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

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The common cereals and vegetables, as in Europe, form important items of the daily food. The wheat bread is always leavened, and is of very superior quality. A kind of fungoid growth found on the poplar tree, and called iogfrrag/u, is habitually used as a ferment, and sold in every bazar. Vegetables and fruits are preserved fresh for winter use, by storing out of the reach of frost and damp in deep underground vaults and cellars.

Milk is little used, and butter is rarely seen in the fresh state. Mutton fat or that of beef is used in culinary operations in its place, as a rule, though skins of preserved butter, by boiling, are sold in the bazar. They are brought in by the Kirghiz, and are not to be found amongst the agricultural population.

Of the varieties of food I will not attempt a description. The dishes comprise a mixture of the Musalman and the Chinese cuisine, with perhaps a touch of the French and Italian. Roast and boiled joints, soups, ragouts, and bouillis ; the palao, corma, cima, and kabab with salads, pickles, jelly and syrup are some of the forms of food usually set before the guest, together with pastry of all sorts, puffs, patties (meat and jam) cakes, sweets, candied-fruits, and fruit fresh and fruits dry. The beverages are water, or eau eucré, or sherbet of pomegranate juice, &c. Tea is the ordinary drink of all classes, usually with sugar and always without milk. It precedes and fellows every meal, and is offered to the visitor at all hours of the day. The use of wine or spirits is strictly prohibited, and none are made in the country, though small bottles of Russian liqueurs are found on sale in the shops of Kâshgliar and Yarkand. The Kirghiz distil a strong spirit from the fermented liquor of mare's milk called curais, but neither one or other ever find their way to market.

Tobacco is not much smoked, except as a vehicle for bing or "hemp," and is not much esteemed by itself for quality, though that produced at Aksti is credited with a mild and superior flavour. In the form of snuff, however, its use is almost universal, both by the ordinary method and by mastication. In the former case it is, I believe, the cause of the remarkable prevalence of polypus in the nose in Kâslhghar, though it is necessary to state that in some cases of the disease which came under my notice, the patients denied the use of snuff at all. In the latter case it certainly is the cause, in common with opium and hemp, of much of the dyspepsia which is the general complaint of the country. The snuff of Kâshghar is different from any other that I have seen. It is of a bright green colour, and extremely hot and pungent. The powdered stalks of the chicandar, a species of ephedra, and powdered quicklime are habitually added to it. This snuff is seen. exposed for sale everywhere in the cities and settlements, and is very generally indulged in by women past their prime. The snuff of Peshawar, called Marghozi, alter the village where it is produced, is in much demand, and is reputed the best that reaches Kâshghar.

Death.—The following is the procedure observed when death closes the career on earth.

When the last moment is near, the arms are folded across the chest, the legs are straightened out, and the great toes are tied together. The death is at once reported to the mulla, or " priest" of the parish, who hastens to the death-bed. The relations and friends now assemble, and the women lament with loud wails and cries, slapping their faces and breasts with open palms. The winding-sheet is then brought, and the priest, after washing the body according to the Mabomedan rites, puts it on the corpse. The women again break into lamentations, and then the body is placed on a bier, and carried in procession to the grave. Sometimes a party of darveeh and calandar are hired to precede the procession and chaunt funeral dirges. The people of the house in which the death has occurred put off their usual clothes, and for two or three days wear those of beggars, and follow the corpse to the grave. The janazak, or funeral-prayers, are repeated by the priest, the people around saying Amin or " Amen." During three days no food is cooked in the house in which a death has occurred, but is brought to the mourners by their friends and neighbours.

On the third day the zakafchi, "tax collector," comes and makes an inventory of the deceased's estate, and after paying his debts, divides the remainder into forty equal parts. One of these he takes for the king, and the remaining thirty-nine he divides equally amongst the heirs male.. These now. according to their means, cook food and feast the beggars, ascetics and divinity