592 DZUNGARIA 



serai, especially if it is in charge of that scum of Western 

 China, the crafty Dungan. In winter the traveller has 

 to put up with either intense cold — and how that icy 

 wind can howl through those ill-fitting doors and paper- 

 less windows, or a room full of pungent smoke ! In 

 summer there is no alternative ; it is always a case of 

 " dust and stench and staleness " plus unremitting atten- 

 tion from a variety of insect-pests. 



Hearing from the man in charge of the serai that 

 during the winter months numbers of wild-sheep, or, 

 as he called them in Chinese, Ta lao yang (large-headed 

 sheep), descend from the main ridge to the low hills 

 round Ta-shih-tu, we spent the first evening spying with 

 a telescope from a commanding position. A few wild- 

 sheep had been found, and we were splashing our wa}^ 

 through the slush and mud back to supper, forming plans 

 for a hunt on the morrow, when we fell in with a wild- 

 looking figure making for the same direction. He proved 

 to be one of those curious, semi-nomadic, and semi- 

 sedentary Mohammedans one finds in this eastern end 

 of the Tian Shan. His wild-looking, unkempt appear- 

 ance at once appealed to us ; over his shoulders was 

 slung the most antique muzzle-loader I have ever seen, 

 with a long, forked rest, and its barrel and stock held 

 together with bindings of raw hide. It was one of those 

 weapons better to have fired at one than to have 

 to fire. His clothing consisted of a ragged old sheep- 

 skin coat, almost black with the blood of many a beast, 

 bound round the middle with a greasy cloth from which 

 hung his powder-horn, flint and steel, and a serviceable- 

 looking knife. Below this he wore short sheep-skin 

 trousers, and round his legs were wound puttees of felt. 

 Moccasins, made from the breast-skin of ibex, covered his 



