As regards the appellation Tadjik, I have always found that those concerning whom we are speaking never use it themselves willingly; for, if this does not sound exactly in their ears as a term of reproach, people are yet accustomed to understand by it that expression of contempt with which the Œzbeg conquerors regard the subdued aborigines. By the word Tadjik, the Tartar population of Turkestan understand a man without warlike disposition, of a covetous, avaricious nature;[55] with crafty and vaunting ideas; in a word, everything that stands in opposition to Œzbeg frankness, simplicity, and uprightness. These relations are, moreover, to be found everywhere between Turanian conquerors and the subjugated Iranians; for as the latter, in Persia, are far inferior to the Turks in mental endowments, so is this also the case in Central Asia. And Bokhara has only become the head quarters of Central Asiatic civilisation, because here, from the earliest ages, existed the overwhelming numbers of the Tadjik population; who, continuing their previous exertions in mental culture from the pre-Islamite times, notwithstanding the oppression of foreign power, have civilised their conquerors. As in the earliest ages, after the reception of the Islam faith, all the celebrities in the field of religious knowledge and _belles lettres_ were mostly Tadjiks; so, to-day, one still meets in Bokhara, Khokand, and Kashgar, the most conspicuous Mollahs and most celebrated Ishans. At the court of Bokhara, notwithstanding the Œzbeg origin of the prince, the chief ministers are always Tadjiks; nay, even in the rude Œzbeg government of Khiva, the Mehter (Secretary of State), as an officer whose qualifications must be of the highest order, is chosen invariably from the Persian population of the place. It is truly wonderful how the Tadjiks, notwithstanding more than a century of co-existence with the Œzbegs, are to be distinguished from the latter, not only in their individual nature but in their habits. A proverb says, "Look at the Œzbeg on horseback,--the Tadjik in his house;" for, the same care that the one bestows on his steed, arms, saddle and horse, the other spends on his house and attire. However poor the Tadjik, he will yet pass for a man of more substance than he is, and will always appear rich and great in public, although sparing and abstemious in his family circle. Nor is his conversation less choice: the courteous expressions, the compliments of which he makes use, sound somewhat Tartarian, to ears accustomed to Persian refinement; yet, in contrast with the Œzbeg, he is to be considered an accomplished gentleman. Attuned by nature to peaceful occupations, the Tadjiks are devoted everywhere considerably to tillage, commerce, and industrial pursuits, as they hate war; and if they are compelled to handle weapons, they are rarely valiant, but frequently cruel. They are also defective in that national feeling that strikes one so forcibly among the Œzbegs. This has