180 
NARRATIVE. 
selves, but for our forty followers. One day four men 
arrived, bearing forty pairs of long riding boots slung 
on a long pole. Mr. Forsyth was placed in a most 
trying position ; he had the most positive orders to 
return at once if he found that the King was absent 
or engaged in war, and at the same time it was 
necessary to keep on good terms with the Yarkand 
rulers. That he succeeded in the latter object was 
shown by the honourable treatment we received on 
our return journey. 
The Yarkand authorities seemed to have very great 
doubts as to my occupation. The Dad Khwah is a 
great "hakim" — i.e., physician — and every day he 
used to send me bottles of medicine with the labels 
carefully removed, wishing to know what diseases 
the contents of the bottles were intended to cure, and 
in what doses the medicines should be given. His 
object, no doubt, was to test me, and see if I knew 
anything about medicine. Most of the medicines 
were of a very harmless description, such as essence 
of peppermint, essence of ginger, carbonate of soda, 
citric acid, and such like. On leaving Yarkand I made 
over to the Dad Khwah a quantity of iodine, for the 
treatment of goitre, at which he was very much 
pleased. 
It was not easy, during a short stay of thirteen 
days, to gain very much information not already 
known to Mr. Shaw, and which has been so well 
given by him in his book.* 
The neighbourhood of the city is, as I have said, 
richly cultivated, the soil being a light-coloured 
* ''High Tartary, Yarkand. and Kashgar." 
