of whom 1000 are armed with Berdan rifles, presented to the Amir some years ago by the Russians, and the rest with percussion muskets. They are drilled and clad on European models, but here the parallel ceases. Inefficient as is the Bokharan army, the paramount power is anxious to effect a deduction in its strength, which will ultimately not exceed 3000 men. It is a significant fact that while the civil officers, from the Kushbegi down to the Amin who measures the crops, receive no remuneration beyond what they can squeeze from the people, the Amir's forces are well and regularly paid. The company officers draw about £5 per mensem; the private soldiers, 6s. 6d. in our money. In the official intercourse between the Amir and his suzerain we detect the influence of AngloIndian example. For many years the Khānates were represented at Tashkent, the administrative capital of Turkestan, by envoys selected from their own subjects; but the growth of commerce with Russia, and the necessity of drawing closer the bonds uniting the protected state with its master, led to the appointment of a Russian officer of rank as Resident with the Amir. His political relations with the latter are nominally confined to tendering advice in administrative matters. When, some years back, frauds were prevalent in the packing of cotton for export to Russia,1 the Resident approached the Amir through an unofficial channel as to the means of checking practices ruinous to trade. The outcome of these negotiations was the appointment of three cotton inspectors, whose function it is to visit the markets and report to the Kāzī all cases in which they suspect that rubbish is inserted in bales exposed for sale. Again, the Russians have deemed it to be their duty to foster the

1 Since the opening of the Transcaspian Railway this has become a staple export, and it has ousted the produce of the United States. The term for unripe cotton is gūza; that for pods ready for export is pakhta.

production of wine. The grapes of Bokhārā are as fine as her peaches and apricots-which is saying a good deal-and a potent fluid resembling Amontillado, with a pleasant sub-acid after-taste, is retailed at fourpence a bottle. But intoxicants are denounced in the Koran as things accursed, and the prohibition has much worldly wisdom, because Asiatics drink, not in order to cheer the heart of man, but to drown the senses in brutish oblivion. A compromise between religious duty and worldly interest has been arrived at. Bokhārans may not make wine themselves, but they are at liberty to sell the grapes to Armenians and Jews, who have a monopoly of the manufacture. A dealer vending wine or spirits to a Mohammedan is punished with a fine of 1000 roubles. The Resident has a court of his own for the decision of civil and criminal cases in which the injured party is a foreigner. His jurisdiction is unlimited, and his sentences without appeal. Documentary evidence is insisted on as a basis of money claims. The Russian law is administered, as modified by local custom, and no advocate is allowed to intervene between the tribunal and the parties. Where the defendant belongs to that category, the case comes before a judge of the peace, who is independent of the Resident and a subordinate of the Ministry of Justice at St. Petersburg. His sentences run through a gamut of appeals, precisely as those tried by the courts of the mother country. This alien jurisdiction is highly popular, and subterfuges are adopted in order to bring cases triable by the native judges within its purview. The post and telegraph services are in Russian hands; and a hospital is maintained, under European management, which costs the Amir £2000 annually. Those who are cognisant of the perennial friction between Chief and Resident at many Indian courts will be surprised to learn that the relations between suzerain and vassal in

Bokhārā have invariably been cordial. The Amīr, Sayyid 'Abd ul-Ahad, is now in his thirty-seventh year.1 He is tall and muscular, and would be handsome but for growing corpulence, that curse of Eastern princes. He is still devoted to hawking and other forms of sport, affable and dignified. Every year he visits one of the hot springs in the Caucasus, and often winters in the Crimea. The heir-apparent, Sayyid Mir 'Alim, has been educated in St. Petersburg, and holds the rank of lieutenant in a Cossack regiment. In early youth the Amir had convincing proof of the resistless power of Russia. He saw his haughty father die broken-hearted of the humiliation entailed by his abortive effort to roll back the tide of European aggression. He knows, too, that the capital is at the Russians' mercy, for they own the rich province of Samarkand, through which the Zarafshan flows to fertilise his thirsty fields, and that it would be an easy matter to divert its course; and so he is always ready to anticipate his master's wishes. There was a spice of truth in the late governor-general's remark, "the Amir of Bokhārā is the most zealous of my lieutenants." While a ruler so pliant continues to sit on the throne of Bokhārā he need not fear annexation.

1 The genealogy of the reigning house is not quite so clear as such matters usually are in Eastern countries. The founder was an Uzbeg general of the tribe of Mangit, named Mahammad Rahīm Bi. He was succeeded by his nephew, Dāniyāl Bi, whose son, Shāh Murād, alias Ma'sūm, commonly styled "Begi Jan," was a soldier of the type of Chingiz Khan. He conquered Merv in 1784, and raised Bokhārā to a pinnacle of glory to which it had never attained since the spacious days of the Amir 'Abdullah, a contemporary of our own Elizabeth. Murad attained sovereignty in 1796, and died about 1801. His successor, Mir Haydar, was a capable soldier, and the military caste had things entirely their own way during his reign, which ended in 1826. His successor was Nasrullah, a moody and treacherous tyrant, who gained an infamous reputation in England by the cruel slaughter of our envoys Stoddart and Conolly. His son Muzaffar resembled his father in cruelty and fanaticism. The story of his overthrow by the Russians has already been told.