36 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



Our purchases were chiefly chaguns, which are 

 rather handsome brass jugs used for making tea 

 in, some beautifully embroidered Chinese robes, a 

 lot of large and highly ornamented buttons made 

 of malachite and silver filigree, and some Chinese 

 bowls and plates. Having packed them all up, we 

 sent them down to Leh by a trader and found them 

 there all right on our return next year. I wanted 

 to buy a saddle pony, and as soon as this was 

 known a lot were brought for me to see ; finally 

 I made a choice and bought the animal for eighty 

 rupees, after an immense amount of bargaining, 

 which was conducted through a middleman. 



From Leh we had been accompanied by a 

 merchant, one Syed Jolal, whom we were supposed 

 to protect from the possible assaults of another 

 trader, Dilda Khan. They were both Pathans and 

 had had a row of some sort, and Dilda Khan 

 was supposed to have left Yarkand breathing forth 

 threats and slaughter with the avowed intention 

 of settling the feud should he meet with his enemy 

 on the way. We passed Dilda Khan at Borah, 

 but as we saw nothing of him our office of escort 

 was a sinecure after all. Syed Jolal was a huge 

 man, about as big as the two of us rolled into one, 

 and might almost have been supposed capable of 

 taking care of himself; none the less, he was very 

 grateful for having been allowed to travel under 

 our wing, and sent us loads of fruit, sheep, etc. 



