Beehive houses of the first 'Tartar' villages
Editorial contextNorth of the Hindu Kush Burnes saw houses with domes instead of flat roofs, a hole in the top for smoke, so that a village looked like 'a cluster of large brown beehives'. He explains the style by the lack of timber. The people too had changed: conical skull-caps, long brown boots, and unveiled village women he calls fair and handsome, 'though they were Tartars'.
they have domes instead of terraces, with a hole in the roof as a chimney; so that a village has the appearance of a cluster of large brown beehives. The inhabitants adopt this style of building, as wood is scarce.
About Uzbeks and Tajiks
The caves and giant statues of Bamiyan
Editorial contextAt Bamiyan Burnes found a valley honeycombed for eight miles with caves, still home to most of the people, and the two great statues. He reports local traditions: the caves were the work of a king named Julal, the statues were made by 'Kaffirs' (infidels) about the time of Christ, or by the Pandavas of Hindu epic. He notes a theory that they were Buddhist, which the long ears made likely. He does not credit them to Tartars.
A detached hill in the middle of the valley is quite honeycombed by them … It is called the city of Ghoolghoola, and consists of a continued succession of caves in every direction, which are said to have been the work of a king named Julal.
About Hazaras (Bamiyan residents); ancient builders unknown
Keep in mind
The builders are given only as local tradition and conjecture.
A Turkmen tent that travels on two camels
Editorial contextInvited into a Turkmen home at Sarakhs, Burnes found a khirgah (felt tent) twenty-five feet across with lattice sides, a roof of laths springing from a hoop three feet wide, and floors spread with felt and velvety carpets woven by the women. His host told him the whole house could go on one camel and its furniture on another.
The tent or khirgah was spacious, and had a diameter of about twenty-five feet. The sides were of lattice-work, and the roof was formed
About Turkmen (Salor)
Keep in mind
The description continues on the next page (n83, p.60), where the host says the house and furniture travel on two camels.
Kalmyk chiefs who wear deer antlers
Editorial contextFrom Bukhara merchants Burnes heard that Kalmyk Tartars settled around Ili and Yarkand marked their chiefs and nobles by fixing deer's horns on their skull-caps, the size of the antlers showing rank. He adds a crude rumour about their women, and says the Chinese used Kalmyks to guard the frontier.
There are Calmuk Tartars settled around Eela and Yarkund, who have a singular custom to distinguish their chiefs and grandees, by fixing deer's horns on their skull-caps.
About Kalmyk Tartars (Oirats) under Qing rule
Keep in mind
Hearsay; the next page adds a sexual slander Burnes 'was assured' of.
Turkmen roadside grave mounds
Editorial contextRiding with a sayyid near the Caspian, Burnes asked about mounds of earth with a pole in the centre. They were 'yoozka', marking where someone had died or been laid out, and Turkmen said a blessing as they passed. Burnes remarks that they were not graves but barrows raised in honour of the dead, and suspects the custom was 'Tatar'.
They are not graves, but mounds or barrows raised in honour of the dead. I entertain an impression that the usage is Tatar; but I had no opportunity of further investigation.
About Turkmen
Keep in mind
Burnes's 'Tatar' origin is an untested hunch, as he admits.
The Tatar Hazaras, said to descend from Genghis's army
Editorial contextBurnes notes a Hazara tribe of about a thousand families called Tatar Hazaras, whom tradition made descendants of Genghis Khan's army. He points out that the only other people who called themselves Tatar were the Nogais on the Russian frontier. Earlier (vol. I, p.178) he says the Hazaras looked like Chinese and were 'Tartars by descent'.
Tradition states these people to be descendants of Jengis Khan's army, but their name of Tatar deserves remark, since the only other tribe so denominated by the people themselves is the Nogai on the frontiers of Russia.
About Tatar Hazaras
Keep in mind
The descent from Genghis's army is tradition, which Burnes reports without proving.
Where 'Tartary' begins on the ground
Editorial contextCrossing the Akrobat pass north of Bamiyan, Burnes notes that he was leaving the kingdom of Kabul and entering Turkestan, 'which is denominated Tartary (more properly Tatary) by Europeans'. At the next village the first ruler was an Uzbek who paid his overlords partly in slaves taken in raids.
Toorkistan, which is denominated Tartary (more properly Tatary) by Europeans.
About Uzbeks of Turkestan
The Tartar invasions, from Attila to the Uzbeks
Editorial contextBurnes opens a chapter 'On the Inroads of the Tartars' by lumping together Attila, Alaric, Genghis, Timur and the Uzbeks as expressions of 'the ever-wandering spirit of the Tartar people'. He places their homeland beyond the Jaxartes (Syr Darya) rather than in northern China. It shows the romantic, racial idea of 'the Tartar' that educated Britons held in the 1830s.
Attila and Alaric spread devastation in the empire of the Caesars. Jengis and Timour have succeeded them in more modern but equally destructive inroads. Through these great revolutions we trace the ever-wandering spirit of the Tartar people
About Tartars as a catch-all for steppe conquerors
Keep in mind
Burnes's own generalisation; Alaric was a Goth, not a steppe nomad.
A petrified city on the Aral Sea
Editorial contextIn Bukhara Burnes heard tales of an enchanted, petrified city on the south-west shore of the Aral Sea called Barsa-gil-mis, Turkic for 'go and never return', because curious visitors never came back. He files it with Bukharan belief in magic and remarks that 'distance gives countenance to most of the fables'.
tales of an enchanted and petrified city which was described by the Bokharees as lying on the south-western corner of the Sea of Aral, and between Orgunje and Orenburg. They call it "Barsa-gil-mis;" which, in Toorkee, means, to go and never return; since such is said to be the fate of the curious.
About Bukharans (storytellers)
Keep in mind
A local legend that Burnes reports with open scepticism.
Greek soldiers' descendants in 'Chinese Tartary'
Editorial contextListing people who claimed descent from Alexander the Great, Burnes adds that Tungan soldiers from western China garrisoning Yarkand claimed descent from Alexander's soldiers. He notes the claimants in the Oxus hills were Tajiks, who lived there 'before it was overrun by Toorkee or Tartar tribes', and doubts the claims against the historical record.
the soldiers of the Toonganee tribe, who are sent from the western provinces of Chinese Tartary, and garrison Yarkund and the neighbouring cities, claim also a Grecian origin. They, however, seek, with greater modesty, a descent from the soldiers of Alexander's army
About Tungan (Hui) soldiers; Tajik princes
Keep in mind
Reported claims that Burnes himself questions.