134 
THROUGH ASIA 
of the winter snows. Why it is so called the Kirghiz 
were never able to explain satisfactorily. But it is a 
fact, that the name is in common use all over the Pamirs. 
The most probable explanation is perhaps this. By that 
time in certain quarters the snow has already melted, 
exposing the surface of the ground. The dust which 
rises from those places is probably caught up by the wind 
and blown upon the freshly fallen snow, staining it a dirty 
yellow colour. 
I need scarcely add, that the beginning of the winter 
snows, and their disappearance in spring, vary in the 
various districts. In the higher regions it snows all the 
# - 
AMID THE SNOWS OF THE ALAI VALLEY 
year round. In the Alai valley the first snow falls in 
the end of October, and the last traces disappear about 
the middle of April. 
But to return to our journey. During the night between 
28th February and ist March the wind howled and whistled 
through the tent hour after hour, and at length rent several 
narrow slits between the separate pieces of felting. In the 
morning, when I woke up, the floor of the tent was braided 
with ribbons of drifted snow ; one of them ran diagonally 
across the pillow on which my head rested. But what 
cared I about wind and snow ? I slept like a bear in his 
winter lair. The storm continued to rage all the next day. 
The wind, which blew from the west, whirled thick clouds 
of snow, as fine as powder, past the yurt (tent) from 
