Karakoram

“ Some of the descriptions of the towns through which the travelers passed are interesting because of comparisons with towns of corresponding size in Europe. Karakorum, for instance, was described as a small city about the same size as the town of St. Denis near Paris. In Karakorum the ambassador missionary maintained a public disputation with certain pagan priests in the presence of three of the secretaries of the Khan. The religion of these umpires is rather interesting from its diversity: the first was a Christian, the second a Mohammedan, and the third a Buddhist. ”

“ We cross the mighty Karakorum range to-morrow—a great event. The ascent is said to be easy, and the road good. Indeed, I believe the great difficulties in our journey to have been surmounted at Bursey. But the want of grass and fuel still attends us. ”

“ The population of the Kara-kum, consisting of nomad Kirghiz and Turkomans, is very small. The region in the north of the province of Syr-darya, between Lake Aral and Lake Chalkarteniz, is also called Kara-kum. ”

“ He further told me that, eight days' journey from Yarkand, on this side, large herds of yâk are met with, and that the country generally abounds with game; that the road is not so very difficult; wood scarce certainly in places, but always something, sticks, weeds, or horsedung to be got for a fire large enough to cook with. This is the information I was wanting; and my mind is now settled to cross the Karakorum range, the pass over which, he assures me, is a very easy one.
After a long and profitable visit I departed, the shikarries, who had attended me, greatly elated at the news. ”

“ If any road in the world deserves the name “Via dolorosa,” it is the caravan road over the Karakorum pass connecting Eastern Turkestan with India. Like an enormous bridge of sighs it spans with its airy arches the highest mountain-land of Asia and of the world.
Higher and higher our slow train ascends the fissured valley where here and there small glacier tongues peep out between the steep crags. Frequently old camping-places 246 are seen with ripped-up pack-saddles. Hurricanes from the south prevail here ”

“ Every man in the caravan listened, wondering.
“It is not good,” grumbled Sharm Beg, who had come up to hear the better. “It hath the sound of sorcery.”
But it amused Mirakhon Pasha, who vowed aloud that when he reached the dwellings of men, he would have her sing again. And the Irani nobles made jests concerning caged nightingales.
And that night the Kurds who were leading us lost the trail. We were passing over a part of the plain where the soil was streaked with white salt and strewn with rocks. Mirakhon Pasha halted the caravan while the tribesmen scattered to search for the track. ”

“ But I knew that if the young hero of Karadak had not overthrown the pasha and Farash Agha in as many minutes, the Rajputs would have been doomed before now.
Leaderless, the sipahis began to think of themselves, to gather in groups. The sentry, who all this time had remained amazed and motionless, so sudden had been the onset, instead of running in, began to beat on his shield and shout in a high voice to the watchers in the camp below.
“Hai-hai! Aid, Kasim ad-Din! Ho, Sharm Beg! Aid—give aid!”
Who can tell the happenings of a hand-to-hand affray? Nay, the man who tells much lies greatly! ”

“ But when it is clear and still like to-night, with the moon shining as bright as day, the devil's work may very well come to naught.
"And why?" asked the miller, trembling lest the talkative Kharko should begin poking insults at him again. But this time the servant answered quietly enough:
"Well, you see, any Christian, no matter if he's stupid, like you, can call to the devil: 'Drop it! It is mine!' and Khapun will drop the Jew at once. The devil will flutter his wings, and fly away with a shrill cry like a wounded hawk, to be left without prey for a year. The Jew will fall to the ground. ”

“ Farash Agha swore. “Dost name me boaster?”
“Art thou the one?” The young lord of Karadak spoke with disdain, scarcely veiled. “Come, my lord ambassador, wilt thou be judge of the joust?”
“What is this?” Mirakhon Pasha frowned.
“The play of Karadak, my lord. We have little skill at play of words or dancing, but it is our custom to mount and ride forth on such clear nights to exercise in arms. Yet thou art weary from the road. So this night we shall run a few courses in the courtyard.” ”

