OF EASTERN TURKESTAN, 95 
to the attainment of knowledge!” “Why,” he added ener- 
getically “there is not a Mullah in this country who knows 
Arabic even as well as you do.” I suppose this was intended 
as a compliment to me, but it sounded like very faint praise. 
The Effendi amused us very much by expressing his surprise 
at hearing that I had not been on a pilgrimage to Mecca, 
as I was nota Mussalman. He added that he intended to 
start at once for India, and hoped to fint many learned people 
in Kashmir! After his departure we heard that our friend 
the Turk had ‘tightened’ the Mullahs of Yarkand very con- 
siderably, 7.e., had made their lives a burden to them by his 
searching enquiries about their erudition. 
The Dad Khwah returned from his trip to Kashghar on the 
18th, and a very important matter, as affecting us, was decided 
on the 21st: the Agency is to return to India, and we shall 
probably startin about a month’s time. The arrangements about 
carriage and food for the journey will take some time to 
complete, but I have already begun packing up; the birds 
especially have to be very carefully stowed away. 
An old Chinese woman, who has often come to me as a patient 
is most anxious to go to India with our party. Sheisa 
Christian—a convert of some of the Jesuit fathers in China— 
who was deported to this country some forty years ago. The 
old lady is very comfortably off and seems to be treated with 
respect by the Yarkandis ; she says she has made up her mind 
to die in a Christian land and so is determined to go to India 
(!) for that purpose. She is much too old to stand a journey 
across the mountains; but when I told her so she burst into 
tears and said could ride a horse as well as any one else and 
that nothing should prevent her from accompanying us. It is 
difficult to know what is to be done about her. 
The weather during this month has been decidedly hot, but 
not oppressively so. The mean maximum in the shade has 
been 91°, the highest temperature occurred on the 7th when 
the thermometer registered 97°°8. The mean minimum tem- 
perature in the shade has been 62°; the mean grass minimum, 
54°4; and the mean maximum temperature in the sun’s rays, 
145°°5. We have had five days of fairly clear weather, with 
a blue sky; thirteen days of partial cloud and haze; and 
twelve days with the sky completely overcast—chiefly by dense 
dust-haze. On three days a few drops only of rain fell, and on 
the 10th there was a little rain (0°03 inch) accompanied by 
thunder and sheet lightning towards the west. Grateful 
breezes from the north-west have usually blown every evening ; 
and on three days we have had heavy winds either bringing or 
accompanied by clouds of dust. 
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