scalp. The bai then rose and took hold of the young man who had confessed by the arm, put his hand upon his head, and declared him penitent. He then ordered him to be his personal attendant. The young man at once prostrated himself, and the bai being now seated, he placed his head underneath the heel of the chief. The bai then raised him up, and he was forthwith released and a freeman. The other two, who were doomed for slavery, were sent away in custody of four or five armed men, who were instructed where to meet a slave - dealer who would take possession of them.

CHAPTER VIII.

AMONG THE KIRGHIZ.

BEAUTIES OF KAFIRISTAN-TITLES OF THE SHIGHNAN LADIESMETHODS OF OBTAINING GOLD FROM THE RIVERS-VISIT TO A KIRGHIZ ENCAMPMENT — A BENEVOLENT RULER DRESS AND APPEARANCE OF THE KIRGHIZ - A VENERABLE FAKIR VISIT

TO THE RUBY MINES-WAIT FOR THE WEDDING-A DISAPPOINTMENT CONSOLATION-WANDERINGS IN THE PAMIRS-A ROBBER CHIEF-A RIDE FOR A WIFE-A TRAGIC OCCURRENCE.

ALL the prominent points of the Shighnan valley are studded with castellos. The control of the bai over his subjects was very limited. Bands of depredators amounting to 200 or 300 men would at times cross the Pamir steppes and plunder the Tash-Kurgan district and others in an easterly direction, going as far as Yarkand and Kar-galik. But now, in consequence of the wide-reaching ascendancy of the Kunduz power, the Shighnan clans are rather the plundered than the plunderers.

We proceeded on our journey through the valley, amid the usual varieties of mountain country, and

encountering the usual difficulties with practical skill. Every effort was being made to procure by bribery a respite, at least, from the dreaded raid of the Kunduz ruler. Everything obtainable was being collected-gold-dust, horses, leopard and lion skins, falcons, fine greyhounds, &c. Most of the inhabitants, especially women and children, had for the last two or three months been removing all their chattels into the mountain fastnesses to the north of Shighnan, and had even crossed the boundary range into Roshan and Darwaz.

All the houses and hamlets I saw in Shighnan were well kept, especially when the presiding female was of Kirghiz extraction, or from Wakhan, Chitral, or Kafiristan. The beauty of the women of the last-named region is proverbial in Asia; hair varying from the deepest auburn to the brightest golden tints, blue eyes, lithe figures, fine white teeth, cherry lips, and the loveliest peach-blossom on their cheeks.

All along the westerly part of the Shakh Dara

1 Sir Henry Rawlinson, speaking at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in April 1881, said that, forty years previously, while at Kabul, he had seen a Kafir slave, the most beautiful oriental lady that he ever saw. She was the only lady he had ever met who, by loosening her golden hair, could cover herself completely from head to foot as with a screen."-H. P.

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valley were traces of former habitations, once populous and happy hamlets. Here and there were clumps of mulberries, apricots, peaches, cherries, walnuts, and poplars. But for the feverish excitement of a life of perpetual fear of invasion, nothing could be more charming than the rustic society of these mountains. Polygamy, of course, prevails, and each bai or baron numbers his seven or eight partners of his existence.

The first four wives had titles which signified (1) the original; (2) the beauty; (3) the handmaid; (4) the pet. Here, as in Turkestan, the females are by no means secluded: each and all were free to come and go as the mountain breezes. Far different is it with the females in the Afghan families of Kabul and other large cities.

In the families among whom I was now sojourning connubial honour and felicity were the rule. I remember that one day the Syad and myself were paying a social visit to the old bai. In our position of guests we enjoyed the privilege of entering the sacred precincts of the harem, and we found the old man submitting to a pretty sharp slipper-beating at the hands of two beauties, who had taken this mode of avenging themselves for an imaginary breach of fidelity!

The population generally were herdsmen or farmers, but they added to their income by goldwashing in the rivers and by occasional plundering expeditions. There are three different methods of obtaining gold from the rivers. The first is to wash the river-sand at certain well-known spots, particularly at the inner angles of curves, where the strong current of the main stream causes swift reverse eddies, and allows the gold scales and particles to subside together with quantities of deep purple and black ferruginous sand, in which alone gold is found. This operation is lucrative in the Upper Oxus and several other rivers. The proper season is after the rains, and when the snowfloods have subsided and left the rivers at their lowest. Sometimes as much as four tillahs' weight of gold is collected-about 120 grains. This, when rubbed up with a little mercury, forms a still amalgam. It is then taken home and separated from all impurities. The mercury evaporates through an application of heat, and the residuum of pure gold is stored in the hollow shank-bones of large birds, such as herons, cranes, &c. The second method, in vogue principally in the neighbourhood of Hazrat Imam, consists in the formation of a sort of gold - trap of fleecy sheepskins, which are laid