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CHAP. XXXII. p 171.   PAMIR.   39

in his reference to the peculiar language of Wakhän ; for Wakhī

which is spoken not only by the people of Wakhän but also by

the numerous Wakhī colonists spread through Mastūj,, Hunza

Sarikol, and even further east in the mountains is a separate

language belonging to the well-defined group of Galcha tongues

which itself forms the chief extant branch of Eastern Iranian."

XXXII., pp. 171 seq., 175, i82.

THE PLATEAU OF PAMIR.

" On leaving Täsh-kurghän (July a), 1900), my steps, like

those of Hivan-tsang, were directed towards Käshgar. . . . In

Chapters V. -VII. of my Personal Narrative I have given a

detailed description of this route, which took me past Murtägh-

Ata to Lake Little Kara-kul, and then round the foot of the

great glacier-crowned range northward into the Gez defile, finally

debouching at Täshmalik into the open plain of Käshgari.

Though scarcely more difficult than the usual route over the

Chichiklik Pass and by Yangi-H īsar, it is certainly longer and

leads for a considerably greater distance over ground which is

devoid of cultivation or permanent habitations.

" It is the latter fact which makes me believe that Professor

H. Cordier was right in tracing by this very route Marco Polo's

itinerary from the Central Pamirs to Käshgar. The Venetian

traveller, coming from Wakhän, reached, after three days, a great

lake which may be either Lake Victoria or Lake Chakmak, at

a ` height that is said to be the highest place in the world.' He

then describes faithfully enough the desert plain called ` Pamier,'

which he makes extend for the distance of a twelve days' ride.

and next tells us : ` Now, if we go on with our journey towards

the east-north-east, we travel a good forty days, continually

passing over mountains and hills, or through valleys, and crossing

many rivers and tracts of wilderness. And in all this way you

find neither habitation of man, nor any green thing, but must

carry with you whatever you require.'

" This reference to continuous ` tracts of wilderness ' shows

clearly that, for one reason or another, Marco Polo did not pass

through the cultivated valleys of Täsh-kurghän or Tagharma, as

he would necessarily have done if his route to Käshgar, the

region he next describes, had lain over the Chichiklik Pass.

We must assume that, after visiting either the Great or Little

Pāmir, he travelled down the Ak-su river for some distance, and

then crossing the watershed eastwards by one of the numerous

D

11.