I88     IN RUSSIAN TURKESTAN
inhabitants. The old name for an Afghan was
Paktu, which, as Werth observes, is a name given
by Persians to their children, and it also occurs as
the name of a town in Thracian Chersones. "In
India," says Bellew, "this people is known by the
name of Pathan, which is merely the Hindustani
form for Pukhtana-the plural of Pukhtan."
There is a pretty story told in Samarkand about
one of the Afghan prisoners who were set at liberty
by the Russian Minister of War in I9oi. He had
been greatly touched by the kind treatment he had
received at the hand of his jailer, and on receiving
his freedom he said: "If I ever become a minister,
I shall send all the money I can get to this kind-
hearted jailer."
One of the mounted policemen in Kokand, whose
duty it was to accompany us on our rounds, had
a face for all the world like a Chinaman, and the
musicians who performed at an entertainment given
in our honour at Andijan would easily have passed
for Celestials, but for the missing pigtail. They
were all Dungans. The home of these people is
really Kashgar. You find them all over Central
Asia, but they only come to make money, and
rarely bring their women with them. They are
Chinese Mussulmans.   There is quite a large
sprinkling of them in Margelan. On further in-
vestigation I discovered that our jigit or police-
man in Kokand was to all intents and purposes