The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-01-09

AuhDs
NV master told his story, and the
Afghans, ON being questioned, gave the
whole history of the shooting.match in
which I had beaten them. At the men
ton of that, I thought / saw Shah
rookh's face brighten, as if he had come
upon the very thing he wanted.
"This is matter for the ameer Cking)
to decide" said he. Let the Oorooss
(Russian) be kept here tonight; to-
morrow he shall be sent for"
Sure enough, the first thing next
morning, three men made their appear
ance at the door of the room into which
I had been put. The foremost (who
wore rich robe of lowered silk had
round his forehead the yellow band
which vas the badge of the ameer's
n,akhrans confidential servants); the
other two appeared to be soldiers.
Follow us, Oorooss, said the makh-
ram; !" his majesty calls you."
Away we went, right through the
heart of the city. It seemed much
larger and more populous than Khiva; /;
and after the silence and loneliness of
the desert, all this crowd and hustle
porters, fruit sellers, traders, camels and
made my head go round. Every race Of
Asia, from the east to the west, seemed
to be gathered there. Sallow, narrow
eyed Tartars, with the dust Of the desert
still upon them; tall, gaunt, hook:nosed
Turkomans; fat, lumpy Sarts, and lean,
high-cheeked Persians; squat, gnome-
like Bashkirs, who had almost the look
of bears on hind legs; yellow-faced
Cinnamon, with long pig-tails, and
shaggy, monkey-like Dhouwanas, in
huge fur bonnets; slender, graceful
Hindoos, wearing silver rings on their
wrists and ankles; portly Khokandese
merchants and filthy Kirghiz pilgrims; |;
skinny Kashgarirs, with huge bat-ike
ears projecting from under their little
saucer shaped caps; and tall, stately
Afghans, in white frocks and green
sashes, stuck all over with pistols and
daegers like the wall of an armory.
At the corner of one Of the principal
streets there seemed to be something
special going on, for such a crowd had
collected there that the street was quite
blocked up. But the makhram flourish
ed his saber-tipped rod, shouting,
"Make way for the servants OF the
kingi" and the soldiers let fall their
musket, butts on the toes of the people,
or prodded them behind with their
bayonets, so that there was a way open
ed for us in no time. And when we got
into the middle of the throng, what
should I see but two men shaking lot
of human heads out of sack, Just like
so many potatoes-a sight which saw
often enough in after days, but which
rather took me aback just then. The
makhram, seeing that 1 looked puzzled,
sindly explained to me that it was one Of
the ameer's pleasant habits, whenever
any town or village offended him, to
levy upon it tribute of so many heads,
and that if the man who collected them
happened to be short in his reckon
ng, off went his own head to make
Gatters straight-which must have
greatly encouraged the popular study Of
arithmetic.
A little farther on we heard a terrific
yelling and screeching, proceeding ap-
parently from group of native soldiers,
in the midst of which lay man fiat on
his back, with huge fat fellow seated
oross-legged on his chest like a night
mare. by way OF keeping him comfort
able, while two sturdy Bokhariotes were
laying on to the soles of his feet with
whips with all their might and main.
But the best of the whole affair was that
the fellow who was being fogged never
uttered sound, while the two who were
fogging him screamed and howled like
demons incarnate-to save him the
trouble, perhaps, OF doing it himself.
SO he got his fve-apd-twenty whacks,
and was cast off; when instantly up
jumped two more soldiers, and whacked
the first two Qor not hitting hard
enough. I SUPPOSE; and then a corpu-
lent old officer, who had been looking
on with pleasant smile, waddled mp
and gravely boxed their ears all round,
IS if he had been giving them his bless
ing, after which the congregation dis.
persed.
At last we came to steep hill, and as
we assembled it, L began to see overhead,
as we'll as the clouds OF dust would let
me (for walking through the streets OF
an Asiatic town when the winds blow
ing is quite as bad as meeting simeon
in the desert, a huge fortress.like
building, srmething after the style of
our governor-general's place at Oren-
burg, which, with its painted parapets,
and many colored towers, and great
white battlements, made quite grand
show in the bright morning sunsh ne.
The makhram told me that this was the
ameer's palace, and that they were
going to take me before him at once !;
but when 1 ventured to ask what he
wanted with me, the Bokhariote only
shook his head in way that wasn't at
all encouraging. 1t was curious to see,
as we neared the entrance, how silent
all three of them became, and how the
swagger with which they had marched
through the town changed to cautious
tlmid step, like some one approaching
the lair of wild beast, from which fact
I could pretty well guess what this
worthy ameer must be like.
Just outside the great gate stood fifty
or sixty cannon (mostly brass twelve
pounders), all in a row-like Napoleon's
guns in the Kremlin at Moscow. I no.
ticed one that was made of iron and
silver bands, turn about and the
makhram told me it had been taken at
the capture of Khokand, ten years
before.
Two soldiers were standing at the
gate as We entered /; and 1 saw one of
them point to me and draw his hand
across his throat, and the other nodded,
which didn't raise my spirits much, /
can assure you.
Inside, all was deadly still and the
loneliness of that great wide court, with
its grim silence, as if the whole place
were holding its breath before some
thing dreadful, struck colder upon me