Tajikistan Proverb

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Mon May 7 11:09:20 UTC 2001


   Greetings from Samarkand, after a day trip to Tajikistan.  Tajikistan was invaded by Alexander the Great and was a center of ancient trade routes.  However, "Tadjikistan" (as it is sometimes spelled) wasn't named until 1905 at New York's Polo Grounds, by a cartoonist for the New York Evening Journal.
   The civil war ended in 1997, but continues unofficially in some parts.  My guide had led French tourists last week and told us it was safe.
   Penjikent (the site and the museum I visited, also Panjikant) is called a second Pompeii.  It was destroyed by Moslems in the 7th-8th century.  There are Zoroastrian remains and some bones games and dice, but no chess pieces.  However, the best stuff is in Tashkent or St. Petersburg museums.
   The local guide didn't come up with any food specialties different from Uzbekistan (the lands were once united).  He came up with only one proverb:

Bite a big piece of bread, but don't speak much.

   I said I had no Tajikistan money, and the Uzbekistan guide told me that this "poem" is popular in English texts:

SON TO FATHER:
   No money.
   No funny.
   --Sonny.

FATHER TO SON:
   How bad.
   Too sad.
   --Dad.

("Mullets" attached...Tashkent tomorrow, where my tour guide promises me many proverbs.)
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