1 506
2 WHERE
3 THREE
4 EMPIRES
5 MEET
6 pated, for the monarch had got too long a start of us ;
7 and now that we were at the foot of the Pamirs we
8 could follow him no farther, our orders of course pre-
9 venting us from crossing the j)asses into Chinese terri-
10 tory. A Eussian officer under like circumstances would
11 have had a freer hand, and would have troubled him-
12 self little as to whose lands he was trespassing over
13 when in full chase of his quarry.
14 On this day Lieutenant Townshend joined us with
15 five sepoys, having left at Gircha the rest of the small
16 party with which he had marched from Hunza. He
17 liad been sent to penetrate some triljutary nullahs of
18 the Kanjut, to carry on the same work which had em-
19 ployed us in the main valley — the reconnoitring of the
20 country and the disarmament of the natives.
21 It being New Year's Eve we got up a tamasha after
22 supper. Several fires, forming a large circle, were lit
23 outside in the clear frosty air, and we all — officers,
24 sepoys, Baltis, and natives, the latter far outnumbering
25 our party — sat round in a ring as spectators, while in
26 the centre the Hunzas gave us an entertainment of a
27 most interestinoj character.
28 For fourteen centuries, it is said, have these tribes
29 men lived as they do now, unchanging in manners or
30 dress. The
31 dancing, and
32 and a music
33 of this
34 evening's
35 nautcli
36 were singing,
37 all traditional,
38 thousand
39 years
40 ago a
41 Hunza merrv-makino- would have doubtless been little
42 different from this one.
43 In this country women never dance, so men only
44 took part in this performance. It is the custom here
45 for every big man to maintain his band of musicians,
46 which accompanies him when he makes a journey.
47 Later on we requisitioned the thum's own orchestra for
48 our nautches ; but on this occasion we had to satisfy our-
49 selves w^ith the band of one of the fugitive wazirs, consist-