66      IN RUSSIAN TURKESTAN
upper lip, which must always show, to ensure cleanli-
ness in eating, but the beard is not touched. In no
country are there so many barbers, or, I should say,
head-shavers, for the word barber, from its very
meaning, is an inappropriate translation. A head-
shaver goes by the Tajik name of Sartarash; sar=
head, and tarash =shaver. There are many Shiites
to be found in Bokhara, but they are people who
have emigrated from Persia, never natives.
The Dervishes of Bokhara live in a settlement
outside the town. With them long hair is obliga-
tory, so they can easily be distinguished from their
fellow-men. Questioned, they will tell you that
Hagar's son, Ishmael, was the first dervish., Most
of them live a life of celibacy; the married ones are
those who have joined the order since their marriage.
Another name for them is Kalendar, from kalem =
ask, and dar= door, because it is their principal duty
to beg, and beat at the doors at the same time.
They are under the leadership of a dervish-in-chief,
who keeps the bag and sends them all over the
country to beg, receiving from them on their return
all that they have collected during the journey.
Sometimes he sends them to travel for a period of
one or two years in Afghanistan, in Persia, in Khiva,
or in Kashgar. His discipline is said to be very
severe, a statement which is hard to believe when
one meets them tearing along the streets in noisy
troops, singing and shouting like men the worse for