The record-union., 1897-08-22

and blue, wearing trousers and O. long
cloak with which they cover their faces
when meeting strangers. The men are
universally armed with long, straight
Afghan knives, with ivory handles. An
other common weapon is the, jezai,
which is an enormously Nrg musket
with a carved and ornate stock, and a
slender rod to support the muzzTer while
firing. The sword commonly used is
the common tulwar or Turkish scim-
itar. In addition to these a great va
riety of weapons of all kinds of Euro
pean makes are to be found among
them.
The Pathans of the hills are chiefly
an agricultural and pastoral people.
They cultivate wheat, rice and sugar
cane in the valleys, depending almost
exclusively upon irrigation though per-
haps once in five years it is possible
to obtain good crops from land that is
not irrigated. Sheep, goats and oxen
make up the bulk of their live stock,
though they also use camels and donk-
eys as beasts of burden. Their trade
with India and Afghanistan is conduct
ed by means of caravans made up of
camels, oxen and donkeys. Sometimes
a single caravan will contain from a
hundred to a hundred and fifty camels
laden with skins grain and other mer-
chandiSe. These trains have to be
guarded bv numerous armed men to
assure them protection against the
countless outlaws that infest the region.
THE ROOF OF THE WORLD.
Just over the mountain wall from
Chitral lies the vast, lone and desolate
plain of the Pamirs. Going north
eastward from Wakhan, where dwell
stout warriors and good hunters, and
travelling by a road which ascends for
three whole days together, you come
to an exceeding high mountain, than
which there is said to be none higher
in the world. Here also between two
mountains is a great lake, and running
over the plain is a very fine river. The
plain is twelve days journey in length,
and is called Pamere. Onward the road
leads to Kashgar, which is tributary
to the Great Khan" Such was Marco
Polo's account of the Roof of the
World and it tallies well with what
all men know to-day of that forbidding
region. Captain Younghusband, pre-
viously mentioned, has described 1T as
about 120 miles by $50 miles in extent.
1t is a region of broad valleys, each
three or four miles wide. Most of the
country is bare, but parts of it in the
summer yield good grass, on which the
kirghis nomads pasture their fiocks, the
| wandering KirghiZzes, who comes on
shaggy ponies from Pamere." Besides
the valleys there are huge bare mount
aims rising more than 10000 feet above
the sea, while the bottoms of the valleys
are at an altitude of from $4,000 to To-
900 feet Winter begins in August and
ends in May, and the temperature is
often from 10 to 20 degrees below zero.
The latter half of June and the first
two weeks of July contain the only re-
ally warm weather. Heavy frosts be-
gin with the first of August.
The only resident population of the
Pamirs are the wandering Kirghis. Of
these there are in the whole region not
more than a hundred families, with five
or six persons in a family. They live
in tents, and for their living depend
entirely upon their f1ocks. They come
down from the mountains to the nearest
towns occasionally to buy flour and
grain, and to sell their cattle and hides.
AS a rule, they are well clad and robust,
prosperous-looking men, A few of them
carry firearms, which they use for
shooting game for food. They are a
friendly, amiable people, well disposed
toward the British, but regard the Chi
nese as the real lords of the world In
religion they are Mahometans~ They
have no temples or mosques, but pray
at sunset, looking toward the west
Such are Chitral and it's neighbors;
among the most remote and inaccessi-
BILE of all inhabited lands, yet among
the most jealously regarded of all. The
two greatest and most aggressive OF
the worlds empires there meet, perhaps
to clash, perhaps to dwell in arnity. 1t
would be a dreadful region for great
war Yet who would have chosen the
Virginia wilderness for a battlefield?
The exigencies of empire make strange
campaigns, and it may be that the
lonely Himalayan hight, gray pillar
Of the Indian sky" may some time see
another Arbela or Waterloo. Ii So
there will be, thanks to the genius OF
more than one, but of none more than
of Field Marshal Lord. "Bobs," no lack
of preparation for it on the southeast
ern slopes of the Hindoo Koosh.-NeW
York Tribune.