CHAP. v.] PEOPLE OF SARIKOL 75
numerous are those who have come from Sliiglinan. It seems that Sarikol, exposed to inroads from all sides, has been a kind of happy hunting ground for adventurous spirits of the neighbouring tracts who for one reason or the other found their own valleys too hot for them. This curious mixture is reflected in the polyglot faculties of the people, who seem all more or less familiar with Sarikoli, closely akin to Wakhi, as well as with Persian and Turki.
M. Sher Muhammad had done his best to explain that I was no ` Hakim.' All the same, the applications for medicines from among my visitors were numerous. I could in conscience do nothing for the aged relative of one of the Begs, whose eyesight had grown dim with his burden of years. Still less was there a remedy in my little medicine-case for the initial stage of leprosy from which the youthful son of another Beg manifestly suffered. " Tabloids " of a sufficiently harmless kind had nevertheless to be prescribed, and as these would not be considered sufficiently efficacious without stringent orders as to diet, &c., I found myself compelled to add verbal prescriptions also on matters of my patient's daily life, which lay quite beyond my ken. Spells, if I could have offered them, would undoubtedly have been still more appreciated.
On the 10th of July I was able to continue my journey, all arrangements for transport and such supplies as the place could offer having been completed. The valley, fully 10,000 feet above the sea, grows only oats and pulse. Vegetables there were none to be had. M. Sher Muhammad, with due forethought of the inhospitable region before me, had all the hamlets ransacked for eggs, and succeeded in furnishing my " chef," Sadak Akhun, with three score of them. This requisition had evidently exhausted local resources ; for before I started I was very politely, and with many excuses, asked to favour the Amban with half a dozen of these precious eggs, as they were urgently wanted for making up a medicine ! Of course, I felt happy to oblige that dignitary.
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