84 Brigade-Surgeon J. E. T. Aitchison's Notes on Prodmts 



to Turkistan. The trade witli Arabia is done chiefly by 

 pilgrims to Mesliad, or return pilgrims from Mecca, who 

 depend upon the exchange or sale of some such commodity 

 to pay their way whilst travelling. Limes, Lemons, and 

 Oranges in a fresh state are extensively imported into 

 Afghanistan and Turkistan from the Caspian provinces of 

 Persia, where the trees grow in great luxuriance. 



Fuel — htma, honda. 



In the vicinity of all villages fuel is extremely difficult 

 to be got, and is always an expensive item in one's daily bill. 

 The inhabitants have long ago consumed the little that ex- 

 isted in the land surrounding the village, and when the 

 village is a large one, people are seen going long distances to 

 collect a sufficiency for their daily requirements. As a rule 

 much fuel is not consumed by the people of these regions, as 

 most of their food and bread is cooked at public resorts, and 

 the luxury of a fire lighted to keep them warm is rarely 

 adopted. Their houses are all built of sun-dried bricks owing 

 to this great scarcity of fuel, and it is only the houses of the 

 great and rich that are to be seen built with burnt bricks. 

 By travellers the stems and twigs of the Artemisia are 

 generally most sought for as fuel, for this purpose being 

 excellent, always apparently being dry and ready to burn, 

 as well as being easily handled in making a fire ; next to 

 these the smaller branches of the Tamarisks. 



Our camp followers, once they had struck upon the roots 

 of the Liquorice plant, steadily searched for it, but this was 

 more to make a good hot fire to keep themselves warm than 

 to cook with. Whilst resident at Bala-morghab, those who 

 had chimneys built into their tents found the dry wood of 

 PiSTACiA VERA by far the best fuel the country could produce, 

 owing to the amount of resin present in the wood, and next 

 to it that of Celtis. The wood of Haloxylon Ammodendron 

 was highly extolled by the natives as giving a valuable slow- 

 burning fire, producing great heat, and that a log once 

 lighted would burn slowly for days, no trouble being required 

 to keep the fire in. Notwithstanding the difficulty of obtain- 

 ing fuel, cow-dung is rarely used for this purpose. 



Fungus — samdrukh, gliarl-hun. 



