THE RETURN. 273 



I attempted to be, and io look, cheerful on the Mark 

 Tapley principle. My attendants looked very black and 

 pinched. No wonder ; there is some difference between 

 this temperature and that of their fervid plains. At 

 breakfast Abdoolah told me, that the party generally 

 would prefer halting here to-day, as they needed rest. 

 The coolies wanted to mend their boots, and promised to 

 go through to the halt I had designed to-morrow. He 

 observed, too, that the flour was all but out, and as the 

 Yarkand kanla would come up to-day, we could indent 

 upon them for their promised contribution. I had no 

 objection at all to remaining ; on the contrary, it would 

 enable me to maintain my Sunday practice, proposed to 

 be interrupted only on necessity. 



I passed the day within, reading and writing ; received 

 report of the death of a horse, knocked up yesterday, one 

 with a dreadful sore back, which I had remarked, and 

 predicted its certain death. The Bhooties in attendance 

 on the horses cannot be induced to look after them, or 

 attempt to remedy the effects of the saddle-galls, by 

 mending or altering, or applications of any sort. The 

 loss will be theirs and their employers', as I have ex- 

 plained to them, with repeated injunctions to look after 

 the animals ; but all in vain. The Yarkandies came up 

 in the afternoon. Abdoolah went to beg, and only suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining twenty-six seers of atta. I was 

 angry with him for having either deceived me as to the 

 quantity of flour in hand, on my making particular 

 enquiries on Monday, or for having exceeded the propor- 

 tion of issues he had then told me was necessary daily, 

 having led me to expect that we had ten days' supply, 

 when here on the sixth we were consuming the last day's 

 rations. He made some unintelligible explanations of 

 having omitted in his estimate some of the Bhooties who 



