Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-13
The Lofty Meeting Place of Three
Great Empires.
LIFE IN THE PAMIR MOUNTAINS
Nomadic Tribes That Inhabit This
Cherries Region.
QUESTION OF ALLEGIANCE

less tourney from Pekin TO India. The ter
r,rs Of the Cobb desert were fading from
NV memory. Away on my right lay the
high ranges of the Tlaashan the heaN-
enly mount aims, dividing Chinese Turkestan
from Siberia. and along the base OF when
! had plodded for many hundreds Of miles
night and day iudiffereEriy. in my eager
ness To- reach my distant destination, And
now. a. / sat lstessIy on my pony. travel
worn. dust covered and weary, / saw III
the far distance before mt, high in the SKY
and apparently uuConuected with edrLh'
long strip of purest white. even as a level
on its lower side ami Jagged on lis upper
4 knew This could only be the summit of a
snowy range and l knew that the only
snowy range it could be was the Pamlr
mountains. the Bam-i-dunya-the Roof OF
the World
And so. indeed. ii seemed looked at from
the level pans of Turk-stan, and to as
ccnd those mountains was TO all appear
ance Like climbing from The floor to the
Nat roof which formed the upper story OF
the Turksstan houses around me.
r But On this occasion / had TO turn oil
southwark to India. and it was not for two
years afterward that l actually assembled
To he Roof of the World" to this high
meeting place of three great empires and
dividing line of the waters Of Asia.
Three Miles Above Sea Level.
tinent. and from one point to which L
reached. 1000 feet above sea level, as l
looked down upon the source of the mighty
Oxus flowing OFF westward on the one hand.
on the other rolled down the waters east
ward into Chinese TurkeStan, while before
me rose the lofty. snOw-clad mountains
which Eriniy divide both these northern
waters from those which flow southwark
into India What other spot could be more
truly called the heart Of Asai And inter-
estiug il is from its purely physical as
pect from the wild grandeur of It's scenery,
the mighty glaciers which I'LL its valleys,
the eternal SHOWS which Clothe the noun
Ia sides and the fantastic beauty of its
spptieSS peaks. it j. StiN more Interesting
through The people who press around il.
From the banks Of the Oxus, to which it
gives birth. arose the great Aryan race,
which spread over all Europe, Persia and
India. and some of the pure descendants OF
"iich are TO this day still living in the SE-
Guided valleys of this region, while on its
eastern borders dwelt the Scythian or Tar
tar tribes VINO also swept in waves of i'm
migration 70 India and Joined in the tenn
peStu0Es IHrpads upon Europe.
To-day We witness the great reflex move
mrHi-iE" return wave. The vast Russian
nation Irre~iS;ibly rolling downward rom
IN" north, The far-reaching British EXTEND
luE their dominion upward from the south
while between these two active races the
impressive Chinese, who Tor a time mad
galn-t a footing in the Roof of the World,
biI iaiF To be pressed out altogether.
Region OF the Pnmirs
What sort of a region. then, is this for
the dominion vi which three empires con-
tend of what value is it to either? Who
are the present inhabitants and whose au-
thOrity DO they acknowledge? These were
IN" questions which I set myself to answer
on The three separate visits l paid TO the
FaTniTs from 1889 10 1871
In the first pace. The region of the Pa
a as has
imagined probably because 1t WAS so
marked on many maps. but its valley bot
toms are generally fiat, often from four to
hFe miles broad, and lying at elevations
varying from 1900 TO 10 600 feet above
sva ieN-l- From these valleys the noun
tam ranges on either side rise to heights
"i i'p," 1910 TO 5000 feet, while in few
exceptional cases The giant mountains
tower up 10 total height of 23,UgJ and
@'.pr I-et above the sea
- elevated region is, of course In
tense cold Even in the summer there IS
dI'e!y d month together which is free
81 iipSt, and in the winter the tempera-
ttre 4escendS TO ~, 80 and 10 degrees be-
low zero. Fahrenheit. Nowhere else have
FELT such a cold as there and Lord Dun
lh"'t. Wh" mas had experience Of Russian
Arctic and Canadian cold, says that the
IdnEF cold, temperatures being equal is
worse Than any This 1 felt 10 be due to
tnV rdfrtdctlpn of the atmosphere, which
or i,s-lf exha1sts one and dfmfuishes the
energy available for the resistance Of alb
normal temperature.
Nomadic Tribes.
Yet there are hardy nomadic races who
permanently iHhabit this inhospitable re-
gion. driving about their Hocks from place
10 place and pitching their round felt XII
bitka tents wherever sufticiency of grass
for their animals and brushwood tue! for
domestic purposes may be found No cuI-
uvatian IS, Of course, possible on the Pa
Mrs proper. and 1t is only on the out
skirts where broad valleys, to which the
term PamIrs * applied. nave sloped down
ward into lower attitudes and consequently
warmer regions. that there Is any prOht 10
b. obtained from tilling the soil. But the
hardy Kirghz of the Pamirs scarcely re-
qgiT" produce of the land. They are quite
content to live for weeks and months to-
g-thaT upon little csc than what their
fncks and herds afford them-upon milk
and cUrds and cheese. with occasionally
some meat and now and then some wheat
barley This was all the great Tartar
horde- who followed Genghiz Khan in his
hurricanes OF invasion had TO feed on, this
simple fare apparently Sutficed for all their
fiery energy But the Kirghiz Of the Pa
Mrs. who in their mode of life and dispo-
siJiJn and even in appearance otherwise
closely resemble these Wild cunquering ma
ti0ns- whose descendants ! had met with
IN my trave's through Mongolia. are now
lacking in any Kind Of warlike spirit They
may plumber l!ttle-thry may occasionally
engage in a brawL but a. 20 fighting even
FUazt they never now think of il. They
are leJhargic. indolent and embarrassing.
Question of Allegiance.
Blu The a-I-impor,ant question of few
years ago was not what were the iuhab-
itaUts like, but TO whom did they owe
allegiance? II was known vaguely that a
route lay across the Pamirs toward the
Indian frontier. ana it became of impOr-
lance 10 both England and Russia 10 de-
fine their respective positions in regard to
these tribes. To most people il wou & seem
very simple matter to ascertain To whom
the inhabitants OF country belonged. If
American visited some remote village
In The Alps he would expect To find out
from single question 10 the Inhabitants
whether they Were independent or whether
they belonged 10 Germany. France or Italy
In central Asia. however the matter is
much more complicated. The great En-
g.ish traveller. Ney Elias. visiting the Pa
Mrs a few years previous to me. found
that. roughly Speaking, the inhabitants Of
those parts OF the Great, the Little and
Alichus Pamirs. which drained down to-
ward Afgh3nistan, owed allegiance TO the
AfElrF< while he Chinese claimed bA