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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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The heart of a continent : vol.1 |
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OCR Text
It was with little regret that I now turned my back on the
plains of Turkestan, and ascended the mountains once more on
my way towards India. Chinese Turkestan is an interesting
country to visit, but a dreary place to live in. Even the air is
oppressive ; it is always "murky." For a few days one does not
notice it particularly. There are no clouds ; but when week
after week goes by and the clear sky is never seen, then a
feeling of oppression comes on. The air is always filled with
this impalpable dust from the desert, and Chinese Turkestan
is for ever shrouded in sand. And this not only leaves its mark
upon the mountains, depositing on them layers of light friable
soil, but also makes its impression upon the people of the
country. To a traveller from the direction of China, who
has become accustomed to the insolence of Chinese mobs,
these submissive, spiritless Turkis appear a genial, hospitable
people. And, simflarly, when a traveller enters the country
from the inhospitable regions over which the route by
the Karakoram Pass leads, he is so thankful to be in an
inhabited, cultivated country again, that everything to him
seems rose-coloured. But when he has been resident for
some months among the people, he finds them heavy and
uninteresting. In only one respect do they show any enter-
prise, and that is in making pilgrimages to Mecca ; hundreds
of them do this, whole families of them—fathers, mothers, and
children in arms, will set off across those bleak passes, over the
Himalayas, through all the heat of India, and over the sea to
Mecca. Numbers perish on the journey, but still, year after
year, others follow in their track ; and that so apathetic a
people should go to such extremities, is one of the most re-
markable instances I know of the stirring influence of religion.
The heat in the plains had now become very considerable,
daily registering one hundred and two or one hundred and
three degrees Fahrenheit, so we were glad to leave them behind,
and find the road gradually rising towards the great buttress
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