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

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last from May to October ; during this period rain falls occasionally in July, but storms of thunder and lightning are unknown in the country. " I have lived in the country all my life," says my informant, a native of Tûng, aged about forty years, but I have never seen such a storm as you describe in which the sky flashes fire and the clouds make a noise."" Yes, I know what a cloud is, and what a fog is. They often hide the mountains and everything else from view. I know what an earthquake is too; • they sometimes shake the ground, and tumble down our walls, but the mountains never growl, nor do the clouds grumble.

" When there is no snow on the ground pasture is abundant everywhere, but trees are scarce all over the country. At Tung there are some mulberry trees=uzma, and the apricot= nosh; and there are no other fruit trees in the country, nor any of other kinds except the juniper= umbcirts - and the arbor vita ?= at which only grow in the mountains ; the willow = wanoj is common on all the water-courses."

"All the villages have their cultivated fields. The crops are wheat and barley, two kinds of bean, and a pulse called makk. Carrots and turnips are also grown. The people have lots of cattle such as sheep=gath, goats=vaz, horse=vorj, camel=shutur, cow=zau, grunting ox=cotâs, hybrid ox=staur, the dog, cat, and fowls. The sheep, -hybrid cattle, and cotd8 are the most numerous. Their wool and their butter are bartered with Yarkand traders for cotton cloth and silk cloaks, &c. , The rate is one sheep for three pieces of karbcfs or kkc m of 10 yards each ; that is one sheep for thirty yards of cloth. Wheat and barley are bartered with the Kirghiz for felts and horses. No coin is current in Sârigh Kû1, everything is by barter. The people have no need of money. They live on the produce of their cattle and fields, and make their own clothing. Only two materials are made in the country, viz., a thick sort of felt called' jayn, and a warm woollen stuff called galim, for cloaks, blankets, &c. It is very strong and warm, and is the common dress of the people. It is made in every village and almost by every family for itself.

"The people of Sâ.righ Kill came originally from Shighnân, and their language is the same as that spoken by the Shighnf. They have no special tribal name, but simply call themselves Sârigh Kûli. By the people of Kashghar they are called Tâjik, and the neighbouring Kirghiz call them Sfrt, but they never apply these terms to each other. The Wahi and Badakhshf, who are similarly denominated Tczjik and Sfrt by their neighbours of Kâshghar and Bukhârâ on -either hand, always call us Sârfgh Kûlf ; and this is our proper appellation just as Wâkhf is that of the people of Wakhân, and Badakhshi is that of the people of Badakhshan, or Shighnf that of those of . Shighnân, and Roshâni that of those of Roshan.

"The Sârigh Kûlf and the Shighnf are one people. We speak the same language and have the same customs. The Wâkhf and Badakhshi are a different people, and we don't under-

stand each other's speech."   " Yes. They are called Tâjik as we are, and like us too they are
of the Shia sect, but we consider them different, and only our Chiefs intermarry with them."

" Yes. There is a sort of brotherhood of all the Shia tribes of Badakhshân, Roshân, Shighnân, Wakhan, Chitral, Yasin, Kunjud, Gilgit, and Yâghistân down to Kashmir itself, because our Sunni neighbours revile us and call us Rafizi= Heretic"; and some of them don't allow that

we are Musalmâns unless we call ourselves Charydri."   "There are lots of Sunni families living
amongst the Shia everywhere, and there are about a hundred Sunni families in Sârigh Kill. The Chiefs and Nobles everywhere call themselves Châryfri and thus become Sunni, but I don't know what the difference is. They are our rulers and can do as they like; we are only poor people and don't know anything about these matters; we only do as our fathers did before us.

" Formerly our Chiefs used by way of punishment to sell'some of us into slavery, and in our wars with our Sunni neighbours—the Kirghiz especially—such as fell into their hands were always enslaved, and we used to retaliate by treating their captives in like manner. No. We never ill treat slaves unless they rebel or try to escape, but we could dispose of them in barter as we pleased. If the slave is clever and docile, we give him a wife and settle him amongst us, but he is always the property of his original captor or purchaser. All this is changed now since the rule of Atâlik Ghâzf. Formerly lots of slave boys and girls as well as men used to pass up from Kunjud and Chitral to Badakhshân for the Bukhârâ market, but