206 EXPEDITION TO KALMUK. 



and took me to his house, begging me to put up 

 there during my stay. I told him I should prefer, 

 with his permission, to live in some place outside 

 the town ; so, after drinking tea, we proceeded to 

 hunt for a villa residence in the suburbs, and 

 found a convenient place, an orchard with a sort 

 of little bungalow in it, surrounded by a good 

 high wall, which I thought would protect me from 

 the prying eyes of the public, as it was my inten- 

 tion to remain a few days to refit and feed up 

 the ponies, who were getting rather low in flesh 

 from constant work. 



Going one day to visit the Amban and Dotai, 

 I found a great crowd in the courtyard of the 

 yaman, and was told the Amban was adminis- 

 tering justice, and settling a case about a Beg 

 in the neighbourhood. The crowd was composed 

 of all the inhabitants of his district, some for and 

 some against him. His enemies accused him of 

 undue oppression, in fact robbery, while his friends 

 said it was all humbug ! On inquiring how the 

 Amban was settling the case, they said that the 

 matter was being put to the vote those in the 

 Beg's favour in one court, those against him in 

 another : if the majority were on the side of the 

 Beg, those against him would get a sound thrash- 



