Across the Roof of the World. 



obliging, in return for which I gave him a substantial present on 

 leaving the next morning. He also provided a feast for my 

 servants, to which they all did ample justice, especially Giyani, 

 who was a famous trencherman and should have lived in the days 

 of Falstaff. 



The weather had been wretched all day with the same high 

 wind, so the shelter of the yurt was very welcome, and 

 enabled me to write up my diary and notes in comfort. The 

 Beg had also prepared a large yurt for my staff and the culinary 

 department, Piro serving up a dinner that would have done credit 

 to the Ritz. 



My intentions were now to thoroughly explore the Payik 

 nullah for poli, and if none should be found there to move on to 

 the Khunjerab, some distance down the valley leading off from 

 the right bank of the Taghdumbash River, thence on to Yarkand 

 and Kashgar. 



In the morning I bade farewell to the hospitable Beg and 

 continued down the valley, camping that night some five miles 

 up the Payik, a nullah leading off from the left bank of the 

 Tashkurghan River. There is a karaul, or mud fort, at the 

 entrance, which tower of strength is the outward and visible sign 

 of Chinese occupancy. The man in charge, with sundry other 

 unwashed rascals, came out to meet me, but I did not stay, being 

 anxious to get on to the higher ground in the nullah. There 

 were lots of hares in the vicinity of my camp that night and I 

 shot a few for the pot, having become weary of a mutton 

 diet. 



In the morning I went ahead with my shikari and another 

 hunter I had engaged at the mouth of the nullah, Arzu by name, 

 and a brother of Kurban's, and gave the others orders to come 

 on later and pitch camp at the foot of the Payik Pass. This 

 pass is rather an important one, inasmuch as it lies on the road 

 from Aktash, a post on the Russian Pamirs, to the valley of the 

 Taghdumbash. Its height is something over 15,000 feet, and, 

 though steep and rocky near the summit, cannot be called difficult, 



76 



