Such Fluctuations In The Extent Of Wakhan
Territory Are Remembered Also In Modern Times.
Thus Colonel Trotter, who
visited Wakhan with a section of the Yarkand Mission in 1874, distinctly
notes that 'Wakhan formerly contained three "sads" or hundreds, i.e.,
districts, containing 100 houses each' (viz.
Sad-i-Sar-hadd, Sad Sipang,
Sad Khandut). To these Sad Ishtragh, the tract extending from Digargand to
Ishkashim, is declared to have been added in recent times, having formerly
been an independent principality. It only remains to note that Marco was
right, too, in his reference to the peculiar language of Wakhan; for
Wakhi - which is spoken not only by the people of Wakhan but also by the
numerous Wakhi colonists spread through Mastuj, Hunza Sarikol, and even
further east in the mountains - is a separate language belonging to the
well-defined group of Galcha tongues which itself forms the chief extant
branch of Eastern Iranian."
XXXII., pp. 171 seq., 175, 182.
THE PLATEAU OF PAMIR.
"On leaving Tash-kurghan (July 10, 1900), my steps, like those of
Hiuan-tsang, were directed towards Kashgar.... In Chapters V.-VII. of my
Personal Narrative I have given a detailed description of this route, which
took me past Muztagh-Ata to Lake Little Kara-kul, and then round the foot
of the great glacier-crowned range northward into the Gez defile, finally
debouching at Tashmalik into the open plain of Kashgari. Though scarcely
more difficult than the usual route over the Chichiklik Pass and by
Yangi-Hisar, it is certainly longer and leads for a considerably greater
distance over ground which is devoid of cultivation or permanent
habitations.
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