KHOTAN TO LEH 191 



before dawn on the 22nd, we arrived at Pialma, 

 after a long march of twenty-eight miles through a 

 most dreary country, beginning with high sand-hills 

 and going on across a level gravelly plain. For 

 most of the way across this the road is marked out 

 with poles, and at one place a lamp is hoisted for 

 the guidance of travellers most necessary pre- 

 cautions, as the track is not well defined and nothing 

 could be easier than to miss it. In fact, our guide 

 did so immediately the poles came to an end ; but 

 in the darkness we heard some donkey-men singing, 

 and they put us right. Among the sand-hills is a 

 mazar where an immense number of pigeons live, 

 supported among the seas of sand by the charity of 

 travellers, a small gift of grain being a recognised 

 obligation. This the birds know well, and as soon 

 as anyone comes in sight they start flying and 

 walking down the road to meet him. Like Dr. 

 Sven Hedin, we were told that any rash hawk 

 which should venture to attack them would im- 

 mediately fall dead. Half-way across the plain is 

 Ak Langar,' a rest-house and praying place, built 

 during the Mahommedan supremacy, and certainly 

 intended to last, as it is mostly made of cut stone, 

 the transport of which must have been an expensive 

 business ; the water in the well there is very salt. 

 Pialma is now a decadent village ; once it was large 

 and important, but the sand has encroached and 

 reduced it to half its former size. 



