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

( 79 )

Opium (dfim.)—The poppy is cultivated in Yarkand and Kislrghar, but not largely. The opium got from it is of very inferior quality and only used to mix with the foreign drug which comes from India. Poppy-heads and the seeds are sold in the bazar by druggists for medical purposes. Opium is either eaten or smoked. In the former case, either raw as purchased, or in the form of extract. This is prepared thus :—Steep the opium in water over night, then wash into a thick solution, and strain through muslin. Boil the liquor to evaporation in a greased saucepan to prevent the opium sticking to the sides and getting burned. Cool and dry, and the extract is ready for use, either to eat or to smoke. In the latter case, the smoker lies down on one side with his head on a pillow close to the lamp, at which he lights his pipe. This is a china or metal tube some sixteen inches long, with a jade or other mouthpiece, and is called glczza. At the far end (which is closed), on one side, is a small aperture large enough to admit a goose-quill. In the aperture a small quantity of the soft extract, about the size of a pea, is applied to its sides by a pencil of wood, which is twirled between the finger and thumb, so that the extract sticks to the sides and orifice of the aperture without blocking it. The pipe is then turned to the candle, and the aperture with the opium brought close up to the flame. The smoker now draws several sharp full inhalations till the opium is consumed, and puffing out the smoke from his lungs, goes off into a dreamy stupor. This habit is extremely prevalent in the cities, and in private houses too. Both sexes are equally addicted to it as to bang.

The garden produce of Kâshghar may be considered essentially the same as that of European countries.

The cabbage, turnip, and radish, the carrot, beet, and lettuce, the onion, capsicum and tobacco, and peas, and beans, and the egg plant, are grown in the suburbs of all the western cities and towns; as are the pulses, cicer and phaseolus, and melons and cucumbers of excellent quality, together with the pumpkin and the gourd. These last are scooped out and used as water jars, and some of thern are larger in capacity than an ordinary bucket; the gourd is generally of the long bottle-necked kind, and is called kapak.

Many kinds of flowering plants are also cultivated, such as the rose, the tuberose, the lily, the wall-flower, china aster, marigold, &c. With the orchards are included the vineyards and plantations. In them are found the plum, apricot, peach, pear, apple, and quince; the fig, the walnut, the pomegranate, the celeagnus, ,jujube, and mulberry. The vines are trained on trellises, and produce excellent grapes of many different varieties. They are preserved for winter use by hanging the bunches on rope lines stretched across deep cellars. The raisins, of small seedless variety, are more or less green and of excellent flavour, whilst those prepared from the Turfân grape are noted for their size and sweetness, though in appearance they look uninviting.

Manufactures.—Since the overthrow of the Chinese rule, the manufacturing industries of Kâshghar have declined, and in the case of some profitable arts have altogether disappeared. The workings at almost all the metalliferous mines, as at those of coal and the quarries of jade, have ceased with the continuance of their rule. The manufacture of jade ornaments has disappeared, and the art itself is said to be lost with the workmen who perished in the revolt. The trade in the unwrought mineral is gradually reviving, and choice samples of the stone now slowly find their way to China through Almati on the one side and Leh on the other. The gold mines of Khutan are worked on a small scale, as a strict monopoly by the Amir, and the coal of Aksti and Turfân is collected on the surface by the peasantry and carried for sale to the cities; but its consumption now is, from all accounts, as nothing to what it used to be under the Chinese. The iron mines of Shahnâz are the only ones which continue in full operation. The collection and smelting of the ore, which is all done at Kizili, provides employment and means of support to some four or five hundred families. The metal which is considered of very superior and ductile quality, supplies the markets of all the western cities, and is entirely used up in the manufacture of domestic utensils and articles for home use.

The silk culture and manufacture of different textures from it at Khutan was in a very depressed state, but the Amir is making efforts to revive it. What is produced is for the greater part exported to Khokand in the form of a coarse spun fibre, or it is used at home for purposes of embroidery, &c. It .is sold in the bazars of Kâshghar side by side with Khokand silk (which is of far finer and softer quality) in the form of loose hanks dyed in

p