ons in person; but, in so active a
community where there was a dearth of mankind, the intellectually gifted
members of the society were too valuable to be permitted to devote their
energies and their attention to the object of becoming palace ornaments.
Yakoob Beg had forced himself on a people who regarded him with
indifference, and he had to maintain himself in his place by a never
relaxing vigour. To make this possible, he required a large staff of
efficient and trustworthy subordinates, who may be divided into three
classes of various capacities, viz., soldiers, administrators, and
tax-gatherers. Until the last few months of his reign there was no
symptom that his system was declining in vigour, or that his supply of
competent officials was limited and susceptible of being exhausted. Even
in his most prosperous years, however, there was always a difficulty in
obtaining a full supply; and in all inferior posts the disaffected
Khitay had to be employed. The Tungani of Kucha and Aksu were scarcely
more to be trusted in an emergency than their Buddhist kinsmen. Yet the
extensive civil service of the state, which undertook the education, the
religion, the civil order, the local administration of the people all
into its own hands, had to be kept in working order, whatever else might
happen. It can at once be perceived that, when a government which never
obtained any deep hold on the affections of the people had only a
limited population to draw upon, it was only a question of time to solve
the difficulty by an exhaustion of the supply of suitable brain
material, or by the uprising of an, at heart, dissatisfied people. No
one will ever understand the secret of Yakoob Beg's rule unless he
constantly bears in mind that his strict orthodoxy as a Mussulman, and
his still stricter enforcement of the laws of his religion within his
borders, were elements of strength only in his external relations; in
his internal affairs they placed him in the light of a tyrant, and
prevented his people ever experiencing any enthusiasm for his person and
rule. It is doubtful whether outside the priesthood and the more
fanatical Andijanis there was any great religious zeal at all, and it is
quite a delusion to speak of the Kashgari, as a whole, as being
fanatical Mahomedans, in the same degree that it is true to say so of
the Bokhariots or Afghans. In addition to there being no noble or
wealthy official class in the city of Kashgar, there was also