village, and they abound in the capital. They may be known from afar by the hum of childish voices, which resounds from morn till dewy eve in the narrow sunless streets. The course of teaching embraces the Koran, the _Farz-i-`Ayn_, and other books of a religious tendency, written in Tājikī, a dialect of Persian, and Turkī, the language of the Uzbegs. Those who wish to pursue their studies further pass into the Madrasas, which are maintained from the rents of great landed estates assigned to them by rulers of past ages. The curriculum here embraces theology, Arabic, law, and “worldly wisdom.”[713] [Illustration: THE MINAR KATAN AT BOKHĀRĀ] Students who are conscious of a vocation for the priesthood are subjected to a probation severer than that which is prescribed to candidates for admission to La Trappe or Chartreuse. They must obey all the precepts of Mohammed’s code, and learn by long and painful practice to pronounce the shibboleth, _Lā Allāh ill Allāh_, thousands of times without drawing breath. Thus they attain to the coveted degree of Ishān, are qualified to instruct others, and receive the blindest devotion from the lower orders. No training can be conceived which is more calculated to inspire self-conceit and fanaticism. Now the priesthood of Bokhārā and the other cities of Central Asia have all been subjected to these sinister influences at a period of their lives when the plastic mind receives impressions which can never be effaced; and the schools and colleges are officered exclusively from the sacerdotal caste. Before the advent of the Russians to power, the mullās directed the whole mechanism of government. The most cruel and treacherous of the old Amīrs respected their lives and liberties and shaped his conduct on their counsels. The mullās’ political influence has been destroyed by the Russians’ advent to power, for the theory on which Mohammedan states are ruled is utterly at variance with Western conceptions; and the insidious energies of the priesthood are restricted to education and religious observances. There can be little doubt that the wave of sedition which is sweeping over Central Asia[714] is due to the teachings of men who desire the restoration of Islām as a predominant factor in government. The Russian masters of Central Asia, like we ourselves in India, are stepping _per ignes suppositos cineri doloso_, and a mistaken educational policy is, in both cases, at the bottom of the mischief that is brewing. The other Madrasas of Bokhārā are more remarkable for size than architectural merit. One of them was erected at the end of last century, at the cost of the Empress Catherine of Russia, who came under Voltaire’s influence and displayed a catholicism which outran that of the philosopher of Ferney.[715] Adjoining the Great Minār is the only public building in Bokhārā which has not seen the march of centuries--the Baths of the Chief Justice, thrown open to the public in 1897 by the generosity