Burnes, Alexander: Travels into Bokhara: containing the narrative of a voyage on the Indus from the sea to Lahore, ... and an account of a journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia ; performed by order of the supreme government of India, in the years 1831, 32, and 33 (Band 1) (London, 1835)

82

HISTORY OF OOCH.

CHAP. IV.

raged commercial communication. These merchants
are chiefly Hindoos, whose disposition peculiarly
adapts them for the patient and painstaking vo-
cation of a foreign merchant. Some of them are
Jews, who retain the marks of their nation in all
countries and places.*

We continued at Ooch for a week. The place
is ancient, and highly celebrated in the surround-
ing countries from the tombs of two saints of
Bokhara and Bagdad. The Ghorian emperors ex-
pelled the Hindoo Rajas of Ooch, and consigned
the surrounding lands to pious Mahommedans.
The tombs of the two worthies I have named
are handsome, and held in much reverence by the
people ; they are about five hundred years old, and
tradition is silent regarding the history of the place
beyond that period. The posterity of these saints
enjoy both spiritual and temporal power to the pre-
sent day ; but, instead of ministering to the wants
of the inhabitants, who are needy ;and poor, they
waste their fortunes in the chase, and retain hounds
and horses for their amusement. An inundation of
the Acesines, some years back, swept away one half
of the principal tomb, with a part of the town ; and,
though the return of the river to its original bed is
attributed to the miraculous interference of the
deceased saint, the people have, as yet, failed to
testify their gratitude by repairing his tomb. The

* It was my conversation with these men whichvmade me
decide on undertaking the journey to Central Asia, that I
afterwards performed.