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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

the western frontiers of the country from Kákshál on the north, round by Tirik Dawán and
Taghárma, to Karákash on the south. Its continuity is interrupted in the south-west by the
Sárigh Kúl division above described, but for the rest its most notable peculiarity is the utter
absence, other than military outposts, of fixed habitation or cultivation. Yet it has a
permanent population which, within the limits of its several divisions, regularly migrates from
the low to the high lands according to the seasons, and on each roams as the necessities of its
requirements may dictate. And this periodical movement from one region to the other is attended
by a noteworthy, though temporary, transfer of allegiance from one ruler to another, except
in the southern portion of the division which is wholly within the Amír's limits.

This anomalous arrangement is the result of the existing distribution of this natural
home of the Kirghiz between three different rulers—the Russians, the Khan of Khokand, and
the Amír of Káshghar. Their respective shares in this partitioned territory are not very accu-
rately defined, but this much appears to be certain that the summer and winter quarters of
certain of the nomad camps are in the territories of different rulers. Thus the Kirghiz of
Kákshál, which is Káshghar territory, in summer pasture on the upper Narin and Atbáshí
beyond Chádir Kol, which is Russian territory, and are there joined by the nomads of Aktágh,
which is the name of that part of the Alátágh range between Chádir Kol and Tirik Dawán;
now the camps in the southern valleys of Aktágh are Káshghar subjects right up to the
sources of the Tuman river on which the capital stands, whilst those in the northern valleys
draining to Uzkand are Khokand subjects; and both in summer pasture on Russian territory.

Similarly the Kirghiz of Karátágh, the range extending from the Tirik Dawán to
Tágharma, who are all Káshghar subjects, roam the plateaux of Aláy and Kizil Art with the
Kirghiz of Osh and Andiján, who are Khokand subjects, as their common summer pastures;
though the territory belongs to Káshghar, and has done so since its first annexation, together
with Sárigh Kúl, by Mirza Abábakar at the period of the Uzbak invasion about the end of
the fifteenth century, as is recorded in the Táríkhi Rashídi. The author of that book states
that Abábakar conquered all this hill region up to Sárigh Chopán or Tangi Wakhán and
annexed it to the diwan or "Civil jurisdiction" of Káshghar, but left the low valleys of
Badakshán on the west to the Uzbak invaders.

In our maps this elevated tableland is called "Pámir steppe," but it is not known
specifically by this name to the Kirghiz, who are its only frequenters. So far as I can judge
from the descriptions given to me by several Kirghiz whom I have questioned on the subject
the general configuration of the country would seem to resemble that of the Khurásán range
of tablelands extending from Mashhad to Mekrán, or the tablelands of Belochistán from
Khozdár to Shál, both of which I have seen. This Pámir steppe (which in this account,
though the name is not known to the Kirghiz, I have designated Bolortágh, as that is the
name by which the region is spoken of in the Táríkhi Rashídi) bears some noteworthy points
of topographical resemblance to the Khurásán range. Both are cross ranges running north
and south to connect parallel mountain systems whose main direction is east and west, and
both separate wide plains or river basins. Thus the Khurásán tablelands connect the Alburz
range with that of Mushti in Belochistán, and separates the hydrographic basin of Sístán
from the corresponding basin in the desert of Yezd and Kirmán. So the tablelands of Bolor
connect the Alátágh range with that of Himalaya, and separate the basin of the Tárim from
that of the Oxus.

These latter, too, from the descriptions I have heard, would seem to resemble the
Khurásán highlands in their general features of arrangement. Thus they are characterized as
consisting of a number of subordinate ranges which run parallel to each other, and enclose
between them those open spreads of pasture plateaux, here called pámir and in Khurásán Julaga
or Jilga. These drain according to the direction of the hills and the lie of the land either
to the east or to the west, by insignificant streams which coalesce and form considerable rivers
only after they have passed beyond the plateaux. In one respect the pámir and the jilga
differ; the former owing to the prohibitory nature of the climate and altitude have no fixed
habitations whatever, whereas the latter, not as a rule, but only where climate and elevation
admit, have such permanent abodes as villages, gardens and fields. Many of these plateaux,