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0396	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

0396

Innermost Asia : vol.2

極奥アジア : vol.2

in his Appendix C, of the measurements and other observations recorded by me has con-
firmed it.²

From Paghū
to Kala-i-
Wāmar.

From Paghū (6,600 feet) an instructive day's progress brought me on September 25th to
Kala-i-Wāmar. The Bartang river before its junction with the Oxus above this, the chief place
of Rōshān, passes through gorges if anything even more forbidding than those I had seen above.
Between two of them, in which the track clings to almost vertical rock faces by frail wooden 'Rafaks'
or ladders, lies Yemts, a picturesque village of some 30 houses ensconced among walnut groves
and orchards. All the houses contained comfortable halls or Aīwāns, open loggias being very often
added in front for use in the summer months. Rough as is the carving which decorates their wood-
work, I could recognize the survival of some motifs which are clearly derived from the West and
frequent in Graeco-Buddhist relievos, such as the four-petalled clematis-like flower and Roman
rosette. It was a relief, after leaving Yemts by skin raft, to pass the last rock gate and reach the
mouth of the valley where the Bartang spreads out to join the Oxus (Fig. 434) below the largest
village of Shūjan. It was from the headman of the latter that I received the specimen of decorated
wood-carving (Pl. LXVIII), used to hold the splinters of pine-wood which are burnt to light up
Rōshān houses.

Old wood-
carving
from Kala-i-
Wāmar.

The single day's halt, which was all that regard for the journey ahead and the advancing
season would allow me to spend at Kala-i-Wāmar (elevation about 6,250 feet), found me encamped
in the pleasant old orchard adjoining the ruinous castle of the Mīrs of Shughnān (Fig. 425). Besides
doing much anthropometrical and other work, I used the opportunity for close examination of
Ming-bāshi Mīr Shikrāk's house, a typical Rōshān dwelling, situated about half a mile from
the fort towards the village of Barzūt. A piece of old wood-carving had been brought to me from
it, and on inquiry I found it belonged to a fine double-arched window frame which, owing to intended
alterations, had been removed from above the main entrance and put with the lumber. The photo-
graph, Fig. 449, shows it as restored to its original place, and Pl. LXVIII as temporarily set up at
the British Museum. The ornamentation of both window and door, though manifestly Saracenic
in its main design, shows also elements of late Hellenistic origin, curiously Byzantine in appearance.
This is particularly the case with the motif that decorates the jambs both of window and door, and
is applied also to the fold of the latter. It consists of rows of circlets laced by a double scroll which

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