THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



267 



Photograph by M. O. Williams 



THREE: BOKHARA THEOEOGUES IN ERONT OE MIR ARAB 



In Bokhara on Friday spotless white turbans are the rule, but a riot of rainbow tints is to be 

 found in the costumes beneath that white headgear 



In Alerv a crowd looks like a great mass 

 of shaggy, black chrysanthemums, on ac- 

 count of the sheepskin caps worn by the 

 Turkomans. But in Bokhara on Friday 

 spotless white turbans are the rule ; and 

 under those turbans purples, blues, scar- 

 lets, yellows, pinks, and greens of myriad 

 hues. There are blazing yellow suns on 

 dark-red backgrounds and barber-pole 

 stripes in a dozen colors. 



There is just one color effect that the 



Bokhara man has not yet learned. He 

 does not accordion pleat his gown and 

 make it of alternate strips of crimson and 

 white silk, so that it ripples from white 

 to red and back again with every step. 

 The man who introduces that effect to 

 the Board of Deacons of the Common 

 Council of Bokhara Religions will surely 

 win fame and fortune. 



Bokhara is a mud flower-pot contain- 

 ing every conceivable color of flower and 



