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0545 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / Page 545 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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The interior of the same house afforded a typical illus-
tration of the curiously elaborate arrangement of the hall
which serves as the living-room for the whole large house-
hold in the winter. Every one of the wooden pillars sup-
porting the timber ceiling has its particular name, and each
part of the sitting platform as divided by the pillars has
its special use. It was amusing to observe that a raised
recess just below the ceiling serving as the sleeping-place
for the children was provided with a kind of hypocaustic
heating by the calves being accommodated in a closet
below it.
The women of Roshan are said to be famous for good looks
and particularly for the fairness of their complexion. I had
a wayside chance of verifying this reputation when in com-
pany of the village headman I passed three generations of
his family gathered in a group near his home (Fig. 145).
Wife and mother were as fair of face as if they had been
ladies of Europe, and the two little girls looked very pretty.
In order to increase the attraction of the elder's complexion
according to local fashion, her grandmother was just then
busily engaged in smearing her rosy cheeks with some wild
berries intended to bleach the skin.
On September 27 I left Kala-i-Wamar in order to make
my way towards Kara-tegin across the easternmost valleys
and ranges of what until 1877 had been the principality of
Darwaz and had since passed under the rule of the Amir of
Bukhara. The season was now closely approaching when
the high passes on the route I had planned to follow might
become blocked by snow. So I felt obliged to travel here
rapidly. To this I could reconcile myself more readily since
a considerable portion of this alpine portion of Bukhara had
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