132 YARKAND. 



very imposing gates, and found ourselves in front 

 of others gorgeously painted and decorated. 

 This, we were told, was the entrance of the 

 yaman, and here we must dismount. After some 

 parley between Mahomed Unis and the Chinese 

 officials, we were shown into a little anteroom 

 to wait till the Amban returned from his drive. 

 We were given some very weak tasteless tea, 

 and a curious sort of water-pipe, much affected 

 by the Chinese. As I did not understand this 

 article, I took a good pull at it, filling my mouth 

 with dirty water, which I promptly spat out, 

 much to the amusement of the Chinese attend- 

 ants. Just at this moment a Chinaman ran in, 

 and announced that the Amban was ready. We 

 were shown out past the gates we had noticed 

 on our entry, on the other side of which we saw 

 the great man standing prepared to receive us. 



Now I had heard that the amount of honour 

 done to a visitor by a Chinese official is shown 

 by the number of gates opened for him on his 

 reception, so that I did not like this side entry 

 at all ; but as he stood waiting, there was nothing 

 for it but to move on to greet him. He shook 

 us both by the hand, and by signs waived us 

 before him into a reception-hall. Here the big 



