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!”