The Court of Khiva 87 CHAPTER VII. Joy and Sorrow 98 CHAPTER VIII. House, Food, and Dress 114 CHAPTER IX. From Khiva to Kungrat and back 127 CHAPTER X. My Tartar 150 CHAPTER XI. The Round of Life in Bokhara 166 CHAPTER XII. Bokhara, the Head Quarters of Mohamedanism 186 CHAPTER XIII. The Slave Trade and Slave Life in Central Asia 205 CHAPTER XIV. Productive Power of the Three Oasis-Countries of Turkestan 231 CHAPTER XV. On the Ancient History of Bokhara 257 CHAPTER XVI. Ethnographical Sketch of the Turanian and Iranian Races of Central Asia 282 CHAPTER XVII. Iranians 313 CHAPTER XVIII. Literature in Central Asia 339 CHAPTER XIX. Rivalry between Russia and England in Central Asia 379 SKETCHES OF CENTRAL ASIA. CHAPTER I. DERVISHES AND HADJIS. The dervish is the veritable personification of Eastern life. Idleness, fanaticism, and slovenliness, are the features which in him are regarded as virtues, and which everywhere are represented by him as such. Idleness is excused by allusion to human impotence; fanaticism explained as enthusiasm in religion; and slovenliness justified by the uselessness of poor mortals in struggling against fate. If the superiority of European civilization over that of the East was not so clearly established, I should almost be tempted to envy a dervish, who, clad in tatters and conversing in a corner of some ruined building, shows, by the twinkling in his eye, the happiness he enjoys. What a serenity is depicted in that face; what a placidity in all his actions; what a complete contrast there is between this picture and that presented by our European civilization! In my disguise as a dervish it was chiefly this unnatural composure which made me nervous, and in the imitation of which I made, of course, the greatest mistakes. I shall never forget one day at Herat, when, after reflecting on the happiness of the early termination of the painful mask I had been wearing for so many months, I suddenly jumped up from my seat, and in a somewhat excited state began to pace up and down the old ruin which gave me shelter. A few minutes afterwards I perceived that a crowd of passers by had collected at the door, and that I was the object of general astonishment. Seeing my mistake, I blushingly resumed my seat. Soon afterwards several people came up to ask me what was the matter with me, whether I was well, &c. The good people thought I was deranged; for, to oriental notions, a man must be out of his senses if,