The Country Would Seem To Have Reverted
At The Time Of Burnes' Journey, From Like Causes, Nearly To The State In
Which Marco Found It After The Mongol Devastations.
Lions seem to mean here the real king of beasts, and not tigers, as
hereafter in the book.
Tigers, though found on the S. and W. shores of the
Caspian, do not seem to exist in the Oxus valley. On the other hand,
Rashiduddin tells us that, when Hulaku was reviewing his army after the
passage of the river, several lions were started, and two were killed. The
lions are also mentioned by Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish Admiral, further down
the valley towards Hazarasp: "We were obliged to fight with the lions day
and night, and no man dared to go alone for water." Moorcroft says of the
plain between Kunduz and the Oxus: "Deer, foxes, wolves, hogs, and lions
are numerous, the latter resembling those in the vicinity of Hariana" (in
Upper India). Wood also mentions lions in Kulab, and at Kila'chap on the
Oxus. Q. Curtius tells how Alexander killed a great lion in the country
north of the Oxus towards Samarkand. [A similar story is told of Timur in
The Mulfuzat Timury, translated by Major Charles Stewart, 1830 (p. 69):
"During the march '(near Balkh)' two lions made their appearance, one of
them a male, the other a female. I (Timur) resolved to kill them myself,
and having shot them both with arrows, I considered this circumstance as a
lucky omen." - H. C.] (Burnes, II. 200; Q. R. 155; Ilch. I. 90; J.
As. IX. 217; Moorcroft, II. 430; Wood, ed. 1872, pp. 259,260; Q. C.
VII. 2.)
[1] It may be observed that the careful Elphinstone distinguishes from
this general application of Dehgan or Dehkan, the name Deggan
applied to a tribe "once spread over the north-east of Afghanistan,
but now as a separate people only in Kunar and Laghman."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
OF TAICAN, AND THE MOUNTAINS OF SALT. ALSO OF THE PROVINCE OF CASEM.
After those twelve days' journey you come to a fortified place called
TAICAN, where there is a great corn market.[NOTE 1] It is a fine place,
and the mountains that you see towards the south are all composed of salt.
People from all the countries round, to some thirty days' journey, come to
fetch this salt, which is the best in the world, and is so hard that it
can only be broken with iron picks. 'Tis in such abundance that it would
supply the whole world to the end of time. [Other mountains there grow
almonds and pistachioes, which are exceedingly cheap.][NOTE 2]
When you leave this town and ride three days further between north-east
and east, you meet with many fine tracts full of vines and other fruits,
and with a goodly number of habitations, and everything to be had very
cheap. The people are worshippers of Mahommet, and are an evil and a
murderous generation, whose great delight is in the wine shop; for they
have good wine (albeit it be boiled), and are great topers; in truth, they
are constantly getting drunk. They wear nothing on the head but a cord
some ten palms long twisted round it. They are excellent huntsmen, and
take a great deal of game; in fact they wear nothing but the skins of the
beasts they have taken in the chase, for they make of them both coats and
shoes. Indeed, all of them are acquainted with the art of dressing skins
for these purposes.[NOTE 3]
When you have ridden those three days, you find a town called CASEM,[NOTE
4] which is subject to a count. His other towns and villages are on the
hills, but through this town there flows a river of some size. There are a
great many porcupines hereabouts, and very large ones too. When hunted
with dogs, several of them will get together and huddle close, shooting
their quills at the dogs, which get many a serious wound thereby.[NOTE 5]
This town of Casem is at the head of a very great province, which is also
called Casem. The people have a peculiar language. The peasants who keep
cattle abide in the mountains, and have their dwellings in caves, which
form fine and spacious houses for them, and are made with ease, as the
hills are composed of earth.[NOTE 6]
After leaving the town of Casem, you ride for three days without finding
a single habitation, or anything to eat or drink, so that you have to
carry with you everything that you require. At the end of those three days
you reach a province called Badashan, about which we shall now tell
you.[NOTE 7]
NOTE 1. - The Taican of Polo is the still existing TALIKAN in the
province of Kataghan or Kunduz, but it bears the former name (Thaikan)
in the old Arab geographies. Both names are used by Baber, who says it lay
in the Ulugh Bagh, or Great Garden, a name perhaps acquired by the
Plains of Talikan in happier days, but illustrating what Polo says of the
next three days' march. The Castle of Talikan resisted Chinghiz for seven
months, and met with the usual fate (1221). [In the Travels of Sidi Ali,
son of Housain (Jour. Asiat., October, 1826, p. 203), "Talikan, in the
country of Badakhschan" is mentioned. - H. C.] Wood speaks of Talikan in
1838 as a poor place of some 300 or 400 houses, mere hovels; a recent
account gives it 500 families. Market days are not usual in Upper India or
Kabul, but are universal in Badakhshan and the Oxus provinces. The bazaars
are only open on those days, and the people from the surrounding country
then assemble to exchange goods, generally by barter. Wood chances to
note: "A market was held at Talikan.... The thronged state of the roads
leading into it soon apprised us that the day was no ordinary one."
(Abulf.
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