THE MURGHAB TO BULUN-KUL 209 
as far as the point where the valley of Ak-berdi runs out 
into the valley of Sarik-kol. The accommodation pro- 
vided for me there consisted of one miserable yurt, 
covered with ragged felts. For precaution’s sake it was 
put up at a distance of three kitchkei'im or “ shouts ” 
the distance to which the human voice can be heard 
when raised in a loud shout) from the fort. We had 
scarcely got our baggage stowed away in something like 
order, when a yuz-bashi (chief of one hundred men) 
came to announce that the actine commandant of Bulun- 
o 
kul, the Kirghiz officer Tura Kelldi Savgan, together with 
Chao Darin, his Chinese colleague of Tar-bashi, a little 
fort at the mouth of the Ghez valley, were on the way 
to pay me a visit. I had barely time to get outside the 
yurt, when up they trotted, with half a score Chinese 
soldiers at their heels. A gay spectacle they made too, 
with their grey trousers, shoes, and scarlet tunics, decorated 
with large Chinese ideographs (language signs) in black. 
Every man was armed with a rifle, and rode a white horse, 
bearing a red saddle and big stirrups which rattled noisily. 
I invited them to step inside the tent, and bade my men 
serve round an extra dainty dastarkhan (lunch), consisting 
of sardines, chocolate, preserved fruits, sweet cakes, and 
liqueur — delicacies which I had brought with me from 
Margelan specially to tickle the Chinese palate. Chao 
Darin conceived a particularly strong affection for the 
liqueur, and inquired how much a man could drink 
without getting intoxicated. My cigarettes too met with 
much appreciation ; although my Chinese friend Chao 
Darin preferred his own silver-mounted water-pipe. 
Conversation was carried on between myself and the 
mandarin under considerable difficulties. At that time 
I was not sufficiently master of the Kirghiz tongue to be 
able to speak it fluently. I therefore expressed myself to 
Kul Mametieff in Russian. Kul Mametieff conveyed my 
meaning in the Turki language to the mandarin’s inter- 
preter, a Sart from Turfan, and he in his turn passed on 
the message in Chinese to Chao Darin. 
Tura Kelldi Savgan was a pleasant man, with a good 
1.-14 
