CHAP. IX. REACH KHAKEMIR.-EXAMINATION.

199

gin of the desert, and out of the middle of which Khodja Oban projects like an oasis; and when, after a long search, the day broke, we found ourselves on the bank of a lake full of sweet water. Here terminated the desert, and with it the fear of a death from thirst, robbers, wind, or other hardships. We had now come positively to the frontiers of Bokhara, properly so called; and when, after two leagues' journey, we reached Khakemir (the village where the kervanbashi resided), we found ourselves already in the middle of a country tolerably well cultivated The whole district is watered by canals connected with the River Zerefshan.

In Khakemir there are but 200 houses. It is only two leagues distant from Bokhara. We were obliged to pass the night here, that the tax-collector (Badjghir) and reporter (vakanüvisz), informed of our arrival in accordance with the law, might be in a position to complete their report of search and examination outside the city.

The very same day a messenger went express, and the following one, very early in the morning, arrived three of the emir's officers, with faces full of official dignity and importance, to levy upon us the imposts and duties, but more especially to learn tidings concerning the adjoining countries. They first began to overhaul our baggage. The hadjis had, for the most part, in their knapsacks holy beads from Mecca, dates from Medina, combs from Persia, and knives, scissors, thimbles, and small looking-glasses from Frenghis

tan.

And although my friends declared that the emir, "God grant him to live 120 years," would nev

er take any customs from hadjis, the collector did not in the slightest degree allow himself to be diverted from his functions, but wrote down each article separately. I remained, with two other mendicants, to the last. When the official looked at my face he laughed, told me to show my trunk, "for that we' (meaning, probably, Europeans, as he took me for one) "had always fine things with us." 1 happened to be in excellent humor, and had on my dervish or fool's cap. I interrupted the cunning Bokhariot, shat i had in effect, some beautiful things, which he would see himself when he came to examine my property, movable and immovable." As he insisted upon seeing every thing, I ran into the court, fetched my ass, and led it to him up the stairs and over the carpets into the room; and after having introduced it, amid the loud laughter of my companions, I lost no time in opening my knapsack, and then showed him the few rags and old books which I had collected in Khiva. The disappointed Bokhariot looked round him in astonishment, demanding if I really had nothing more. Whereupon Hadji Salih gave him explanations as to my rank, my character, as well as the object I had in view in my journey, all of which he noted down carefully, accompanying the act with a look at me and a shake of the head full of meaning. When the collector had finished with us, the functions of the vakanüvisz (writer of events) began. He first took down the name of each traveler, with a detailed description of his person, and then whatever information or news each might have it in his power to give. What a ridicu

CHAP IX. BOKHARA SHERIF.-CROSS THE ZEREFSHAN. 201

lous proceeding-a long string of questions respecting Khiva, a land of kindred language, origin, and religion with Bokhara; their frontiers having been for centuries and centuries coterminous, and their capitals lying only a few days' journey distant from each other.

Every thing was in order, only some difference of opinion arose as to the quarter in the capital where we should first put up. The collector proposed the custom-house, hoping, at least, there to be able to squeeze something out of us, or to subject me to a stricter examination. Hadji Salih (for the latter, possessing much influence in Bokhara, now took the lead in the caravan) declared, on the contrary, his purpose to put up in the tekkie; and we started at once from Khakemir, and had only proceeded half an hour through a country resplendent with gardens and cultivated fields, when Bokhara Sherif (the noble, as the Central Asiatics designate it) appeared in view, with, among some other buildings, its clumsy towers, crowned, almost without exception, by nests of storks.*

At the distance of about a league and a half from the city we crossed the Zerefshan. It flows in a southerly direction, and, although its current is tolerably strong, is fordable by camels and horses.

On

* In Khiva nightingales abound, but there are no storks; the reverse is the case at Bokhara, in which there is not a single tower or other elevated building where we do not see birds of the last-named description, sitting, like single-legged sentinels, upon the roofs. The Khivite mocks the Bokhariot upon this subject, saying, "Thy nightingale song is the bill-clapping of the stork."

CHAP. X.

ESPIONAGE.-BAZARS.

205

e respect was entertained for the investigation t no communication at all was made to me on the ject. My good friends replied in the following nner to the doubts of laymen: "Hadji Reshid is t only a good Mussulman, but, at the same time, a rned mollah; to have any suspicion of him is a BOK rtal sin." But, in the mean time, they advised SET UPWI was to act, and it is solely to their counBOOK BAZAR.—THE Wʊle suggestions that I can ascribe ENT EMIRS. — HAREM, GOVERNMishap in Bokhara; for,

RA

SLAVE DÉPÔT AND TRADE.-DEPARTURE FROM

TOMB OF BAHA-ED-DIN.

velers who

"Within earth's wide domains

Are markets for men's lives;

Their necks are galled with chains,

Their wrists are cramped with gyves.

"Dead bodies, that the kite

In deserts makes its prey;

Murders that with affright

Scare school-boys from their play!”—Longfellow.

THE road led us to the Dervaze Imam, situated to the west, but we did not pass through it, because, as our tekkie lay to the northeast, we should have been forced to make our way through all the throngs in the bazar. We preferred, therefore, to take a circuitous route along the city wall. This we found, in many places, in a ruinous state. Entering by the gate called Dervaze Mezar, we speedily reached the spacious tekkie. It was planted with fine trees, formed a regular square, and had forty-eight cells on the ground floor. The present khalfa (principal) is grandson of Khalfa Hüsein, renowned for his sanctity, and the tekkie itself is named after him. The