KAMI, OR KUMU 487 



grain, kine, or labour to their overlord at Kumul. We 

 have knowledge of no less than thirty villages and 

 groups of farm-houses belonging to the Khan, twenty 

 in the plain and ten in the high mountain valleys, 

 all of these being inhabited by agriculturists. On the 

 northern slopes of the mountains only, where grassy 

 plateaux replace the steep-sided, rocky ridges of the 

 southern side, are people to be found who might be 

 described as nomadic shepherds; even these are in 

 reality merely Taghliks who live a semi-nomadic exist- 

 ence in more or less permanently pitched tents, tending 

 the flocks and herds. 



Over these ruled Mahsud Shah, hereditary Prince of 

 the Khanate of Kumul and eighth of his line, bearing the 

 complimentary Chinese title of Tsing Wang, or Prince of 

 the First Rank. Kumul remained as an example of that 

 system whereby the Chinese were enabled to leave the 

 affairs of the western dependencies in the hands of local 

 chiefs, the status being that of a protected native state. 

 The Khan had absolute power over his subjects, except 

 in the exercise of the death-penalty ; in such a case the 

 sentence imposed by the Khan had to be sanctioned by 

 the Chinese " political agent " in residence at Kumul, 

 who managed the affairs of the Chinese colony, and 

 acted as adviser to the Khan in matters of any im- 

 portance. 



The Khan treated us with much kindness and honour. 

 The British, he said, were friends of Islam, and he was 

 glad to meet them. He knew of Hindustan, and, as a 

 Mussulman under Chinese suzerainty, he appreciated 

 foreign rulers who showed respect for the religion of their 

 subjects. During our stay in Kumul and our journeys 

 throughout his dominions we experienced such whole- 



