226 SUGHEIT. 



thing. And so I added my contribution to the piles of 

 bones at this melancholy spot. 



Some six miles of tolerable travelling, mostly along 

 the watercourse, brought us to the foot of the Kara- 

 korum, up which a portion of the winding path was 

 seen, nothing formidable about it. I breakfasted, and 

 then rode up the mountain, pausing every twenty paces 

 or so to breathe the nags. Here we passed our mercant- 

 ile companions who had given us the go-by, when at 

 breakfast. A zyarat a pile of stones with some rags 

 on sticks was on the top of the pass. I thought it was 

 Buddhist, and rebuked Abdool for doing reverence to it, 

 but was informed that it was a Mahomedan pir. We 

 descended into a level valley, watered by a stream which 

 Abdool states to be the source of the Yarkand river. 

 Bones and carcases of horses lay in all directions, the 

 loads of many left beside their bearer's remains. Huge 

 bloated ravens napped and croaked around. Footprints 

 of the hyena, too, were seen, which foul ugly beast had 

 skulked from the glare of day to some lone den in the 

 rocks around. 



I rode slowly on ahead of my party, pondering on 

 subjects suggested by the savage wildness of the scene, 

 when I was quite startled by the rushing sound of two 

 monstrous ravens which, quarrelling for a morsel of 

 carrion, swooped down close by my head. I thought 

 how, in darker ages, this would have been regarded as an 

 augury for good or evil. We descended gradually, fol- 

 lowing the watercourse, the valley widening to some two 

 or three miles extent ; at a bend in which, taking us to 

 the eastward, our course having been hitherto north, we 

 saw some of the wild horse (kyang) two or three in the 

 valley, others on the hill-side, and some up a creek down 

 which came a tributary stream. Exciting as this sight 



