CHAPTER XVII
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN CHINESE TURKESTAN
Straight and slender-waisted are the maids of Kashgar,
Short, with sack-like figures, are the maids of Yangi Hissar.
A goitre above and fat below are the maids of Yarkand.
Arranging apples on saucers are the maids of Khotan-Ilchi.
Wearing felt caps, with foreheads high, are the maids of Sarikol.
The Maids of Turkestan. (From an old ballad.)
The inhabitants of Chinese Turkestan are divided by the anthropologist into four distinct groups. The first consists of the Sarikoli and Pakhpo mountaineers, who are pure Aryans. The second is a desert group including the mass of the inhabitants of the country, the basis of this population being Aryan with some Uighur admixture, more especially at Aksu in the north. The third group is formed of the Kirghiz, the Dulanis and the inhabitants of Aksu; the fourth consists of the Chinese and Mongols, whose differentiation from the Kirghiz is to be noted. The Aryan type has been best preserved in the southern and south-western parts of the province, with their rugged mountain areas which are difficult of access. In the western districts Turkish influence is evident, in the northern the Mongol zone begins, and this, as our survey moves eastwards, gives place to the Chinese.
Throughout this work reference is constantly made to the people of Chinese Turkestan, and here an attempt will be made to summarize their character. They are distinctly to be classified as “tame,” in the frontier officer’s sense of the word, being submissive, lacking in spirit and ready to serve any master, provided that they can enjoy life in their own way, with feasting, women and music. In their ballads they complain of forced labour, with its separation from wife and family, and they sing the praises of the home. But they are not faithful to their wives: “Let every one follow his inclination and enjoy himself with the woman he prefers. If the kings were just, every one would have his beloved mistress at his side.” Lack of physical and moral energy and dislike of hard, continuous work and, above all, of discipline, are notable characteristics of these apathetic oasis-dwellers; but against these imperfections, which they share, more or less, with the neighbouring peoples of Russian Turkestan, must be set many good qualities. Hospitality is found everywhere, strangers are welcomed and the people are pleasant to deal with, their politeness being especially marked. The Chinese rule, though supported by few troops, is a living force, and this proves that the people are law-abiding. Moreover, there is very little fanaticism, and the inhabitants of Chinese Turkestan, although obedient to their spiritual leaders, are not easily excited to rebellion. One inconsistent trait in this home-loving race is the readiness they show to undertake a journey, though travelling is generally hard and wearisome; but perhaps the chief cause of this is curiosity, and, after all, relatively few travellers leave their beloved province. “We love our festivals” is the general refrain of this happy, but nonchalant, race of lotos-eaters.
During the months we spent in this little-known country, I employed my spare time in collecting information regarding its manners and customs, which, as is natural, bore strong traces of Chinese origin. They were also influenced by the fact that the people were Buddhists for many hundreds of years before their forcible conversion to Islam in the tenth century, when they became Sunnis, looking up to the Khan of Bokhara and, above him, to the Sultan of Turkey. Their holy places remained unchanged so far as the sites were concerned, and on them shrines in honour of Moslem saints have been erected. Ancestor-worship, too, is inherited from the Chinese, with the result that the tombs are visited with a frequency unknown elsewhere in Central Asia.
Girls, when they reach a marriageable age, visit one of the shrines and pray as follows: “O Allah, O Lord of the Shrine, grant me a house with a kettle ready placed on the stove, and a spoon in the kettle. May it be a house with its four sides decorated with cloth, with carpets and druggets ready spread, and with towels hanging from the pegs. Grant me a husband whose father and mother are dead; and may he have no other wife!” When the saint vouchsafes to hear this delightfully naïve petition and a suitor appears on the scene, there is no formal betrothal, although in the case of the wealthy large sums are paid by the bridegroom and the bride is richly dowered. Costly gifts, too, are given to the bride by the bridegroom and by relatives and friends. In the case of a poor man, a payment of merely one or two pounds sterling is made to the parents, who defray the bride’s outfit from the money. The next step taken is to obtain a certificate from the Imam of the quarter, that the woman is free to marry, and after the payment of a small fee a written permission for the marriage is given by the local Beg.
