480 
THROUGH ASIA 
without camels. Happily I had my meteorological and 
astronomical observations, to say nothing of the letters I 
had just received, and of old Togda Khodia, to help me 
pass the time. I did not find Johannes the missionary 
much of a resource. He was one of those morbidly 
religious people, who imagine that true Christianity is 
incompatible with a sober joy in life, as well as with 
good spirits. This was no doubt partly due to his being- 
a converted Mohammedan : such proselytes are often ten 
times worse than their teachers. However, he was good- 
natured and helpful, though he always seemed to be 
depressed and in dull spirits. 
A few days afterwards I fell a victim to a very bad and 
painful sore-throat, known by the name of gorkak, very 
prevalent thereabouts. After I had tried the begs pre- 
scription, which was to gargle my throat with warm milk, 
but to no purpose, he proposed that I should give the peri- 
bakshis or spirit-exorcisers a trial. I told him that I did 
not believe in such nonsense ; but that the peri-bakshis 
were welcome all the same. 
After dark, when there was no light in the room save 
what came from the glowing coals on the hearth, the peri- 
bakshis were introduced — three big, bearded men, in long 
white chapans (cloaks). Each carried a drum (doff) of 
extremely tightly-stretched calf-skin, and on these they 
proceeded to perform by tapping them with their fingers, 
beating them with the flat of the hand, and thumping them 
with their fists. The drums gave out such a volume of 
sound that it might have been heard at Lailik, six or seven 
miles off. The performers beat the instruments at an 
incredible speed, and all three in exactly the same time. 
After tapping the drums with their finger-tips for some 
time, all three would give a bang at one and the same 
moment, and then follow it up with half-a-dozen hollow 
whacks with their fists. Then the finger-tapping would 
begin again, and the whole process be repeated without a 
moment’s cessation. Sometimes they sat still ; sometimes 
they were so carried away by their peculiar music, that they 
got up and danced ; and sometimes again they tossed their 
