oases, either on the tributaries of the Tarim or on the outskirts of the mountains, where some moisture enables the arid soil to bear crops of wheat, barley, maize, rice, cotton, flax, tobacco, and hemp, or on which can be pastured the sheep which grow the fine wool woven into the Turfan shawls, which bear so high a repute in Kashmir and other neighbouring countries. Outside these oases there is little to tempt the wayfarer. Rain is rare, and sand-storms and whirlwinds frequent. In the summer the traveller broils under a merciless sky; in the winter deep snow covers the country like a white blanket. Trees are few, except by the water-courses, but around the villages are usually groves of willow, poplar, and elm, in addition to orchards of various fruit trees.

Of the cities Kashgar, though not the greatest, is the chief, since here Yakoob Beg established his capital. It is built on a plain on both sides of the little river known as the Kizel Su-but from its streets may be seen in the far distance the snowclad peaks of the Thian-shan and the Aksai Plateau, with the lower hills intervening. The population numbers about 30,000, and owing to the concourse of merchants from the Russian and other portions of the surrounding country-we are speaking of what it was in Yakoob's day-the caravanserais and bazaars present a busier appearance than the actual size of the place would seem to warrant. The town extends for some distance along the banks of the stream, but there are in it no buildings of any beauty or pretension, the old palace of the Ameer itself being merely a great gloomy barrack, consisting of several buildings within buildings, the outer ones occupied by the household troops and officials, the inner by the Ameer and his family. It is hardly likely that matters will have much improved under the Chinese régime, for though the Chinese are more tasteful and domestic than the Asiatics of this part of the continent, their rule has up to date been such a continual hand to hand fight that the officials and colonists have not had much time to develop the amenities of life. The Andyanis, or Khokandian merchants, were the most important class in the town, and had Yakoob Beg been a more enlightened ruler, or even allowed longer to remain on his throne, it can hardly be doubted that with the trade he was opening up with Russia and India the city would in time have attained some of the prosperity which in old time attracted the admiration of Marco Polo and the early Chinese travellers. A few miles from Kashgar is the Fort of Yangy Shahr (p. 89), which was one of the last places in which the Chinese held out against Yakoob Beg, and half way on the road to Yarkand lies the city of Yangy Hissar, once a place of some importance commercially and from a military point of view, but now fallen greatly into decay, though, owing to the exceptional fertility of the surrounding country, still not without influence in Kashgarian politics. The road the traveller must traverse in order to reach this town passes through the hamlet of Kokrobat, and skirts the barren, stony desert of Hameed, with its scanty patches of grass and few stunted shrubs, and through the busy little town of Kizil, where are situated furnaces for smelting the iron ore of the lower slopes of the Kizil-Tagh, or Red Mountains. Then come a number of little villages and a fertile plain, on which, on the left bank of the Sargrak, stands Yangy Hissar, or Yanghissar, as its name is sometimes spelt. The town contains about 11,000 houses, huddled together in the wildest confusion-a booth for the sale of silks standing alongside of one used as a stall for the disposal of horseflesh. Yarkand the

