国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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They are said to number altogether 2,000 houses, which at seven for each will give their total population at 14,000 souls. They are a very poor people, and seldom quit the recesses of their hills. They have several little villages to which they retire for shelter in winter,, but during summer they spread in small camps amongst the mountains with their small flocks of sheep and cattle, and in favouring spots grow crops of barley and wheat. Their arms are the matchlock and sword, and their clothing a course woollen material made from the fleece of their sheep.

They seem to have been hnnted by all their neighbours, and were at perpetual war with the Chinese. But under the strong rule of the Amir they enjoy, if not prosperity, at least peace and immunity from the slave hunting raids of their Kunjud enemies. Until six or eight years ago they were annually harrassed by robber bands from Kunjud who drove off their cattle and carried away their people as slaves for the markets of Bukhara and Yarkand. Their Chief village in Khalistan is said to be ChIlkchti, 200 houses, at two days' journey west from Chighligh camp ground on the Tiznaf river at the foot of Topa Dawan.

Population.-From the data furnished in the preceding description the population of the Kashghar State may be tabulated and summed thus :-

Such are the results of a careful enquiry into the population of the several divisions of the country, and the numbers given are mostly those represented to be the revenue reckonings of the Chinese rulers. My personal observation, however, leads me to the belief that this one million and fifteen thousand is very considerably above the actual numbers. which a proper census would disclose as the true population of the country in the possession of the Arai): as defined in the preceding pages, and I have been enabled to form this estimate for the whole country from experience of its western divisions.

Two circumstances conspire to mislead the mere traveller in his calculations. One is the sudden transition from a region of solitude and desolation to another of society and habitation; and the other is the striking contrast between the desert , wastes around and the flourishing settlements that spread far and wide between them. Thus the traveller approaching the country from the south has to cross a vast uninhabited region utterly devoid of trees and verdure ; and after ten or twelve days of such desolation he suddenly plunges into a flourishing settlement extending over as many miles along a river course, and thickly planted with trees in all its extent. His first impression is one of dense population and plenty, but a closer investigation shows him that abundance of trees does not necessarily prove numbers of population ; and he discovers that the houses are widely scattered either as single homesteads or in clusters of two or three together ; and if he counts them, he will find that within a radius of a couple of miles all round hardly fifty tenements visible. He quits this settlement on bis onward journey and, whichever way he goes, he traverses a wide waste of blank desert to the next which, may be, is a market town and entered on market day. He here finds a closely packed and busy crowd blocking the streets with their numbers; and extricating himself from their midst he goes his