The Memoirs of Bābur 899.2.1

899.2.1

Again there is Kāsān, rather a small township to the north of Akhsī. From Kāsān the Akhsī water comes in the same way as the Andijān water comes from Aūsh. Kāsān has excellent air and beautiful little gardens (_bāghcha_). As these gardens all lie along the bed of the torrent (_sā'ī_) people call them the "fine front of the coat."[91] Between Kāsānīs and Aūshīs there is rivalry about the beauty and climate of their townships. In the mountains round Farghāna are excellent summer-pastures (_yīlāq_). There, and nowhere else, the _tabalghū_[92]grows, a tree (_yīghāch_) with red bark; they make staves of it; they [Sidenote: Fol. 5b.] make bird-cages of it; they scrape it into arrows;[93] it is an excellent wood (_yīghāch_) and is carried as a rarity[94] to distant places. Some books write that the mandrake[95] is found in these mountains but for this long time past nothing has been heard of it. A plant called _Āyīq aūtī_[96] and having the qualities of the mandrake (_mihr-giyāh_), is heard of in Yītī-kīnt;[97] it seems to be the mandrake (_mihr-giyāh_) the people there call by this name (_i.e._ _āyīq aūtī_). There are turquoise and iron mines in these mountains. If people do justly, three or four thousand men[98] may be maintained by the revenues of Farghāna. (_b. Historical narrative resumed._)[99]