Il6 JOURNEY TO YARKAND. 



feet, an easy ascent and good road. We passed 

 a herd of ponies on our way, and the next 

 morning several of ours were absent without 

 leave. We had to hunt the nullah for some 

 time to find them, and at last got all but my 

 riding-pony, Bob. We were just starting when 

 he turned up, not looking a bit ashamed of 

 himself, though he had evidently made a night 

 of it with the herd we had seen on our way. 



We now got down to grass prairie-land, with 

 Kirghiz hamlets here and there. These were 

 huts built of mud and stone. In this they are 

 unlike their brethren of the Pamir, who scorn 

 to live in anything but yurts. 



Coming to the Charlung valley, we camped 

 in a grove of apricot - trees belonging to a 

 friend of Barat's, who very kindly brought us 

 some fowls and three eggs, which, he said, 

 were all that remained in the village. We had 

 a great consultation as to what was to be done 

 with the three eggs. One egg was a bad 

 thing to split, so we decided on an omelette 

 for breakfast. What is an egg, do you say ? 

 Please, kind reader, remember that we had 

 eaten our last egg in August, and this was 

 November ! Barat's friend also brought us some 