Nowadays there is no special wedding-dress, and even the globular wedding-cap of cloth of gold or silver has ceased to be worn. The marriage ceremony is generally celebrated at the termination of a feast which lasts until the evening. A mulla reads the fatiha or opening chapter of the Koran, after which the agent of the bride goes to the women’s apartment and asks her thrice whether she accepts the bridegroom, and upon receiving her bashfully given consent, he returns to the men to announce the success of his mission, thereby completing the nikah or legal ceremony. Two pieces of bread soaked in salt water are then given to the bridegroom and bride respectively, and this, in popular opinion, is the most important act of the marriage. Indeed many marriages are contracted by the observance of this custom alone, bread and salt probably symbolizing the inauguration of a new household, although the meaning has now been forgotten.
As the bride leaves her old home, the mother laments: “O my black-eyed darling! Alas, my child, my child! My sweet-voiced, soft-eyed darling! My daughter leaves me, and I remain in an empty house. Alas, my child, my child!”
When conducted to her new home, the people of the quarter bar her path by means of a fire, and demand gifts in the shape of handkerchiefs. The groom, too, will not allow her to dismount from her horse until he is handsomely fee’d, and finally, when the bride enters her husband’s house, flour and cotton are set before her and given away to the poor. This ceremony is termed Ak-Yul-luk or “White Road,” and symbolizes a happy journey through life. During the lifetime of the older generation the bridegroom is called kiau oghli or “son-in-law” by the parents, and the bride kelin or “daughter-in-law,” but she is spoken of as a chaukan or married woman by her neighbours.
There is an immense difference between the villagers and the townspeople in Kashgar, both in the position of women and in their morality. The villagers as a rule marry only one wife and rarely practise divorce, and their wives take a high position inherited from pre-Islamic days. For example, it is customary to agree, before the reading of the nikah, that the wife shall be taken to the shrine of Hazrat Apak for tawwuf or “circling” of the tomb when the apricots are ripe, other stipulations being that the woman cannot be taken to another town without her consent, and sometimes that the husband shall not take another wife. The women may frequently be seen riding to market on good horses and attending to business almost on an equality with the men. In the city wives are constantly divorced, so much so that the majority of them remarry many times. Temporary marriages, resembling in effect sigheh marriages in Persia, are also very common, and some women systematically indulge in divorces in order to gain money. They cannot remarry until after the expiration of the iddat of three months and ten days, but upon receiving two letters of divorce—generally obtained in different towns—they can remarry at once by using the older letter. It is an indication of the low position held by women in the towns that a merchant, on starting off to business, will sometimes return home if he first meets one of the fair sex, this being looked upon as a bad omen.
Constant intermarriage, as in most Moslem countries, produces sad results in the form of idiocy, deafness and dumbness in the offspring, such visitations being especially noticeable among the rich, landed classes, who intermarry generation after generation, in order to keep the family property intact. So far is this policy pursued that in the richest family of Kashgar many of the girls have perforce remained single because there were not enough cousins to go round. It is interesting to note that in this matter the Chinese go to the opposite extreme, the whole nation being divided up into about one hundred divisions, and no man being permitted to marry a woman of his own division, although she be in no way related to him.
In Kashgar, marriage is not the chief event in a woman’s life, the ceremony of chachbagh or “braiding of the hair” being far more important, although held at no fixed time after marriage, and not depending on the birth of a child. It is celebrated by a great feast, with dancing, which sometimes lasts for three days. Gifts, far richer than those given at marriage, are bestowed on the wife, the parents in many cases handing over landed property. The culminating point is the appearance of the woman, who, attired in her richest clothes, takes the seat of honour in the room; and then, in the presence of all, her hair, hitherto worn in four or five plaits, is formally and for the first time braided in two plaits, and she becomes thereby a jawan. She is now entitled to wear five red semicircular strips of embroidery on the right side of the neck of her gown, one below the other, and increasing successively in length. In the case of the rich, Indian cloth of gold is generally used.
One day a woman was seen weeping at a shrine, and her prayer was as follows: “O Holy One! What shall I do? How shall I live? I have been left an orphan. I am become a stranger. What shall I do? Am I to suffer the hardships of an orphan? Am I to remain lonely? I have no father, no mother. Every one is oppressing me. O Allah, I am lost among friends and foes. Alas, my stranger’s fate! Alas, my orphan’s fate! O Holy One, put love into the heart of my husband and make his mind just towards me. O Allah, grant me the wish of my heart, give me a son, a son with a long life. I have become a stranger. Thou hast left me an orphan. O Allah, help me and make my enemies like dust.”
