166 



The Journal of Herhditv 



least one month, but I had in mind an 

 old Dutch saying: "Mit onwillige hon- 

 dcn is't slecht hazcn vangcn" ('tis a bad 

 job catching hares with unwilling dogs), 

 and in my work especially, if people 

 don't put a little sympathy into it, one 

 gets almost nothing accomi^lished at all. 



at the railway terminus. 

 Andishan, Turkestan, Russia, 



Oct. 4, 1910. 



As you see, I am now at the terminus 

 of the Central Asian Railway, and will 

 write you from here a short re])ort of 

 what passed over our heads these last 

 weeks. We changed our plans and 

 instead of going alone on Monday, with 

 a Chinese interpreter, and taking the 

 train, we hired a wagon and went on 

 Tuesday, September 20, 1910. The 

 reasons for going by wagon were many. 

 Firstly, I have an awful amount of bag- 

 gage (close upon 1,200 lbs.), which is 

 very inconvenient to ship by rail, the 

 more so as some of it is not accepted by 

 the railroad unless crated, and that is 

 too much work; secondly, my inter- 

 preter is a new man, whom I know only 

 slightly, and there is no better chance of 

 learning a fellow's characteristics than 

 by subjecting him to a roughing trip; 

 for the Chinese interpreter it was also 

 not bad to learn how to travel in Russian 

 Turkestan. Then in addition came the 

 fact that I could study the country 

 better by cart than from a train win- 

 dow, and last, nf)t least, my health 

 hadn't been of the best in Tashkent, and 

 such a cart tri]) would make me all 

 right again. 



Well, all things went as well as they 

 could. In three days' time we covered 

 the distance from Tashkent to Khod- 

 jent, passed through rice fields, fruit 

 gardens, deserts, etc. It is exceedingly 

 difficult, however, to inspect fruit or 

 vegetable gardens close by, as all the 

 plantations are surrounded with high 

 mud walls and strangers are not ad- 

 mitted. Then we also had difficulties in 

 obtaining sufficient food in daytime, as 

 Ramadhan, the Muhammadan month of 

 fasting, was in jjrogress. This incom- 

 prehensible religious feast allows no 

 Mussulman to partake of food and drink 



as long as the sun is in the skies. As 

 soon, however, as that body sinks down, 

 then eating and drinking commences 

 and merriment is made until the break 

 of day. The main meal is eaten then 

 between eleven p. m. and one a. m. 

 What use this unhealthy rule has is as 

 yet a puzzle to me, but this is certain, 

 that it is most inconvenient to all travel- 

 lers and even to the believers themselves. 

 We often couldn't get a cup of tea, even 

 in daytime, and ready food was quite out 

 of the question. 



PEACHES UNDISCOVERABLE. 



On Friday, September 23, we stayed 

 in Khodjent and wanted to find some 

 famous peach varieties. We were, how- 

 ever, unable to find anybody willing or 

 capable to show us around, and it was 

 a Muhammadan holiday besides, so we 

 had to give it up. Our wagon driver 

 had become dissatisfied with the expen- 

 siveness of feed for his horses and wanted 

 an extraordinary ])rice before he would 

 go any further, although we had en- 

 gaged him for at least as far as Kokand. 

 Well, we wouldn't give in, and engaged 

 two local two-wheeled carts and left 

 the next morning, September 24. On 

 Monday, Se]:)tember 26, we landed at 

 sunset in Kokand and had our first 

 clean-up in seven days. The last three 

 days we had passed most of the time 

 through sandy, stony and alkaline 

 deserts, going sometimes axle deep in 

 dust, so we and the baggage were simply 

 covered with gray and brown coats of 

 desert dust. At the Russian hotels we 

 tried to find accommodation; they were 

 susi)icious of us and we had some trouble 

 of getting a roof above our heads. We 

 had to give our passports the very first 

 thing, apparently to satisfy the fear that 

 we were robbers, returning with loot ! 



In Kokand we stayed two days, in- 

 spected 1)azar, seed and grain market 

 and looked o\'cr the fruits. Kokand is 

 reputed to be the finest market in Cen- 

 tral Asia, and I really exijccted to find 

 many new things. There is, however, 

 not as much in our line as one might 

 wish to see. I got some samples of 

 unusual varieties of almonds and a large 

 brown chickj^ca which I had not seen 

 before. There were also very fine sped- 