“ This the Baluchi promised to do, but he explained that the Turkoman would not live long because the warrior had many enemies in Bandar Abbasi who would take his life in requital of old wrongs, now that he was helpless.
“O hakim,” he said at parting, “thou art an old man, treading the way of justice. Take care, upon the road. It would be well to wait for the great caravan of Mirakhon Pasha, who also takes the northern road to-morrow, through the mountains to the salt lake on the way to Ind.” ”

“ It grows light, and the eyes survey unhindered the dreary, hilly, snow-covered land; westwards extend the plains of Ling-shi-tang; to the south-east stretches the immense Karakorum range with peaks covered with eternal snow, where thunder rolls among blue-black leaden clouds. Soon this storm also reaches us, and we are enveloped in dense, fine, dry snowflakes, while the darkness of night reigns around us. I am riding at the tail of the train. The caravan is divided into four columns. We travel in the wake of the last, which looks almost black through the mist ”

“ KAKAR, a Pathan tribe on the Zhob valley frontier of Baluchistan. The Kakars inhabit the back of the Suliman mountains between Quetta and the Gomal river; they are a very ancient race, and it is probable that they were in possession of these slopes long before the advent of Afghan or Arab. They are divided into many distinct tribes who have no connexion beyond the common name of Kakar. Not only is there no chief of the Kakars, or general jirgah (or council) of the whole tribe, but in most cases there are no recognized heads of the different clans. ”

“ At a dozen paces from the great Karolah the vali and his followers sprang off and salaamed to the dust; and Kasim, advancing, cried out in broken Frankish: "Blessed be the day that I behold the mighty Karolah! The mountains shake at the tread of his coming; all men rejoice to see his glorious face!"
"We fail to hear them," replied Karl, dryly; and he glanced up at the silent folk on the battlements of the burg.
The edge of Kasim's green turban again swept the ground, and he answered readily: "Mute with awe, the men of Pampeluna gaze upon the mighty Sultan of the Afranj. ”

“ We intend to go through to Chanloong to-morrow—a stiff journey, with the tremendous mountain to get over, which, however, is not so bad from this side. We are all elated at the near prospects of a better land and a better climate than we have recently sojourned in. I hear a deal of good-natured banter going on around, and feel very 'koosh' myself, and have been congratulating everybody upon our having bid an eternal farewell to the Karakorum and Sassar horrors.
The Bokhara man sent for some corn. He lost three horses yesterday. ”

“ But we have information of a saheb being there, who has come from Simla by the Roopschoo road.
After dinner Subhan and Mooktoo came to chat; and as we discussed the demerits of this miserable country, Subhan hinted the advantage of a trip to the Karakorum mountains on the road from Leh to Yarkand, provided we could procure authentic information of the shikar being as abundant there as travellers reported. A friend of Mooktoo, a merchant whom he met in the Wurdwan, had recommended him to take me there, assuring him that animals of several kinds were not only very abundant but tame. ”

“ It has no drainage outlet. Little Kara-kul lies in the north-east Pamir, or Sarikol, north-west of the Mustagh-ata peak (25,850 ft.) , at an altitude of 12,700 ft. It varies in depth from 79 ft. in the south to 50 to 70 ft. in the middle, and 1000 ft. or more in the north. It is a moraine lake; and a stream of the same name flows through it, but is named Ghez in its farther course towards Kashgar in East Turkestan.
KARA-KUM (“Black Sands”) , a flat desert in Russian Central Asia. It extends to nearly 110,000 sq. ”

“ Paderin’s belief that this was the old Mongol capital has been shown to be incorrect. As to the Mongolian Karakorum, it is identified by several authorities with a site on which towards the close of the 16th century the Buddhist monastery of Erdeni Tsu was built. This monastery lies about 25 m. south by east of the Uighur capital. North and north-east of the monastery are ruins of ancient buildings. ”

“ KARAMANIA, formerly an independent inland province in the south of Asia Minor, named after Karaman, the son of an Armenian convert to Islam, who married a daughter of Ala ed-Din Kaikobad, the Seljuk sultan of Rum, and was granted Laranda in fief, and made governor of Selefke, 1223–1245. The name Karaman is, however, Turkoman and that of a powerful tribe, settled apparently near Laranda. The Armenian convert must have been adopted into this. ”

