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0501 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / Page 501 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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It was a strange feeling to find myself after fully two years
once more on a properly made cart road duly marked with
milestones. We had not met a single human being since
leaving a Kirghiz camp above Moji, until descending to
the north the little rest-house of Por-döbe was reached
the same evening. There I found a kindly Russian Customs
officer, by birth an Ossete of the Caucasus, just arrived from
Irkesh-tam station on the main Farghana-Kashgar road.
From him I learned that Colonel Ivan D. Yagello, holding
military and political charge of the Pamir Division, was
expected to arrive next day on a rapid passage from his
headquarters to Tashkend. A day's halt at Por-döbe secured
me a meeting with this distinguished officer, whom a letter
sent from Kun-tigmaz by a fast Kirghiz rider had advised
of my coming.

Experience soon showed that even on the Indian side of
the Hindukush I could not have hoped for arrangements
more complete or effective than those which proved to have
been made on my behalf by Colonel Yagello both on the
Pamirs and in the Upper Oxus territories of Wakhan,
Shughnan and Roshan included in his charge. He had filled
the chair of Oriental Languages at the Military Staff
College of Tashkend, and being greatly interested in the
geography and ethnology of the Oxus regions, was anxious
to aid whatever investigations could throw light on their
past. It was due mainly to Colonel Yagello's willing help
and forethought that I succeeded in seeing so much interest-
ing ground, far more than my original programme had
included, within the comparatively short time available,
and without the loss of a single day.

One of the chief reasons which had made me eager from