514 THE KARLIK TAGH 



the advantage, over a flat one, for turning rain; but I 

 do not myself think it was the rain which determined 

 the shape of the roofs so much as the fact of a Chinese 

 village being close by, and that Shopoli had once been in- 

 habited by Chinese. Many ruined shrines and buildings 

 showed traces of former Chinese settlers, now restricted 

 to Tash-bulak ; yet the Chinese influence remains strong, 

 and the kingdom of the Khan of Kumul is in as much 

 danger of being assailed by the foreigners in that quarter 

 as it is in the capital itself. 



The natives of Shopoli showed that love of amuse- 

 ment which old writers have described as being the 

 chief characteristic of the Kumuliks. They treated us 

 to some of their local songs, sung to the accompani- 

 ment of a Chinese violin ; but we cannot refrain from 

 thinking that, since these people have given up their own 

 peculiar musical instrument, such as the Chanto guitar, 

 and use a foreign one, they show signs of becoming 

 denationalized. Many of the men were clothed in the 

 Chinese manner, and all spoke the language, yet they 

 kept with worthy persistency and strictness to their 

 Mussulman exactitudes of food and cleanliness. The 

 Chinese element approaches by way of the highlands 

 which stretch south-eastwards to An-hsi-chow and Su- 

 chow. This region averages over 5,000 ft, in altitude 

 and supports Chinese ranchers in small numbers. They 

 come up to the very borders of the territory of the 

 Khan, and at one place, Tash-bulak, have actually estab- 

 lished themselves. 



The region lying to the east of the trans-Gobi route, 

 which leads from Kumul to China, is very little known. 

 A couple of Russian explorers have crossed it, and 

 from their map we understand the country to be one of 



