Arrival in Kulja. 



I had sent on a note overnight to the British Aksakal in 

 Kulja, asking him to kindly prepare a house for me, and, if 

 possible, meet me outside the city. As there are two or three 

 entrances to the city after one leaves the ferry we missed each 

 other, so that Numgoon and I spent a considerable time riding 

 about streets axle-deep in mud and slush, looking for the Aksakal. 

 Whilst thus engaged a Russian Sart (native of Russian Turkistan) 

 came up and enquired of Numgoon if I was the European traveller 

 expected in Kulja, and, receiving an answer in the affirmative. 



A MOSQUE IN KULJA. 



conducted me to the house the Aksakal had engaged and then 

 went to apprise the latter of my arrival. The appearance of this 

 good Samaritan was very welcome, for riding about the streets of 

 a Central Asian town in the month of November, through 

 extensive quagmires of mud and filth, is distinctly uninteresting, 

 and rendered the more so by the gaze and inquisitive attentic^n 

 of the inhabitants. 



The house was the property of the man who had accosted us 

 in the street, and my suite therein consisted of two rooms and a 



295 