After this fervent prayer the suppliant, with her eyes shut, put her hand into a hole in the tomb and drew forth a morsel of earth, which she swallowed. Her faith was justified, and in due course of time she began to make arrangements for an easy delivery, to ensure which a visit was paid to a bakhshi or magician. He played upon a drum and chanted some incoherent gibberish, the woman meanwhile holding a rope that hung from the roof, and dancing round it until giddiness ensued. After this ceremony she paid a fee, gave alms to the poor, and returned home with her heart at ease. Later on she visited the tombs of her ancestors, taking with her an offering of food, and begged them to intercede for an easy delivery and, above all, for the birth of a son. She laid the offering near the grave, praised her ancestors, lamented her own failings, walked round the tomb seven times and finally distributed the food to the beggars. About a month before the event, she went on foot to a place where there were seven water mills, and after slowly crossing the seven ducts that fed them, returned home with happy confidence in the special efficacy of the ceremony.
A MAGICIAN AND HIS DISCIPLE.
Page 314.
When her hour was come, no one was allowed to leave the house unless upon business that was urgent, in which case no harm was anticipated, provided that some article of dress was left behind. The women of the neighbourhood assembled to help, and during the delivery cried out with the idea of keeping the birth a secret, a custom adopted from the Chinese. The newly born infant, too, was carefully concealed from visitors.
If former children belonging to the parents have all died, which is, alas, a frequent occurrence, the father, dressed as a beggar, takes the baby to the bazar and begs from the shopkeepers small pieces of calico, which are made into a shirt, the idea being to avoid misfortune by thus humbling himself. Special names signifying “solid” or “stay” or “may he stay!” are in such cases given to the child when he is named, between the third and seventh day, by a mulla, who first whispers the azan or call to prayer into his ear. On the fortieth day the head of the infant is shaved and the hair buried. A sheep is sacrificed and eaten on this occasion, while its bones, which must not be broken, are buried.
The rite of circumcision, one of the most important of the “five foundations” of Islam, is performed between the third and eighth years. The barber operates, and in the case of the rich the event is celebrated by a feast lasting two or three days, at which the boy receives presents including hard-boiled eggs, with which he plays a game by knocking them together.
Children of both sexes are sent to school very young, the idea being that they will gradually pick up their letters. Education in Kashgar merely consists of learning by heart a chapter of the Koran and its Turki equivalent. The letters are taught, penmanship is encouraged, and lessons are given in the forms of prayer and of ablution. Geography, history (as distinct from legend), mathematics and foreign languages are utterly neglected, and the girls leave school at about ten and most of the boys a year or two later. The teachers are narrow-minded bigots, and the parents are content to have it so, with the result that there is not much progress in Kashgar.
We visited the chief boys’ school in Kashgar, where the master bade his favourite pupils recite passages from the Koran. This they did in a lugubrious sing-song, swaying backwards and forwards as if in pain. The pedagogue and his scholars were then photographed, holding imposing leather-bound and silver-embossed books, which on enquiry proved to be commentaries on the Koran.
A KASHGAR SCHOOL.
Page 316.
The death ceremonies are in general those common to Islam throughout Asia, but there are also some customs peculiar to Kashgar. The body, after being washed and shrouded, is laid out with the thumbs of the hands and the big toes tied together, while the chin is also tied up. It is then carried out of the house and, at seven paces from the door, a spoonful of rice water is poured on the ground. At every seven steps this is repeated, and the following verse recited:
Zir[16] has come, Zabar has come,
From the centre of the earth news has come.
O swift dogs of the door of heaven,
Come, open the gates of paradise for this man.
This mention of dogs is due to Chinese influence; in Islam they occupy a degraded position and are considered unclean. Contrary to the general usage of Islam, white is the mourning colour, as in China. The funeral procession to the grave is headed by professional mourners, and accompanied by a mulla, who reads sentences from the Koran on the way, and conducts the service at the grave.
