JOURNEY FROM HERAT. TO ORENBURG. 233 



will trust him. I take with me water sufficient for 

 one day, and have told this young guide that he shall 

 have the eight tillahs promised to the deceased 

 Turkoman, whose family I will try to provide for. 

 He says that he is confident of finding the water, and 

 that "my sword is on his neck if he fails." 



May 30th. Started last night at half -past one, and 

 moved eleven miles and a quarter. When the first 

 dawn of day appeared, it was fine to see the young 

 Turkoman gazing like a startled antelope from side to 

 side, scampering up to every mound and peering over 

 every sandhill. He saw me using a telescope, and 

 begged to be allowed to look. Upon my giving him 

 the glass he seemed a little frightened, suspecting in- 

 fernal agency ; but summoning up his courage he 

 shouted, " In the name of God ! " and applied the 

 glass to his eye, prepared for the worst that might 

 happen. It was long before he could arrange the 

 focus to suit his eye ; but at length an exclamation 

 of " God is great ! " showed that he began to see the 

 use of the instrument. He had been most anxious, 

 during the last two miles, for a certain mark which, 

 he said, he must be near. At length he pulled up, 

 and said that if I would give him a trooper to go 

 with him, he would find the water and return to me. 

 I complied, and lay down in the meantime for a nap. 

 My dream was a confusion of drowning Turkomans, 

 telescopes, streams of water, and the horrors of dying 

 of thirst. In an hour and a half these dreams were 



