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

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was with a double chain and a long iron bar connecting them; one of the chains being fastened to the neck and the other to the ankle, progression became possible by the prisoner holding the iron bar in his hands. This chain was termed ishkal. Offenders accused of murder or offence acrainst the State were distinguished by confinement in a cage until sentence was passed. If death was awarded, the head was cut off with a sword, the executioner wearing a red dress : before the execution he was primed for his task with intoxicating drink. In cases of trim. con. the man and woman were placed on donkeys and taken through the street, the man having his face blackened and turned towards the donkey's tail; the woman with a sack thrown over her head. Rape was punished with death, the head being cut off at a place where four roads meet. Minor offences among men were punished with the lash. The Chinese had an establishment at Charchend f<'r those undergoing sentence of banishment, where they were watched by a military force and were subject to regulations as convicts. At the present time the punishments are as follows :—For ,1Inrder.—Death in public on the bazar day by the cutting of the throat; the body being left on the spot for eight pahar as a warnin; or Hanging. For Highway /robbery.—If accompanied by violence, death by public execution, or mutilation of hand or foot. Death is inflicted on both sexes, but the hands and feet of women are not struck off.

For Theft.— The first offence, and sometimes the second, are forgiven ; but for the third offence the hand of a man is cut off. A woman, if convicted of theft, and sentenced to punishment, is put on a donkey with the stolen article on her neck and taken through the city, or is publicly flogged with the dira, the long leather strap of the kazee's attendant; the offender, however, is not stripped. If a woman is convicted when pre,nant she cannot be punished till 40 days after the birth of a child; six women are said to have been publicly executed in Kashghar since the Amir's rule commenced. The use of the torture known as Kin is said still to be employed.

If a woman, unmarried, keeps company with a man, without going through the form of marriage, she is subject to 100 strokes of the dira ; but for adultery proper, proved by eyewitnesses, two being sufficient, neither of whom must be a slave, death by cutting of throat or stoning is inflicted.

The cutting of the throat is usually carried out in the larger cities, and hanging is adopted in provincial places. Thieves are sometimes punished by cutting off nose or ear, as well as hand or foot : punishments are usually inflicted in the districts where the offence is committed, but occasionally public execution is ordered in Kashgar or else%here. Hanging is simply carried out by putting a noose over the neck and pulling the body by means of a rope from the ground, the rope running over a plain pully. Minor punishments are fine and the lash. Imprisonment is but little resorted to. Cases of theft under Rupees 10 worth of property, and not accompanied by violence, are invariably punished by strokes of the dira (a flat leather strap).

All cases of important crimes, or relating to important individuals, are at once reported to bead-quarters, and a mubariknama is forwarded from Kashghar, ordering sentence to be carried out in conformity with the Shariat and without further reference or giving detailed instructions. With people of any importance sentence of death further requires the confirmation of the Amir. In addition to all this the Amir has his own executioners and holds his own Court for the trial of State offences. Petty offences about the palace and amongst the soldiery are tried by the Kazi Usbkur.

Religious institutions.--These are the same as in all Mahommadan countries, and are under the direct patronage of the Amir and the special care of the divisional governors, who see to the protection of their rights and the promotion of their objects, the nature of which has been already described.

Finance.—The fixed sources of revenue are the 'ushr, or tithe of all cereal produce of the land, and the zakczt or customs duty. The 'ushr is levied from all cultivated land not sequestered for church purposes, or granted in exemption as fiefs. On the conquest of the country