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6
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FARGHANA
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Masjid (Twin Mosque).1 Between this mosque and the town, i a great main canal flows from the direction of the hill. Below tne outer court of the mosque lies a shady and delightful clover'<: meadow where every passing traveller takes a rest. It is the joke of the ragamuffins of Aush to let out water from the canal2 on anyone happening to fall asleep in the meadow. A very beautiful stone, waved red and white3 was found in the Bara Koh in 'Umar Shaikh Mirza's latter days ; of it are made knife handles, and clasps for belts and many other things. For climate and for pleasantness, nc township in all Farghana equals Aush.
Again there is Marghlnan; seven ylghdch4 by road to the west of Andijan, a fine township full of good things. Its apricots (auruk) and pomegranates are most excellent. One sort of pomegranate, they call the Great Seed (Dana-i-kalan); its sweetness has a little of the pleasant flavour of the small apricot (zard-alv) and it may be thought better than the Semnan pomeFol. y>. granate. Another kind of apricot (auruk) they dry after stoning it and putting back the kernel ;5 they then call it subhanl; it is very palatable. The hunting and fowling of Marghlnan are good; aq kly'tk* are had close by. Its people are Sarts,7 boxers,
1 Madame Ujf alvy has sketched a possible successor. Schuyler found two mosques at the foot of Takht-i-sulaiman, perhaps Babur's Jauza Masjid.
2 aHl shah-ju'ldin sxi qiiyarlar.
3 Ribbon Jasper, presumably.
4 Kostenko (ii, 30), 71J vcrsts i.e. 47 m. 4J fur. by the Postal Road.
5 instead of their own kernels, the Second W.-i-B. stuffs the apricots, in a fashion well known in India by khubanl, with almonds (maghz-i badam). The Turk! wording however allows the return to the apricots of their own kernels and Mr. Rickmers tells me that apricots so stuffed were often seen by him in the Zar-afshan Valley. My husband has shewn me that Nizami in his Haft Paika- appears to refer to the other fashion, that of inserting almonds :
" I gave thee fruits from the garden of my heart, Plump and sweet as honey in milk ; Their substance gave the lusciousness of figs. In their hearts were the kernels of almonds."
9 What this name represents is one of a considerable number of points ia the Babur-nama I am unable to decide. Klylk is a comprehensive name (cf. Shaw's Vocabulary); aq kiyik might mean white sheep or white deer. It is rendered in the Second W.-i-B., here, by ahu-i-wdriq and on f, 4, by ahu-i-safed. Both these names Mr. Erskine has translated by "white deer." but he mentions that the first is said to mean atgali i.e. ovis poli, and refers to Voyages de Pallas iv, 335.
7 Concerning this much discussed word, Babur's testimony is of service. It seems to me that he uses it merely of those settled in towns (villages} and
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