150 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



that is to say, he repeated his words slowly and 

 emphatically, as if one, though ignorant of the lan- 

 guage, could not fail to comprehend his meaning, 

 if expressed clearly and deliberately. We were 

 brought no whit nearer to a sense of the emergency. 



As in despair he continued to repeat one word, 

 " Aivan, aivan," in a tone that appealed to our every 

 sympathy as reasonable beings, we felt the full in- 

 decorum of our continued unintelligence, and would 

 gladly have compounded by appearing to understand, 

 and allowing the event to work itself out. But this 

 would not satisfy our friend : there was evidently 

 something to be done by us. 



" Aivan, aivan ! " shouted the assistants, in chorus. 



It was useless. The word was not in our vocab- 

 ulary. He now began to gesticulate vehemently, 

 passing his hand several times over his face, and per- 

 forming other evolutions. These to me, I confess, 



conveyed no meaning ; but K , being of quicker 



apprehension, somehow extracted from the pantomime 

 an idea of the fact. 



" Depend upon it, he means something about the 

 horses." 



S improved upon this suggestion, turning to 



account the extra knowledge that he possessed of the 

 ways of these people. " I have it. He means where 

 are the halters for our horses. These are never pro- 

 vided in the khan stables, and all travellers take 

 them for themselves." 



