THE LAND OF LAMBSKINS 



79 



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in affairs of trade, 

 government, and 

 religion, gave me 

 cordial and enjoy- 

 able entertainment 

 for two nights at 

 his home in the 

 oasis. During that 

 time I did not se- 

 cure a glimpse of 

 any of his three 

 wives or the older 

 daughters among 

 his seventeen living 

 children. Our host 

 informed us, how- 

 ever, that we were 

 being duly scruti- 

 nized by his wo- 

 menfolk, as well as 

 by the neighbors, 

 through "pee p- 

 holes." 



The women re- 

 mained, for the 

 most part, in the 

 kitchens preparing 

 food and tea and 

 sending them out 

 to be served to us 

 by the boys of the 

 family. 



In order to con- 

 verse with the na- 

 tive it was neces- 

 sary to address, 

 first, an English- 

 Russian-speaking interpreter, and he, in 

 turn, passed the message on through an 

 interpreter who spoke Russian and the 

 native dialect. The part taken by the 

 native in the conversation would then 

 come to me reversely through the same 

 interpreters. 



My conversation with actual breeders 

 of Karakuls was confined, for the most 

 part, to the owner of a flock of 800 who 

 resided at the juncture of the oasis and 

 desert steppes of Bokhara, where are 

 found the outlying irrigation ditches, 

 which during ordinary years contain 

 water for only short periods — a situation 

 that had forced this ranchman to move 

 in and out at intervals and to depend 

 upon wells continually. 



On arriving at the headquarters of the 



NEWLY BORN UMB : STEPPES OF BOKHARA 



The pursuit of beauty too often leads to cruelty, and some of the 

 methods of securing unborn lambs are quite revolting. Demand for 

 objects of beauty, wholesale destruction, popular indignation, conserva- 

 tion, and scientific development — these are the stages through which the 

 gathering of furs, feathers, and flowers has progressed. Now the ac- 

 quaintance of even the fearsome skunk is cultivated in order that beauty 

 may be perpetuated. 



Karakul sheep-owner, our party was re- 

 ceived with kindly consideration, though 

 with much curiosity and even suspicion, 

 by the proprietor and two of his sons 

 However, as we sat on the rugs in his 

 quarters, in Oriental style, with shoes re- 

 moved, and drank tea. cordiality soon de- 

 veloped, and one after another of the 

 men and boy attaches of the establish- 

 ment joined the circle. 



At first the conversation, carried 011 

 with great difficulty through the two in- 

 terpreters, consisted of questions about 

 sheep-raising, the taking of pelts and 

 marketing, with the cautious replies : but 

 as time passed, the situation became more 

 mutual, till eventually the tables turned 

 and they were quizzing me concerning 

 affairs in my country. 



