PREPARATIONS. 139 



Barat's service, Rahamut by name, to look after 

 my own riding- ponies. He was a very good 

 servant, and knew sufficient Hindustani for us 

 to be able to understand each other. Having 

 settled this, and got charoks and poshteens (a 

 loose coat of dressed sheepskin, worn with the 

 woolly side in), also rugs of the same to sleep 

 under, and various stores and little luxuries for 

 the road, I laid in, besides, a supply of gamboos, 

 a Chinese coin, simply a lump of solid silver made 

 in a rough mould, valued, according to its weight, 

 from ten rupees to a hundred and fifty ; darchen, 

 a copper Chinese coin, about half the size of a 

 halfpenny, with a square hole cut in the middle 

 these are strung together in a double row, 

 500 in all, worth about five rupees ; tillas, a 

 gold coin of the time of Yakub Beg, value about 

 five rupees they are larger but thinner than 

 a half sovereign ; the little silver tonga, five of 

 which go to a rupee, and which are now nearly 

 obsolete, another relic of Yakub Beg's time ; and 

 finally, a large bundle of piece-goods, for pres- 

 ents to the natives. 



