some 2000 priests in the capital, and, as the Khan much affected the priesthood, every one who could read dubbed himself a Mollah. The penal code was severe, and even sanguinary. Adultery and drunkenness were equally punished by death. There was, however, much secret drinking, and concubinage was limited only by each individual's income. Smoking was prohibited, because it is forbidden in the Koran to take into the mouth anything of an intoxicating tendency. Astrology, however, was freely practised, and among the Russian imports should be enumerated packs of playing cards, each pack consisting of 36 cards, and the games all strictly Russian. Every householder was expected to appear every morning at a mosque, or was liable to be driven to it by the police, and at 4 p.m., the hour of evening prayer, when the bazaars were most crowded, all business was suddenly suspended, the police driving out the laggards with scourgings.

The bastinado was administered with great severity on both back and stomach, seventy-five blows being equivalent to a sentence of death. For certain offences a criminal would be tied hand and foot, and thrust into a room swarming with flies of a noxious kind, from whose stings he was generally released by starvation and fever on the third or fourth day. The healing art, so far as the patient is concerned, furnishes a fine field for studying the doctrine of chances. Doctors feel the pulse, but ask no questions. Constitutions are classed under four heads, hot, cold, moist, and dry, and medicines are accordingly prescribed of a strengthening, heating, depressing, or stimulating character, the line being rigidly drawn and no compromise even attempted. Only three arteries are recognized: one terminating in the head, one in the chest, and one in the stomach. The veins are a mystery of ramification. It is not, however, from the absence of disease that human pathology is so contemptuously neglected. Intermittent fevers, for instance, are

long, severe, and liable to frequent relapses after considerable intervals. They usually begin about the end of August, and last till the frost sets in. Small-pox is prevalent and fatal, and cholera by no means a rare visitor. Consumption, dropsy, and weakness from excessive indulgences, are common complaints, and strangers often suffer from total prostration, accompanied by swoons and irresistible drowsiness, terminating in death. Swellings and ulcers on the neck and upper part of the chest are among the ills to which Bokharian flesh is heir; and in children blotches upon the face, which leave deep, and often indelible, traces.

Cataract and a painful tendency of the eyelashes to turn in upon the pupil are among the diseases to which the eye is most subject. Far more serious is a species of leprosy that begins with white specks coming out, which rapidly spread and cover the whole body. The skin dries and shrivels up, while the hair, nails, and teeth fall off. The disease is hereditary and incurable, but is fortunately confined to certain districts. Reference has already been made to the Rishta, a sort of ulcer indicating the presence of the guinea-worm, bred from drinking water drawn from cisterns in summer time, when they swarm with animalculæ. One-fourth part of the population is annually attacked, and in strangers the first symptoms often appear several months after they have left the place. A man has been known to have 120 of these worms at a time.

The only history taught in Bokhara is that of Iskander Zoulkarnain-Alexander the Great, or the Two-Horned--which is read aloud, by the Khan's orders, in a public place, by a Mollah, who receives trifling gratuities from the audience. Geography is nothing thought of; and as for astronomy, there are only five planets, and the sun revolves round the earth. Education simply means ability to read, write, and quote the Koran and a few of the commentaries to which it has given rise.

Persian is the language of the court and the Tajeeks, but the nomad population adheres to Toorkee, the tongue of their forefathers. There are said to be some 10,000 students in Bokhara, for the most part going through a dry course of theological instruction, and the Khan's library, which fifty years ago was thought large, at that time contained two hundred volumes.

The interior of the mud-built houses is as miserable and uninviting as the exterior. Furniture there is none, beyond a few carpets, rugs, and cushions. When M. de Negri was first presented to the Khan, that potentate was seated on cushions covered with red cloth richly embroidered with gold, arranged at one end of a room covered with mean Persian carpets, the walls plastered, and the ceiling of painted boards.

In Central Asia it is not the custom to sit cross-legged as in Turkey, but rather to kneel, the hams pressing upon the heels -a posture almost impossible for a European adult. Visitors are at once served with tea, fruits, and sugar, and are pressed to take some away with them-should they not do so, it is sent after them to their residence. When friends meet, they bow slightly and, placing their right hand upon their heart, exclaim ‘Khosh!' After the morning prayer they breakfast upon bread boiled with milk and salt, and at about five in the afternoon dine off a pillao, made of rice, carrots, turnips, and mutton, finishing with tea, prepared as in Europe. Coffee is unknown, as also are spoons and forks.

As proprietor of the land, the Khan derives a considerable portion of his revenues from that source, which then yielded about £400,000 per annum. Of this one-half is absorbed in the maintenance of garrisons in the fortified towns. The priests and the public schools are also a heavy drain upon the treasury. The militia are not paid in money, but hold their lands on the condition of rendering military service when called upon. The Khan's Civil List was supposed not to exceed £40,000, but it is

impossible to fix any amount for his private expenditure.

The army, prior to the dismemberment of the kingdom, consisted of about 20,000 horse, 5000 foot, and 40 guns, many of which were not mounted, or were honey-combed, or otherwise worthless. The militia may have numbered 50,000 undisciplined horsemen, good rather for predatory purposes than for war as understood by civilized nations. Besides these, there were the Toorkoman levies, on whom no particular reliance could be placed, for, though not deficient in a certain dashing kind of valour, they were not amenable to any sort of discipline, and 'fought for their own hand.' In fine, Baron Meyendorf was probably not far wrong when he said that the characteristic features of the semi-barbarous Government of Bokhara are superstition, a certain warlike spirit, and covetousness, springing from the influence exercised by that country over the petty khanats that surround it.'

In the January (1873) number of Ocean Highways,' a summary is given of a paper by Mr Grebïnkin, founded upon information obtained during a visit to Karshee, from which the following extract is taken:

'The mountains within the Shahr-i-Subz Valley strike off from the massive elevation twenty miles west of the Iskander-Kul. The northern ranges, uniting with those of Kohistan of the upper Zarafshan Valley, enter the limits of the Shahr-i-Subz Valley from the great mountain knot called Sultan-Hazret Daút, and spreading out, form gorges and defiles, through which issue the right-hand sources of the Kashka-daria. There is no regular general name for these mountains; the natives of the Shahr-i-Subz Valley call them Samarcandtau, and the people of Samarcand give them the general appellation of the Shahr-i-Subz mountains. These are not snowy mountains within the limits of the valley; they gradually fall in height towards the west, finally losing their wild character from the Djam defile; here they are rounded off, and are covered with a crust of earth, and beyond the Karshi-Djam road they dwindle into a closely connected system of undulations. There are several passes over these mountains, which are all practicable for field artillery; that of Djam being particularly easy. The following are the names of some portions of these mountains of the north :-Takta-karacha, Guré-mar, Bitéù, Ata-kinty, Ayakhchi, Kopkan-agatch.

The mountains skirting the southern side of the Shahr-i-Subz Valley are