Dervishes and Hadjis. 251 



place, as it is this kind of garment which the Prophet is said 

 to have worn next his skin. Finally, in Persia, ink powder, 

 and pens, made of canes, are purchased. In Central Asia all 

 these articles are great curiosities, and they are paid for hand- 

 somely, partly from necessity, partly from religious motives. 



Generally speaking, a caravan of hadjis, I mean one 

 whose character has been well inquired into, are the best tra- 

 velling companions one can have in Central Asia, or rather in 

 the whole of the East, provided one can manage to agree with 

 them. With regard to the travelling necessaries, the hadji 

 is well supplied, and it was always surprising to me to see 

 how a man, who had only one poor donkey he could call his 

 own, could make a display of a separate tea-service* (d la 

 Tartar), pilou apparatus, and carpet, when arrived at the station 

 at which we halted. Nobody is more clever than a hadji in 

 negotiating, be the people he has to deal with believers or 

 unbelievers, nomades or agricultural tribes. A hadji may be 

 converted into anything, he being thoroughly penetrated by 

 the principle, "Si fueris Homes. " Instead of being cast 

 down and gloomy, as his ragged exterior would lead us to 

 suppose, he is of a merry disposition, and, during the long 

 marches, the greatest saint and miracle-maker occasionally 

 indulges in a profane joke. The comicality of these generally 

 serious faces has often made me forget the privations which I 

 was myself undergoing. 



* The tea-service consists of a can-like vessel made of copper, and is, next to 

 the Koran, the most indispensable vade mecum of every travelling Tartar. Even 

 the poorest beggar carries it, suspended by the handle, about with him. j 



