Innermost Asia : vol.2 / 387 ページ（カラー画像）

0387	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

in the second half of the eighteenth century Chinese political power made itself felt in Shughnān,
just as it did beyond the Oxus valley, too, in Badakhshān and Chitrāl.¹² A local tradition of Chinese
control still survives and, as communicated to me by Tūrān Bēg of Shākh-dara, seems to connect
it with the Chinese advance across the Pāmīrs which took place in 1759 after the occupation of
Kāshgar.¹³

This extension of Chinese political influence to Shughnān and even beyond it may confidently Racial type
be recognized as a result of the comparative facilities of access that the valleys of Shughnān afford, of people.
both from the side of the Pāmīrs and from the open plateaus of Badakhshān. The same geo-
graphical factor, together with the Shughnī people's proneness to supplement the scanty resources
of their own country by seeking profit outside it, may probably help to explain the admixture of
foreign racial elements with the original Homo Alpinus type of the population (Fig. 442) which
is clearly indicated by Mr. Joyce's analysis of the anthropometrical materials secured on my
passage through Shughnān.¹⁴

In this connexion I may note that tradition puts the former population of the whole of Shughnān Estimates of
at the high figure of 7,000 households. There can be little doubt that this estimate is greatly population.
exaggerated. Nevertheless I found clear evidence that a great deal of arable land, particularly
in the upper portion of the Shākh-dara valley, had gone out of cultivation since an earlier period.
Whether this was due to the effects of prolonged maladministration under local Afghān and
Bokharan rule, to the slave-trading practices of the last local Mīrs, or possibly to the recently
increased facilities for emigration I was not able to ascertain. According to the information
uniformly supplied to me, the three tracts of Shākh-dara, Ghund, and Khāruk, visited by me on
the Russian side of Shughnān, were reckoned to contain 210, 220, and 60 households, respectively.
To this figure a considerable addition would, no doubt, have to be made for the tracts stretching
along both banks of the Oxus from below the Ghund debouchure to above Kala-i-Wāmar.

On September 15th I left Khāruk in order to ascend the valley of Shākh-dara to its head.¹⁵ Journey up
The march of that day led along a bridle-path following the right bank of the stream and passing Shākh-dara.
a number of picturesque hamlets separated by stretches of grazing grounds. The valley bottom
allowed of easy progress throughout and widened to fully half a mile at the village fort of Rāch-
kala (about 8,400 feet), once the seat of the Mīrs of Shākh-dara,¹⁶ where we halted. The second
march brought us, after we had proceeded about 8 miles, to the point above the hamlet of Bezets
where the bottom of the valley turned into a belt of luxuriant riverine tree growth. From the
debouchure of the large glacier stream of Bāzun-dara, which we next passed, a difficult route,
often used in the old raiding times, leads to Shitkarw in Wakhān. Beyond that we reached a point
near the mouth of the Zanōch-dara where the river is hemmed in between wall-like cliffs, and the
passage through the defile obstructed by huge masses of fallen rock. The ' Darband ' thus formed
was defended by two towers.

About two miles farther this defile widens into a basin broken by small rocky ridges. Here Ruins at
at the grazing ground of Bidēch, a terrace rising about 80 feet above the riverine jungle is covered Bidēch.
over an area of about 150 yards by 120 with massive walls of ruined dwellings (Fig. 417), to which
tradition ascribes ' Kāfir ' origin. The masonry of flat unhewn stones set in mud plaster shows
considerable solidity and is certainly superior to any seen by me in Shughnī buildings. The walls,

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