“ I asked of him, “thy leave to depart.”
“Not without a gift,” cried Radha swiftly. “He will give thee, O shaikh that which thou desirest in Karadak.”
“Nay,” I denied. “I have beheld the beauty of Radha of Kukri, and what gift is to be measured against that sight?”
“Well said!” cried the Rajput. “But thou hast lost a camel in this fighting, Daril.” He turned and spoke to one of the servants who bowed and made off toward the castle. “Byram Khan will choose for thee a good horse, saddled and equipped.” Suddenly he smiled merrily. “Thou art a strange physician, not to claim a reward. ”

“ He said that the Yarkand people would [Pg 173] never attack an European, though close to the town, or even in the streets; but if he entered a house, then they would set upon him.
The shikarries, who were listening attentively to all that was said, and occasionally joining in, became very merry at this welcome intelligence; and after Bella Shah's departure were vehement in their desire and determination to go over the Karakorum. Before leaving, Bella Shah promised to find me a man well acquainted with the road, and the places where the yâk are to be found ”

“ Well, it turned out that that wicked soldier had thought of a plan which, if it had gone through a little bit sooner, would certainly have sent the miller straight to the devil in hell and I should never have been telling you this story.
"Very well, then, listen carefully to me," Kharko said. "Plainly, there are three of you, one man and two girls. And plainly one man can't possibly marry them both unless he's a Turk."
"How right the wretch is!" thought the miller. "What's coming next?"
"Good! Now as you are a rich man and Motria is a rich girl, and baby can see who ought to marry who. ”

“ Makar looked with hatred at the Tartars, and muttered every time he passed one that the fellow had deserved much worse than this, but when he met a peasant from Chalgan he would stop and chat amicably with him, as they were friends, after all, even if they were thieves! Sometimes he would even show his fellow-feeling by picking up a lump of ice and diligently beating the ox or horse from behind, but let him take so much as one step forward himself, and horse and rider would be left far in the rear, a scarcely visible dot.
The plain seemed to be boundless. ”

“ The Kurds had their own chieftain, but Mirakhon Pasha paid them, and gave them many opportunities to plunder. Though the Kurds have no love for the Red Hats, and always make camp by themselves in their black goatskin tents, there was no fighting in the caravan. The Kurds feared Mirakhon Pasha more than their own chieftain or the ghost of the Desht-i-Lut—the dry lands. ”

“ Mirakhon Pasha had come out of the desert, following no road, to the tower of Awa Khan, the Rajput, the kinsman of Radha.
“And thou art my guest,” laughed the youth in the saddle of the black charger.
THERE is a time for speech, and a time for silence and thought. That first evening in Karadak I kept close to the young lord of the castle, saying nothing at all. I never doubted that this was the place Sidri Singh and Radha had been seeking when the old warrior fell ill, and the girl turned aside to take refuge in Bandar Abbasi. ”

“ Probably not a bone was left of Yankel by now; his orphans had wandered away into the wide world, and their hut was as dark as a tomb. The miller's heart was as full of darkness as the deserted Jewish khata.
"I didn't save the Jew," he thought. "It was I who made his children orphans, and now what dreadful things am I plotting against the widow's daughter?"
"Would it be right for us to do it?" he asked of Kharko.
"Why not? Of course there are some people who won't eat honey. Perhaps you are one of them." ”

“ Korokh (Karuj) is mentioned both by Ibn Haukel and Idrisi as being situated three marches from Herat, surrounded by entrenchments, and in the "gorge of mountains," with gardens and orchards and vines. The Korokh of to-day is between the mountains, but only some twenty-five miles from Herat. This modern Korokh has, however, many evidences of great antiquity, and it is on the high-road to an 237 important group of passes leading past Naratu to Bala Murghab and Maruchak. ”

“ Thus, when one Karok has killed another, he frequently barks like a coyote, in the belief that thereby he will be endued with so much of that animal's cunning as will enable him to elude punishment. Perhaps the custom of the medicine-women of this nation of squatting beside an ill man and barking at him for hours together, indicates a similar prayer for sagacity in diagnosis.
The deity and creator of the Karok religion was Kareya, who made the fishes, the mammals, and finally The Man. ”