KHIRGHIZ DRIVERS 277 



under the beds in these abodes. We bolted a 

 couple of lambs one evening; babies were common, 

 and cats of no account. 



Credibility in a Divine Providence is common 

 to the majority of mankind, but it is intensely 

 irritating when Heaven is invoked as an excuse for 

 earthly incompetence. In the first week of our 

 journey, in answer to any enquiry we made as to 

 the number of stages we might reasonably expect 

 to cover during the next day's trekking, the invari- 

 able answer was, " Heaven only knows. We can- 

 not say ; it would be unlucky." 



As we all slept in the same room, after the 

 removal of the debris from our meal, in the hope 

 of going to bed early we would enquire about five 

 o'clock if our drivers intended having any more 

 meat. " Oh no, no more meat to-day," they 

 replied. " We have had our last meal." Two 

 hours later, just as we were preparing to turn in, 

 they would announce another meal, and the talking 

 and scrunching and smacking of lips would go on 

 till 9 or 10 o'clock. Truly they were a maddening 

 lot. 



The first excuse for not travelling more than one 

 stage a day was that the horses must be gradually 

 accustomed to the work. "After a couple of 

 days, then you'll see ! only two hours' stop any- 

 where. Their Excellencies must sleep in the 

 sleighs ; we shall do three, four, five stages straight 

 off." 



We started our second stage one afternoon about 

 3 o'clock, got stuck behind a string of eighty 

 sleighs laden with cotton wool, and passed the last 

 one at six o'clock the following morning ! It was 



