[5] Keshkul is a vessel formed of half a cocoa nut,—the vade mecum of the dervishes,—in which he plunges all the food he has collected by begging, whether dry or fluid, sweet or sour. Such a dish of tutti frutti would but ill suit our gastronomers; and yet how delicious it tasted to me after a long day's march.
[6] See Noesselt's "Geschichte für Tochter schulen," who also states that many pilgrims, ignorant of the road, allowed themselves to be led by a frightened goose which ran before them.
[7] From Yarkend to Kilian on the boundary line are three days' journey, from there, by way of Tagarma and Kadun, to Tibet, twenty days, and thence to Kashmir fifteen days.
[8] Zemzem is the name of a famous well on the road, of miraculous power, the water of which is exported in small vessels to all Islamite countries, as a single drop of it taken just at the moment of death frees from 500 years of purgatory. The origin of the well is ascribed to Ismail, who, after being left behind by Hagar, stamped his little foot and made the well spring up.
[9] The tea service consists of a can-like vessel made of copper, and is, next to the Koran, the most indispensable vade mecum of every travelling Tartar. Even the poorest beggar carries it, suspended by the handle, about with him.
[10] It is called Hirkai dervishan (the dervish cloak), which even those dervishes that are most comfortably off are obliged to wear over their otherwise good garments. It is the symbol of poverty, and is often composed of countless small pieces of new patchwork, cut round the edge in points of unequal length; and, while it is sewn together on the outside with thick packing thread and large stitches, the lining often consists of silk or some other valuable material. It is the ne plus ultra of hypocrisy; but long before the Romans the wise men of the East have said, Mundus vult decipi—ergo decipiatur.
[11] In Hungary we find the same practice prevailing at the present day, for the custom of tying coloured handkerchiefs to the heads of the horses at marriage feasts most probably has its origin in this ancient usage.
[12] Oveis Karayne is the name of a faithful follower of Mohammed, who out of love to the Prophet had all his teeth knocked out, the latter having lost two of his front teeth in the battle at Ohud, through a blow from the enemy's weapon. After Mohammed's death he even intended to found an Order, with this self-mutilation as a condition of membership; but his efforts proved unsuccessful. The assertion, that he came to Khiva and died there, belongs rather to the region of fiction.
[13] Khodja Ili.—The people of the Khodja, or descendants of the prophets, a considerable number of whom inhabit this part of the country. They have as much a purely Œzbeg physiognomy, as the numerous Seids in Persia bear the stamp of an Iranic origin. The former, however, enjoy considerably more privileges.
[14] In the map to my "Travels in Central Asia," Nöks has by mistake been confounded with Khodja Ili; the former also is full an hour farther from Kungrat than is there stated.