Journal of the Society of Arts : Volume XLVIII, No. 2480 [‎681r] (11/24)

June I, 1900 .]
JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
559
the front of which is taken down bodily to
show the interior. In the centre, on a mat,
the seller sits cross-legged, or perhaps it is a
manufacturer with his tools in hand. Round
him are displayed his wares, and there is
little room for his customers, who must stand
outside to do their bargaining. There is
none of the hurry and bustle of European
shopping ; the merchant displays no undue
eagerness to sell his goods, and the buyer is
equally self-possessed and leisurely. Theo
retically there are thirty-two different trade
guilds, which must be represented in the
bazaar; practically there are more. Each
guild is supposed to have thirty-two branches,
and each must have a different shop ; thus, in
brass - working (sometimes very beautifully
done) one will make the bowl or ewer, another
the bottom, another the lid, a fourth will solder
them together, while at a fifth, with a sharp
chisel, the decoration is worked out. Almost
every trade has its own street, the shops on
either side being devoted to shoe, or harness, or
crockery-making in all their different branches.
The Kirghiz have a special quarter of their
own in the great bazaar of Tashkent, and here
is sold the really beautiful felt made by the
women, also coarse carpets and other articles
of nomad manufacture. Here and there are
arched gateways, behind which are caravan
serais, some used by local merchants for storing
their goods, and others as hostelries for for
eigners. Here the merchandise lies about in
piles, the camels and horses stabled around the
sides of the court, while overhead the mer
chants “ live, move, and have their being,” in
an atmosphere which is, luckily, peculiar to
bazaars.
Every Mussulman city, be en regie, must
have a “ Jumma,” or mosque, large enough to
hold all the inhabitants on Fridays. Looking
from the platform of the mosque in Tashkent
(whence the mullah calls to prayers), one sees
apparently nothing but a fiat clay plain,
beyond which rises a hill with another mosque,
and the domed roof of a bath. This plain is
composed of the mud roofs of the bazaar, for
the streets are so narrow that one can only see
them from below, and as the roofs are often
overgrown with grass and poppies, this adds
to the illusion. The barber’s shop is also the
chemist’s, and here soap—very unpleasant in
smell—is sold, and also the cosmetics which a
good Mussulman lady is enjoined to use in
order to preserve her beauty and so please her
husband.
The natives of Tashkent are mostly Uzbeks,
with a few Tadjiks, Tartars, Kirghiz, Hindoos,
and others who come to trade. The population
is difficult to gauge, but is probably over
120 , 000 .
The Hindoos arc the great money-lenders of
Central Asia, and have their own caravanserais
in most towns, but under Russian rule, unlike
that of the English in India, land does not pass
by sale or mortgage into their hands. The
Jews are also numerous, and have enjoyed
greater freedom (little though that be now)
since the advent of the Russians. Formerly
in many towns they were confined to a certain
quarter and treated with much contempt,
having very few civil or municipal rights, and
being compelled to wear a girdle of common
rope as a badge of their nationality.
Cotton and silk goods, of course, occupy a
large portion of the bazaar, and in the booths
one can see the men at work with their rough
machines of wood, dexterously manipulating
reels and turning spindles. The embroidery of
robes is also done by men, and is in very great
demand, the robe or material being stretched
over a wooden hoop, the pattern roughly
chalked, and the work executed with a kind of
crochet-needle, with which the silken thread is
pulled into a chain-stitch. There is no liquid
measure in Central Asia, everything being
reckoned by weight, and the standard varies
in almost every town. The coins also, the
most common of which is known as the tenga,
have different values in different parts. The
Russians have tried to regulate this, and are
introducing their own money, which now passes
current all over Central Asia.
The native houses of the better class in
Tashkent, as in other Central Asian cities,
have three, or at least two, courts. The first, if
there are three, is used as a stable for the
animals, which are accommodated in sheds
round the sides. The second is the man’s
court, on two sides of which are the balconies
of the house ; while a third, frequently, has a
sort of platform, used as a terrace, where the
master and his friends sit to get the full benefit
of the air. The house generally contains one
large room, opening on the portico—the guest-
chamber, with one or two smaller ones opening
into it. The doors are often beautifully carved,
and instead of hinges they hang on a sort of
pivot let into the lintel and threshold. Windows,
as a rule, there are none, but a small open
space above the doors, with lattice-work let in,
either open or covered with white paper, glass
being still uncommon in the typical native
house. The ceilings are very curious and