CHAPTER XXXIII.

OF THE KINGDOM OF CASCAR.

[Illustration: Head of a Native of Kashgar.]

Cascar is a region lying between north-east and east, and constituted

a kingdom in former days, but now it is subject to the Great Kaan.

The people worship Mahommet. There are a good number of towns

and villages, but the greatest and finest is Cascar itself. The

inhabitants live by trade and handicrafts; they have beautiful gardens

and vineyards, and fine estates, and grow a great deal of cotton.

From this country many merchants go forth about the world on trading

journeys. The natives are a wretched, niggardly set of people; they eat

and drink in miserable fashion. There are in the country many Nestorian

Christians, who have churches of their own. The people of the country

have a peculiar language, and the territory extends for five days’

journey.{1}

[Illustration: View of Kashgar. (From Shaw’s “Tartary.”)]

NOTE 1.—[There is no longer any difficulty in understanding how the

travellers, after crossing Pamir, should have arrived at Kashgar if

they followed the route from Táshkurgán through the Gez Defile.

The Itinerary of the Mirza from Badakhshan (Fáizabad) is the

following: Zebák, Ishkashm, on the Panja, which may be considered

the beginning of the Wakhán Valley, Panja Fort, in Wakhán, Raz

Khan, Patur, near Lunghar (commencement of Pamir Steppe), Pamir

Kul, or Barkút Yassin, 13,300 feet, Aktash, Sirikul Táshkurgán,

Shukrab, Chichik Dawan, Akul, Kotul, Chahul Station (road to

Yarkand), Kila Karawal, Aghiz Gah, Yangi-Hissar, Opechan, Yanga

Shahr, Kashgar, where he arrived on the 3rd February, 1869. (Cf.

_Report of “The Mirza’s” Exploration from Caubul to Kashgar_. By

Major T. G. Montgomerie, R.E.... (_Jour. R. Geog. Soc._ XLI. 1871,

pp. 132–192.)

Major Montgomerie (_l.c._ p. 144) says: “The alterations in the

positions of Kashgar and Yarkund in a great measure explains why

Marco Polo, in crossing from Badakhshan to Eastern Turkestan,

went first to Kashgar and then to Yarkund. With the old positions

of Yarkund and Kashgar it appeared that the natural route from

Badakhshan would have led first to Yarkund; with the new positions,

and guided by the light of the Mirza’s route, from which it is seen

that the direct route to Yarkund is not a good one, it is easy to

understand how a traveller might prefer going to Kashgar first, and

then to Yarkund. It is satisfactory to have elicited this further

proof of the general accuracy of the great traveller’s account of

his journey through Central Asia.”

The Itinerary of Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon (_Sirikol, the Pámírs

and Wakhán_, ch. vi. of _Forsyth’s Mission to Yarkund in_ 1873)

runs thus: “Left Káshgar (21st March), Yangi-Hissar, Kaskasú Pass,

descent to Chihil Gumbaz (forty Domes), where the road branches

off to Yárkand (110 miles), Torut Pass, Tangi-Tár (defile), ‘to

the foot of a great elevated slope leading to the Chichiklik Pass,

plain, and lake (14,700 feet), below the Yámbulák and Kok-Moinok

Passes, which are used later in the season on the road between

Yangi-Hissar and Sirikol, to avoid the Tangi-Tár and Shindi

defiles. As the season advances, these passes become free from

snow, while the defiles are rendered dangerous and difficult by

the rush of the melting snow torrents. From the Chichiklik plain

we proceeded down the Shindi ravine, over an extremely bad stony

road, to the Sirikol River, up the banks of which we travelled

to Táshkurgán, reaching it on the tenth day from Yangi-Hissar.

The total distance is 125 miles.’ Then Táshkurgán (ancient name

_Várshídi_): ‘the open part of the Sirikol Valley extends from

about 8 miles below Táshkurgán to apparently a very considerable

distance towards the Kunjút mountain range;’ left Táshkurgán for

Wákhan (2nd April, 1873); leave Sirikol Valley, enter the Shindán

defile, reach the Áktásh Valley, follow the Áktásh stream (called

Áksú by the Kirghiz) through the Little Pamir to the Gházkul

(Little Pamir) Lake or Barkat Yássín, from which it takes its rise,

four days from Táshkurgán. Little Pamir ‘is bounded on the south

by the continuation of the Neza Tásh range, which separates it

from the Tághdúngbásh Pámir,’ west of the lake, Langar, Sarhadd,

30 miles from Langar, and seven days from Sirikol, and Kila Panj,

twelve days from Sirikol.”—H. C.]

[I cannot admit with Professor Paquier (_l.c._ pp. 127–128) that

Marco Polo did not visit Kashgar.—Grenard (II. p. 17) makes the

remark that it took Marco Polo seventy days from Badakhshan to

Kashgar, a distance that, in the Plain of Turkestan, he shall

cross in sixteen days.—The Chinese traveller, translated by M.

Gueluy (_Desc. de la Chine occidentale_, p. 45), says that the name

Kashgar is made of _Kash_, fine colour, and _gar_, brick

house.—H. C.]

Kashgar was the capital, from 1865 to 1877, of Ya’kúb Kúshbegi, a

soldier of fortune, by descent it is said a Tajik of Shighnan, who,

when the Chinese yoke was thrown off, made a throne for himself in

Eastern Turkestan, and subjected the whole basin to his authority,

taking the title of _Atalik Gházi_.

It is not easy to see how Kashgar should have been subject to the

Great Kaan, except in the sense in which all territories under

Mongol rule owed him homage. Yarkand, Polo acknowledges to have

belonged to Kaidu, and the boundary between Kaidu’s territory and

the Kaan’s lay between Karashahr and Komul [Bk. I. ch. xli.], much

further east.

[Bretschneider, _Med. Res._ (II. p. 47), says: “Marco Polo states

with respect to the kingdom of _Cascar_ (I. 189) that it was

subject to the Great Khan, and says the same regarding _Cotan_ (I.

196), whilst _Yarcan_ (I. 195), according to Marco Polo, belonged

to Kaidu. This does not agree with Rashid’s statements about the

boundary between Kaidu’s territory and the Khan’s.”—H. C.]

Kashgar was at this time a Metropolitan See of the Nestorian

Church. (_Cathay_, etc. 275, ccxlv.)

Many strange sayings have been unduly ascribed to our traveller,

but I remember none stranger than this by Colonel Tod: “_Marco Polo

calls Cashgar, where he was in the 6th century_, the birthplace

of the Swedes”! (_Rajasthan_, I. 60.) Pétis de la Croix and Tod

between them are answerable for this nonsense. (See _The Hist. of

Genghizcan the Great_, p. 116.)

On _cotton_, see ch. xxxvi.—On Nestorians, see Kanchau.