Asiatics in general, is laziness; and, next to this, dissimulation and suspicion; fanaticism does not run high here, and their family life is probably the same as that of other Turkestanis. The wife is mistress of her household, but at the same time her husband's slave, and he may turn her out whenever he chooses and take another, or keep several wives at a time. Marriage may be contracted for the shortest period, even though only for a few days. Their most peculiar habit is that of talking loudly, and with great rapidity of utterance; so much so, that on hearing them conversing with one another, a stranger might suppose that they were quarrelling. Their expression of astonishment is by smacking their lips, and exclaiming "Toba, Toba." For administrative purposes these people, together with the Lobnortsi, are under the governor of Korla, to whom they pay taxes.
To return to our narrative, after this long digression. Having crossed, in the way we have described, the Koncheh and Inchikeh rivers, we struck the Tarim at the point of its confluence with the Ugen-daria, whence another day's march brought us to Akhtarma,[1] the largest of all the settlements on the Tarim and Lob-nor, and the residence of Akhoond Aehliam, governor of Tarim,
- ↑ Not far from this village, on the opposite side of the Tarim, lies Lake Kara-kul, which has given its name to the inhabitants of the Tarim valley.