Women do not attend at the graveside, but mourn at a neighbouring mosque: “O my father! My brave father! My good father!” or “O my mother! My beautiful mother with black eyebrows! Thou leavest us and we are alone.” One curious custom is that of driving a stick into the grave near the head of the corpse, which Grenard considers to be a survival of the ancient practice of offering food to the dead. On the third day a solemn feast is held in the house of the deceased. The mourning lasts for forty days, and upon the termination of this period a second feast is given, and the normal life is then resumed by the mourners.
The system of medicine at Kashgar is based on the ancient Greek theory as taught by Hippocrates, Galen and Plato, whose works were translated into Arabic and Persian, especially by Abu Ali bin Sina, known in Europe as Avicenna. Diseases are divided into the categories of “hot” and “cold,” to be cured by medicines and food of the opposite category. For instance, in the case of fever, cock’s flesh, which is “cold,” is eaten, or fish. Hen’s flesh is considered “hot” in Persia, but in Kashgar there is some difference of opinion among the faculty.
The Kashgar doctors believe implicitly in giving pigeon’s or duck’s blood in cases of poisoning, and, moreover, prescribe the flesh of a nestling sparrow torn in two to ease swellings in the groin; they stop bleeding by means of a pad composed of burnt felt, or a bit of leather covered with mud or filth. Rheumatism and dropsy are treated by burying the patient in hot sand or by wrapping him in the skin of a recently killed sheep, and abdominal complaints by sticking several lighted candles into a loaf and placing it on the patient’s stomach.
So much for the doctors of Kashgar; but, as their reputation is very low, recourse is had to other means of curing sickness. Among the most common is the female diviner, who, when called in, kneads flour into a ball, recites some gibberish in which the names of the archangels and of Solomon are mentioned, and solemnly buries the ball under the fire, reciting the names of all the holy men who are buried in the neighbourhood. Whichever of these saints is being mentioned when the ball bursts has to be propitiated. Oil is taken to his shrine, where it is boiled and the steam is inhaled by the patient, after which it is mixed with food, part of which is distributed to the poor and part eaten for seven days by the sufferer. This ceremony is termed chachratku or “bursting of a ball of kneaded flour” and is regarded as most efficacious.
The power of the evil eye is firmly believed in by all classes, and children usually wear round their necks a little leather case containing a verse of the Koran as a protection against it. If a child is believed to be possessed, an old woman recites the following:
“Allah is sublime. Praise be to Allah! There is no god but Allah. If thou art an evil eye depart, as this place is not for thee. Go to a deserted watermill; go to a deserted house; go to a grave; go to the house of the Kazi. These are the commands of Allah, of Solomon and of the Saint.” The evil eye cannot withstand this invocation and leaves the sufferer forthwith.
In cases of possession by the devil, a magician is called in, and chants as follows: “Another head has come to the head; another body has come to the body. Your master has come; a jade lamp and blood sherbet are here. You will soon be like ashes, for I have an iron knife to cut you with and coal bullets to shoot you with.” The devil, hearing these threats from the magician, quits the patient without more ado.
Among general remedies are the following: The eyes of sheep sacrificed at the Id-i-Gurban at Mecca are dried and kept as powerful charms for sickness. When used they are moistened and applied to the forehead. Another remedy consists of bread and meat, collected from seven bakers and butchers. The food, when prepared, is taken, together with a doll, to the grave of a saint, after which some of it is eaten and the remainder distributed to the poor. This effects the cure. Yet another curious treatment is to cover up the patient’s head while a man walks round him with lighted straw, uttering certain special prayers during the fumigation.
As to children’s ailments: if a child cries too much, straw is swept up from three roads, dust is taken from the footprints of passers-by and Syrian rue is collected from the desert; the mixture is then lighted and the child is cured by being held over the smoke. If a child suffers from deafness, one method is to call in the services of a trumpeter, who spits into the ear, while another plan is to cut seven small twigs, wrap them up in cotton and, on market day, to tie the little bundle to the ear of a donkey loaded with salt. For other ailments, seven coral beads are thrown into a spring; or, again, copper pieces are begged from seven men named Mohamed, others are added by the parents, and a charm is made to hang round the child’s neck.
Finally, there are certain shrines famous for the cure of specific diseases. For skin disease a shrine known as the Sigm is much frequented. There mud is taken from a well outside and thrown at the wall with a prayer to the saint, after which the suppliant walks away without looking back.
A WOMAN THROWING MUD TO EFFECT A CURE.
