camp, and cheered by the omen, I strode merrily on, 

 and followed the tracks right into our bivouac, expressing 

 astonishment thereat, and laughing over the consternation 

 they must have created in the dead of night. But Ab- 

 doolah at once dispelled our illusive thoughts by the 

 information that a Yarkandi had come in yesterday with 

 four bullocks, tame yaks, whose tracks had so excited us. 

 The newcomer was an old man with two servants, a 

 gun, and a dog, and was proceeding to the zyarat of 

 which Nassir Khan had spoken, whence the stone of the 

 Delhi musjed had been quarried ; his object being to 

 possess himself of a supply of specimens of this holy 

 stone which, conveyed to Yarkand, was bought at a 

 ridiculously high price by devout mussulmans. It was 

 also the old gentleman's intention to hunt yak which 

 were there plentiful : but, finding a saheb in his path 

 also after those animals, he had most courteously ex- 

 pressed his intention to await my return, accompany me, 

 and aid me to his utmost in procuring sport, which I 

 should enjoy to my satisfaction. This quite compensated 

 for the mistake of the tracks, and, summoning the 

 stranger to an audience, he came and confirmed his good 

 intents on my behalf. I stepped to his fire close by, 

 where was a large rough dog, useful in the chase of the 

 yak, which he attacks, and so distracting his attention 

 from the hunters gives them the chance of getting a good 

 shot. He had a long matchlock with rifled barrel, and a 

 forked rest attached. This, he said, was of Russian 

 manufacture, and cost only twenty-four rupees 2. 8s. 

 We could not do it cheaper in Birmingham. Pie said it 

 shot right well. I sent him a leg of venison, an accept- 

 able supply of meat ; and in the course of the day the 

 good man appeared with a return present of a pair of 

 ornamented saddle-bags and a dish of flour. The bags 



