tall, handsome-looking

men, dressed in loose robes of cotton print, and

wearing long black leather boots with high

heels exactly the same as the Cossacks wear,

but with the bottom part detached from the

upper. This bottom part was a slipper which

they kicked off before stepping on to the carpet,

leaving the long boot still on, but with a soft,

flexible foot.

After tea I again went to the Turk city to

look at the shops. The chief in fact, almost

the only—articles sold here were cotton fabrics,

principally chintz. Some of them were remark-

ably pretty, with patterns of flowers, and others

handkerchiefs of many colours, arranged to-

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