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.