92 
NARRATIVE. 
rather his chin, for, as a rule, the Kirghiz have no 
beards. This motion of stroking the beard was 
always accompanied by the exclamation, " Alia ho 
Akbar!" (Grod is great). 
The Yarkand Kirghiz being under the Atalik Grhazi 
are now compelled to be outwardly very strict Ma- 
homed ans. They live chiefly on animal food, the 
produce of their flocks. I received from one of them a 
present of cheese, which was in the form of round pel- 
lets the size of grapeshot. All their grain is brought 
from the plains of Yarkand, for they never cultivate 
the soil. I remarked that none of them used tobacco 
in any form. I had brought with me a number of 
clasp-knives and other presents, to give them in 
exchange for curiosities and articles of dress, but the 
only thing, except ammunition and looking-glasses, 
which they seemed to care about was silver coin. 
One of them returned me a clasp-knife, and said he 
would prefer any silver coin instead. Possibly the 
reason of this was that they were afraid the Atalik 
Ghazi might punish them for taking presents from 
his guests. 
On August 3rd we marched twelve miles to a place 
called Gulbasha, or Gulbashem, where there was a 
ziarat or mazar {i.e., tomb) of some saint, on the top 
of a low hill. We afterwards saw numbers of these 
mazars. They usually consist of a pile of stones, 
stuck all over with long sticks and brushwood, on 
which are bits of rag of various colours. 
We saw to-day footprints of a fox (?), and a number 
of Yarkand ravens, which latter seemed smaller than 
the Ladak ones, but perhaps they were only less 
well fed. 
