National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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withdrew on the plea of some pressing business to transact, begging us the while to consider his house and grounds as our own.

With this liberty we passed an agreeable afternoon in the garden attached to the Residency, though its trees were leafless, its tanks frozen, and kiosks deserted. In the full foliage of summer it must be a delightful retreat. In this garden we found a heap of copper ore recently brought in from some hills to the north of the city. A sample of it was subsequently submitted for Dr. Stoliczka's opinion, and was found by him on analysis to be a copper pyrites capable of yielding twenty-five per cent. of the pure metal.

Towards sunset we took leave of our host, highly gratified at the cordial reception and hospitable entertainment he had provided for us, and galloped back to our quarters, passing on the road an active tide of traffic to and fro between the old and new cities. Most were on horseback, or mounted on donkies, and very few on foot, whilst no small number found accommodation in the " omnibus " carts that ply daily on this road. These are covered waggons, drawn by four horses, one between the shafts and three abreast in front : they carry from twelve to sixteen passengers huddled together any fashion : they make three or four journeys a day, and the charge is thirteen pul, or about two pence English, each way.

On the 18th instant, we attended a review of the I<hatai or Chinese troops in the service of the Amir. There are, we were told, some three thousand odd of these representatives of the recently ruling race now in the Amir's army. They are of course all forcible converts to Islam, have been deprived of their "pigtails," amongst several other privileges, and are kept separate from the other troops in a fortified barrack of their own. Their arms, organization, and discipline too are quite distinct, and maintained in their own Chinese fashion under a

Chief called Kho-dalai.   .

At the review we found twenty-eight companies, of fifty men each, on the ground. They were disposed in two divisions opposite .to each other, and at the head of each company were carried two standards of triangular shape and bright colour, one at the head of each file of twenty-five men. Their only weapon is a large, heavy smooth-bore, set in a wooden socket, and very much like an ordinary duck-gun. It is called tyfu, is carried on the shoulders of two men, the foremost acting as a rest or support, and is served by three others, viz., one to carry ammunition and load, a second who carries a long ramrod tipped with a bunch of horse hair to clean the gun and complete loading, and the third as supernumerary and stop-gap in case of casualty. There are ten of these tyfu guns with each company.

In front of each division, as they stood facing each other draw n up in contiguous columns of companies, were posted a half company each of spearmen, with their heads bound with handkerchiefs, the ends fluttering in the wind, of archers helmeted after the fashion of the stage, and of " tigers," men clad throughout in yellow, streaked with broad bars of black, and topped above with a pair of neat ears. These last carried large circular shields gaudily painted with dragons and other hideous monsters on one side and concealing on the other a gunbarrel set in a socket of wood, and serving also as a handle whereby to carry the shield. All these three classes wore short side-swords.

Midway between the two divisions stood the band, composed of a big drum carried in a framework sedan by two porters, and attended on each side by lesser drums, with players of flageolet, bugle, and cymbals. With the band stood the commandant, the Kho-dalai, attended by a number of fuglemen, one of whom carried a large flag and the rest small ones.

Such was the appearance and disposition of the Khatai force as we found it on reaching the parade ground. At a signal from the Kho-dalai, the head fugleman waved his flag and all the little flags ran out to their proper places and waved likewise. And presently, without any sound being uttered, the kaleidoscope began to work. Companies, following their standards, crossed, recrossed, and interlaced and finally resolved themselves into a long straight line. Another wave of the flags, and the javelin-men, archers and " tigers " bounded to the front, gesticulating, capering and cutting antics in an absurdly grotesque manner, ending with the line of " tigers" dispersing the enemy's cavalry by crouching under cover of their shields, and suddenly starting up with a yell and flourish of their dragons. The enemy's horse is supposed to have.

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