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| 0223 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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available silver coins, at the ratio of eight Tangas to five
Miskals, unless one is prepared to handle the dirty rolls of
Chinese coppers which the local trader keeps strung up like
sausages. But the exchange rate between silver and copper
is not stable, and the silver Miskal was just then considerably
above the value of forty copper pieces which the ratio just
mentioned would indicate. So after successfully converting
Tangas into the legal coin, a varying discount has to be
calculated before payment can be effected. It only adds to
these monetary complications that prices of articles imported
from Russia are reckoned in 'Soms' (Roubles), which in the
form of gold pieces of five or ten Roubles widely circulate
through the markets of Turkestan, while the heavier Chinese
silver 'Yambus,' of horse-shoe shape and varying weight,
have a discount of their own. During my stay in the country
the value of the gold Rouble as against the local currency of
Tangas represented by Chinese silver and copper pieces,
steadily declined, and with it unluckily fell the Rupee too,
the exchange value of which seems in Turkestan to depend
mainly on the Rouble rate. For the well-trained arithmetical
faculties of the Hindu trader these tangled relations offer no
difficulty. But I confess I sadly reflected on the loss of time
which they implied for me.
On the 24th of September the weather became cloudy and
the temperature distinctly cold. A yellow haze hung all
day low over the ground and intensified the effect of the
atmospheric change. It felt autumnally chilly in the wide
halls of my palace, and I realised how different life in them
would be when the winter set in. The haze still continued
when early on the morning of the 27th of September my
caravan was again set in march. It was market-day, and the
endless stream of villagers that passed along the roads with
their manifold produce and belongings was a welcome dis-
traction. Women of the cultivating class play a prominent
part in all the marketing. I met them in large groups or
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