That spirit of equality and fraternity which characterizes the government
of a Russian _mir_, or village, has been carried even into central Asia.
We have frequently seen Russian peasants and natives occupying adjoining
apartments in the same household, while in the process of trade all
classes seem to fraternize in an easy and even cordial manner. The same is
true of the children, who play together indiscriminately in the street.
Many a one of these heterogeneous groups we have watched "playing marbles"
with the ankle-bones of sheep, and listened, with some amusement, to their
half Russian, half native jargon. Schools are now being established to
educate the native children in the Russian language and methods, and
native apprentices are being taken in by Russian merchants for the same
purpose.

In Tashkend, as in every European city of the Orient, drunkenness, and
gambling, and social laxity have followed upon the introduction of Western
morals and culture. Jealousy and intrigue among the officers and
functionaries are also not strange, perhaps, at so great a distance from
headquarters, where the only avenue to distinction seems to lie through
the public service. At the various dinner-parties and sociables given
throughout the winter, the topic of war always met with general welcome.
On one occasion a report was circulated that Abdurrahman Khan, the Ameer
of Afghanistan, was lying at the point of death. Great preparations, it
was said, were being made for an expedition over the Pamir, to establish
on the throne the Russian candidate, Is-shah Khan from Samarkand, before
Ayub Khan, the rival British protege, could be brought from India. The
young officers at once began to discuss their chances for promotion, and
the number of decorations to be forthcoming from St. Petersburg. The
social gatherings at Tashkend were more convivial than sociable.
Acquaintances can eat and drink together with the greatest of good cheer,
but there is very little sympathy in conversation. It was difficult for
them to understand why we had come so far to see a country which to many
of them was a place of exile.

[Illustration: A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE
"FOREIGN DEVILS."]

An early spring did not mean an early departure from winter quarters.
Impassable roads kept us anxious prisoners for a month and a half after
the necessary papers had been secured. These included, in addition to the
local passports, a carte-blan