ill-fated Lieutenant Hayward* describes as containing about 40,000 houses, but he estimated the population of the half-deserted town at only 120,000 in all likelihood it is now much less.† Unlike Kashgar, which is an open town, Yarkand (pp. 85, 89) is defended by a strong wall, pierced by five gates, and the streets are never over ten or twelve feet wide, and lined with shops - curiously enough for a Mohammedan town mostly kept by women. Some of the houses possess an upper storey, in which the sharp-eyed observer may notice the women rocking the child's cradle with their feet, a spectacle which, as Mr. Shaw observes, is not common in the East. But, in addition to its military and commercial importance, Yarkand is a "university town," on an expanded rather than a great scale. At the time the lamented pioneer of commerce we are quoting visited it, it possessed numerous mosques, colleges, and caravanserais, or hotels, always crowded with merchants from every part of Asia, dealing in grain, fruit, and leather, of which last article the consumption was very great, the late Ameer not only using it for the boots and saddles of his troopers, but even in some cases for their uniforms also. Many of the bazaars and streets are roofed over as a protection against the sun's rays, and the town is well supplied with water from tanks, which are filled by canals. In every street during the summer ice is sold, iced sherbet, at the cost of a twelfth of a penny the cupful, being one of the most common refreshments of thirsty pedestrians. Pheasants and venison are brought in frozen from the mountains during the winter. Good bread is made "by steaming over boiling water, the loaves being placed in vessels with a false bottom, made of open woodwork. In similar vessels also are cooked various delicacies, which make good and savoury food, especially what the Turks call 'mantoo,' being little balls of forcemeat enclosed in small dumplings with gravy. They are really delicious." Mr. Shaw mentions that, unlike the case in the East generally, the bazaars are not noisy with buyers and sellers, all bargains being conducted in a silent manner with the hands. "The seller, the buyer, and all the officious assistants who never fail to present themselves on this occasion, pull their long sleeves over their hands, and in this way make bids on each other's fingers, saying, 'so many hundreds'-a pull of the fingers; 'so many tens'-another pull; and 'so many units'—another pull." No bargain seems to be thought valid unless made in this manner, which, it may be noticed, was described 500 years ago by Marco Polo. In Yakoob's time-and it is not likely that the Chinese have been able to change the system-the silver "kooroos," an ingot of silver, consisted of about 1,100 "tangas," each "tanga," in its turn, containing twenty-five little copper cash, so that if change were required for a piece of bullion a donkey had at the same time to be hired to carry it home. Hence most transactions are done either on account or by barter.

The people are fairly treated. The "corvee," or forced labour, which is the rule in Kashmir, and even in the hill districts of the Punjaub, was unknown under Yakoob's rule. All work done was paid for, and if insufficiently so the men refused to do it. The peasant and coolie also work cheerfully, more like Englishmen than the listless Indian.

Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XL. (1870), p. 33.

+ Sir Douglas Forsyth did not consider it had over a third of that number.
Shaw: "Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand, and Kashgar" (1871).

labourers, who would take four days to do what these Yarkandians accomplish in one. In Yakoob Beg's time they were paid fourpence per day. But food is cheap. Flour was selling in the spring of 1869 at about a shilling for 26 lbs. weight, and it is said that before the régime of Yakoob it was only one-third of that price. Indeed, in 1869 many of the people wearied for the return of the Chinese, who allowed the taxes to be collected by the native officials, and did not in any way interfere

with the local administration so long as their moderate tribute was paid. But at the same time they allowed the officials to plunder prodigiously, a course of action which Yakoob, contrary to the wont of Oriental potentates, strictly prohibited. Indeed, under the Chinese, Kashgar was only an inferior town, the seat of government being Yarkand, and here also were the chief Chinese merchants, who vanished when the new ruler made his advent. It is, therefore, only fair that the evidence in favour of the much-abused Chinese Government should be given, for it enables us to see at a glance the relative merits and demerits of the two régimes which in a few short years the Yarkandians have had experience of. "What you see on market days now," was the observation of an intelligent

merchant, "is nothing to the life and activity that was in the time of the Khitay (Chinese). To-day the peasantry come in with their fowls and eggs, with their cotton and yarn, or with their sheep and cattle and horses for sale, and they go back with printed cotton, a fur cap, or city-made boots, or whatever domestic necessaries they may require, and always with a good dinner inside them; and then we shut up our shops and stow away our goods till next week's market-day brings back our customers. Some of us, indeed,

go out with a small venture in the interim to the rural markets around, but our great day is market-day in town. It was very different in the Khitay time. People then bought and sold every day, and market-day was a much jollier time. There was no Kazi Rais, with his six Muhtasib, armed with the dira, to flog people off to prayer and drive the women out of the streets, and nobody was bastinadoed for drinking spirits and eating forbidden meats. There were mimics, and acrobats, and fortune-tellers, and story-tellers, who moved about amongst the crowd and diverted the people; there were flags and banners and all sorts of pictures floating at the shop-fronts; and there was the jallab, who painted her face and decked herself in silks and laces to please her customers." "But were not the