National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0088 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / Page 88 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000214
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

a very capable 'handy man'. Jasvant Singh, a wiry little
Rajput from Kangra who has acted as the surveyor's cook
on all my journeys, was included in the party (Fig. 11). I
wished I had ever myself been able to benefit by the ser-
vices of an Indian follower so reliable and so gentlemanly
in manners. But unfortunately his high caste precluded
ministrations in such a capacity to a European, so the
position of cook to my own person had to be filled by a
Muhammadan Indian, about whose qualities, professional
and personal, the less said the better.

I just mention these details, as my modest staff remained
much the same on my other expeditions also. Of course,
Turki pony and camelmen had to be added after I had
reached on Chinese soil the proper field of work and there
had to organize my own transport for explorations in the
desert. Among those local men, too, I secured a nucleus of
faithful followers. Considering all that our equipment had
to include in the way of scientific instruments, photographic
apparatus and glass plates, and a minimum of indispensable
stores likely to last for two and a half years, there was reason
to feel satisfaction that fourteen mules at the start sufficed
for the whole baggage.

By April 27 we set out from the fort which guards the
Malakand pass (Fig. 12) and with it the approach to the
great valley of Swat. Since the important military route to
Chitral had been first opened in 1895 the Malakand and
the valley beyond had been the scene of much hard tribal
fighting. It was appropriate ground for the start on a
journey which was to take me not only to distant regions,
but also far back in the ages. For those first stages led
through trans-border valleys which more than twenty-two