Page 320.
I conclude this brief account of the treatment of diseases in Kashgar by a story entitled “The Clever Physician”:[17]
“Once upon a time there was a physician. When this physician entered the room where the sick person was, he looked all about it, and whatever met his eyes in the shape of an eatable, he looked at the patient and said, ‘You have eaten such and such a thing and that is what has done you harm.’ The physician had a pupil, and wherever the physician went, there went his pupil with him. A rich man had become paralysed, that is to say, unable to walk. Many physicians had treated him, but his disease did not abate. At last, having heard that the aforesaid physician’s pupil was a wonderful medical adept, he summoned him to his house.
“When the physician’s pupil had entered the house and had carefully looked round, he perceived that there was nothing at all in the shape of an eatable in it, but in one corner of the room an old donkey-saddle had been thrown down. When he saw this he exclaimed, ‘Oh, rich man! you have eaten an old donkey-saddle, through which your disease has increased and you have become paralysed.’ When he said this, the rich man was very angry, and exclaiming, ‘Does one who is called a human being eat donkey-saddles?’ sprang up in his rage in order to beat him and—walked!
“The physician, poor fellow, was terrified and had fled away. The rich man was struck with wonder and exclaimed, ‘This is a great man; for my leg, which grew no better for any physician’s medicine, has now become quite well through this person.’ He caused the physician’s pupil to be summoned, apologized to him, and sent him away with many valuable gifts.”
At the first fall of snow a man frequently calls on a friend with some snow wrapped in an envelope, while in another are enclosed verses:
My dear friend with this document I throw you snow;
From joy of heart this game arose;
Cups and jugs we have collected and wooden trays;
And we have prepared sweetmeats.
The mandoline, violin, zither and tambourine we have made ready.
When snow has fallen in winter, do not people give entertainments?
If there are friends living around do not people invite them?
If you are clever enough to seize the man who has brought the snow,
Powder his face, paint him like a girl, and beat him severely.
The visitor places his verses secretly in the house and then decamps. If the owner of the house catches him he beats him, paints his face like a girl and leads him through the streets calling out, “This is the punishment for the man who throws snow”; and the visitor is then bound to give an entertainment. But if the owner of the house does not catch the visitor, he himself must prepare a banquet. If he fails to do so within a week, bulrushes are tied on the top of his door, and if this hint is not sufficient, the bier from the cemetery is placed outside his house.
Owing to Chinese influence, there is no Moslem country where respect for parents and for superiors is so strong as in Kashgar. During the lives of the parents they are never referred to by name by their children, but are always addressed as “My Lord.” A son will never sit in the presence of his father without special permission, but will stand with the head bowed and hands folded in token of humility. He would never dream of retiring to sleep before his father, nor of smoking in his presence. To superiors deference is shown by dismounting from horseback, and by always prefacing an answer with taksir or “fault,” which has come to be the equivalent of our “Sir.” Upon receipt of a robe of honour, the recipient bows low, sweeping the arms in a circle to stroke the beard. Women courtesy by bowing low with folded hands.
The Kashgaris have few games, but kite-flying, an elementary form of rounders, pitch-and-toss into a hole with walnuts or coins, and a kind of tip-cat are favourite amusements. Grown-up men indulge in ram-fighting and partridge-fighting, heavy bets being made on the contests.
Music is extremely popular, the Kashgar peasants being distinctly musical, and their refrains, sung in unison on returning from work, are pleasing to the European ear. The usual instruments are the tambourine, the mandoline and the four-stringed rubab. In Kashgar dancing is regarded as improper, and is indulged in only by professional women or boys; but in the Khotan oasis, among the Dulanis of Merket, the Sarikolis and the Kirghiz, men and women dance together at weddings. At entertainments the men and women sit on opposite sides and, when the music commences, a woman rises and places a handkerchief in front of a man, who thereupon rises also, sings a song and returns the handkerchief. This is done by all present, and men and women then dance together.
During my stay in Chinese Turkestan I sought for any custom which might be a survival from the days of the Nestorian Christians. One such is that horse-dealers, when a bargain is not concluded, make the sign of the cross on the horse to avert the evil eye. It is interesting to note that, owing to Chinese influence, black and dark grey are the favourite colours for horses, whereas few people care to buy a roan, whose colour is deemed unlucky.