[706] Called “paranji.” It has balloon sleeves meeting at the shoulders. [707] Bokhārā stands in lat. 39° 46′ N., in the same parallel as Northern Spain, Naples, and Philadelphia. It is 1200 feet above sea-level, and exposed to Siberian blasts which make the winter climate very severe. The average winter temperature of London is nearly twice that of Bokhārā. In February heavy rains usher in a springtime as glorious as that which clothes our English woods, but suffocating summer heats follow which are broken by a fortnight’s rain in October. The climate is one of extremes (Khanikoff, _Bokhara_, chap. v). [708] Bacha, a Persian word signifying the young of any animal. [709] It is a curious fact that M. P. Lessar, while Resident at Bokhārā, anticipated Sir D. Barbour’s financial policy in India by inducing the Amīr to close his mint. The stiffening effect which might have been expected was not attained. Before the great recoinage of 1834 Indian silver underwent similar oscillations. The difference in weight and intrinsic value between rupees of different descriptions gave native brokers an opportunity of feathering their nests. They met in secret conclave periodically, and decided how many copper coins should be exchanged against each species of rupee. A recoinage, or adoption of the Russian monetary system, is the only possible remedy. [710] In 1872 M. Petrofsky, agent of the Minister of Finance, visited Bokhārā in order to study the commercial system. He stated, in the _European Messenger_ for March 1873, that the city was then an entrepôt for English and Afghan wares. Green tea in those days arrived by way of Afghanistān, and was distributed throughout the Khānates from Bokhārā. “Who can guarantee,” he asks plaintively, “that with our carelessness with regard to the Bokhāran market, all the trade with Central Asia will not pass into the hands of the English and Afghans?” This fearful contingency has been obviated by protective tariffs and the Transcaspian Railway. [711] Schuyler, _Turkestan_, vol ii. p. 90. [712] Schuyler, p. 92. [713] For a detailed account of the curriculum the reader is referred to Khanikoff, chap. xxix. [714] The leader in the serious rising in Farghāna last spring was named Ishān Mohammed `Alī Khalīfa. In July 1898 a Russian was murdered at New Bokhārā, and the life of another was attempted by one of these fanatics. [715] Schuyler retails an old scandal to the effect that the 40,000 roubles which the Madrasas cost were bestowed by the empress on a Bokhāran envoy at her Court after a _liaison_ with him (_Turkestan_, ii. p. 93). [716] Moser, p. 151; Khanikoff, pp. 101–2. [717] Meyendorff writes: “The lot of slaves in Bokhārā is terrible. Nearly all the Russians complain of being badly fed and severely beaten. I met one whose master had cut off his ears, driven nails through his palms, flayed his back, and poured boiling oil on his arms” (p. 286). [718] “Amīr ul Mu´minīn,” the title adopted by the Caliphs.