KUNGES TO KULDJA 141 



more of them, but what there are are pretty good. 

 On my way back I noticed that nearly all the people 

 in charge of the post-houses were new, and was 

 told that they and their horses had come in in place 

 of the first lot of men, whose animals were by now 

 thin and slow. But the above is the only bright 

 spot in the picture. To anyone accustomed to Indian 

 tonga travelling the delay in changing horses is 

 most annoying ; half an hour is quick time for this, 

 an hour and a half being more usual, during which 

 the traveller curses and the men in charge keep 

 on saying " Immediately," the word used being 

 Sechds, which one soon learns to hate the sound 

 of. Other favourite expressions are Da-da 

 " Never mind " ; Nitchivo " It doesn't matter " ; 

 and the Turki word Bulmaidu "It is impossible" 

 or " I cannot" all in far too frequent use to please 

 the more energetic Anglo-Saxon. On the way 

 down Morse used to spend much of his time invent- 

 ing new and choice Americanisms applicable to the 

 country and people in general, which fortunately 

 were not understood. Food on the road is a great 

 trouble. Having my own man, I was fairly well off 

 in this respect ; but let others take warning and lay 

 in plenty of stores. There is nothing much but 

 bread and occasionally soup to be got at most of 

 the post-houses, few of them running to an 

 abomination called a "cutlet," a horror which is 

 composed of meat and bone chopped up together 



