1833.] Régistan or great Bazar. 227 
instrument, by Schmalcalder, but I had a duplicate, and I think it was 
not sacrificed without an ample return. Had we been in Bokhadra in 
disguise, and personating some assumed character, our feelings would 
have been very different from what they now were. Like owls, we 
should only have appeared at night ; but after this incident, we stalked 
abroad in the noon-tide sun, and visited all parts of the city. 
My usual resort in the evening was the Régistan of Bokhara, which 
is the name given to a spacious area of the city near the palace, that 
opens upon it. In two other sides there are massive buildings, col- 
leges of the learned ; and on the fourth stands a fountain filled with water, 
and shaded by lofty trees, where idlers and newsmongers congregrate 
around the wares of Asia and Europe, which are here exposed for sale. 
A stranger has only to seat himself on a bench of the Régistan, to know 
the Uzbeks and the people of Bokhara. He may here converse with the 
natives of Persia, Turkey, Russia, Tartary, China, India, and Kabiil. 
He will meet with Tarkmans, Calmuks, and Kuzzaks, from the sur- 
rounding deserts, as well as the natives of the more favoured lands. 
He may contrast the polished manners of the subjects ‘‘ of the great 
King” with the ruder habits of a roaming Tartar. He may see the 
Uzbeks from all the states of Mawarulnahr, and speculate from their 
physiognomy on the changes which time and place effect among any 
race of men. The Uzbek of Bokhara is hardly to be recognized as a 
Turk or Tartar, from his intermixture of Persian blood. Those from 
the neighbouring country of Kokan are less changed, and the natives 
of Organj, the ancient Kharasm, have yet a harshness of feature pecu- 
liar to themselves; they may be distinguished from all others by dark 
sheep-skin caps, about a foot high. A red beard, grey eyes, and fair 
skin will now and then arrest the notice of a stranger, and his attention 
will have been fixed on a poor Russian, who has lost his country and 
his liberty, and here drags out a miserable life of slavery. A native of 
the Celestial Empire will be seen here and there in the same forlorn 
predicament, shorn of his long cue of hair, with his crown under a tur- 
ban, since both he and the Russian act the part of Muhammedans. 
Then follows a Hind, in a garb foreign to himself and his country: 
a small square cap, and a string, instead of a girdle, distinguishes him 
from the Muhammedans, and, as the Moslems themselves tell you, 
prevents their profaning the prescribed salutations of their language, 
by using them to an idolator. Without these distinctions, the native 
of India is to be recognized by his sombre look, and the studious man- 
ner in which he avoids all communication with the crowd. He herds 
only with a few individuals, similarly circumstanced with himself, The 
GG 2 
