JOURNEY FROM HERAT TO ORENBURG. 237 



water of which, by the way, we had some capital 

 tea made in a short time. It was fortunate that I 

 kept Khoda Woordee with the camels ; for the Kip- 

 ckak sowars, headed by the Wolf, suffered so much 

 from the excessive heat that they lost all sense of 

 discipline, and tried to detain the camels until the 

 cool of the evening, helping themselves in the mean- 

 time from the water-bags ; but Khoda Woordee be- 

 haved with great firmness, and succeeded at last in 

 frightening even the Wolf, who, being an opium- 

 eater, felt the heat so much that at one time ho 

 threw himself from his horse, vowing his hour had 

 arrived. When I look back and think how unlikely 

 it was that even with the Turkoman I should find 

 the reservoirs of yesterday and the well of to-day, 

 and when I reflect that, had anything happened to 

 the guide, or had he been less intelligent had we, 

 in short, by any accident missed these watering- 

 places, the destruction of all the party was inevi- 

 table ; I say, when I think of all these things, I 

 acknowledge I have great cause for gratitude to Him 

 who has guided me through this and many other 

 dangers. We are now on the highroad to Khiva, 

 the "Rah-i-tukht " ; twelve hours' travelling will 

 carry us to another well which contains sweet water, 

 and in three days all the difficulties of the road will 

 be overcome. Total distance, forty miles. 



June 1st We halted until late this evening, to allow 

 the cattle to recover in some measure from the fatigues 



