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

( 61 )

of sheep, &c., or twelve nines of horses, and so on. A poor man may give only a nine of sheep but he cannot give less than that number. Similarly the presents given by the father to the bride must be in the same number or its multiple of each kind, as nine frocks, nine mantles, nine carpets, &c., and the presents made by friends too must be in the same number, as nine pieces of silk, nine veils, nine caps, &c., &c. The origin of the selection of this particular number, called tocûz, is not known, but the custom is observed by all the Turk and Tartar tribes of Central Asia.

The language of the Kirghiz is a dialect of the Turki spoken in Kashghar, but they are mostly an illiterate people, though their Chiefs have books recording the history of the tribes, and others of poetry. They are fond of music, and there are many travelling minstrels and story tellers, called bacsi, in the camps. The common names of Kirghiz men are Sikkan, Sûr&nchi, T&ylak, Cholpang, Mûsa, Atantay, Turd&, S&dik, Khidir, Saydin, Pokbasar, Yobasar, Sultay, Sadir, Anizar, Tilaka, Khan, Tora, &c. And of women, Ganjika, Sarah, Sholpan&y, Orûn, Orûzâghacha, Olja, Irancha, Arij&n, Shachan, Shakar, Toctagh&cha, 'Ayim, Bakht&ghacha, Tolkun, Z&cha, Munsagh&cha, Bûrûlûsh, &c.

Pakhpûlûk of Mûztcigh.—This division—the last and least of those of Kashghar—belongs to the district of Kokyar in the jurisdiction of Yarkand, and comprises the narrow glens and defiles of the head waters of the Tiznaf and Zarafshan, or Yarkand river on the northern slopes of Mûzt&gh. It consists of two principal divisions, viz., Khalistan which extends from Topa Dawan to Yangi Dawan and contains the upper course of the Tiznaf river, and Shanshû, with its sub-divisions of Apat Bulong, Mamok, and Molong Bulong, on the upper course of the Yarkand river up to the glaciers of Tor&ghil which separate it from the Ba1ti country to the south.

It is a very poor and inhospitable country, very little known even to the people of Yarkand, but remarkable as the retreat of a most interesting and purely Aryan people who only require to be put into coat and trowsers to pass, so far as outward appearance goes, for the fairest Englishman.

On the return journey of the embassy, we marched through the length of Khalistan, and had the opportunity of meeting some of these people, and Captain Chapman took a photograph of two of them who were employed in our camp. Their tall figures, fair skins, light eyes, and sandy whiskers and hair, coupled with their pronounced Caucasian features, at once marked them as of an entirely different race to any of the many our journey had brought us in contact with. Unfortunately, the temerity of these people had carried their camps and families into the recesses of the glens and mountain hollows far out of the line of our march, and we were consequently deprived of the opportunity of learning much about them by personal observation.

By the people of Yarkand they are called Pâ pû, but to me they called themselves Pakhpa and their country Pakhpûlûk—a Turki adjectival, form signifying belonging to the Pakhpa"and corresponding to the noun and adjective forms of Briton and British respectively. They profess Islam—the Shia doctrine—and speak the Turki of Yarkand, but in a corrupt and not easily intelligible form even to natives of that city. They denied having any other language of their own, and their undisguised fear led them to conceal all information regarding themselves, though they were by no means so reticent in replying to questions regarding their Kunjud neighbours on the south side of the mountain. The names of the camp grounds in their country are all Turki, but those of the subdivisons of the country itself, as will be seen from the examples above given, are not so, though to what language they may be referred I have no means of ascertaining.

The two Bulong, Mamok, Aghil, Khalistan, &c., in their distinct etymology resemble the unintelligible names of localities peculiar to the adjoining hill tract designated by the Turki appellation S&righ Kill or Tashkorghan, such as W&ch&, Maryang, Kesarov, &c., and denote a separate origin from the several different aric, cûdûc, ycrr, tcish, coryki n, ûldi, sâldz, &c., of the later Turk possessors, so common on the plain, and on the beaten tracks of their goings and comings. Yet they appear not to have anything in common, for these Pakhpûlûk assured us that the languages of Kunjud, Sarigh Kill, and Wakh&n were unintelligible to them.