220 
THROUGH ASIA 
moment he did so, was struck by an arrow and slain. 
The hero’s masar, or tomb, stands on a dominant but- ji 
tress of the west flank of Mus-tagh-ata. One of the 
glaciers of the mountain commemorates the hero’s name 
to the present day. 
But the Chinese soon gathered another army, numbering 
as many men as the stars in the sky, and came and fell 
upon Khan Khoja near the lake of Little Kara-kul. 
Thereupon the forty horsemen withdrew and rode back 
up Mus-tagh-ata— an ending, by the way, strangely at 
variance with all the imaginative tales I am acquainted 
with! Khan Khoja’s evil star still remained in the 
ascendant. He was worsted again, and fled to Rang-kul 
and Kornei-tarti. But the Chinese pursued after him 
and compelled him to give battle once again. His army 
was routed and scattered like chaff, so that at last the 
Khan was left alone with none but his trumpeter to bear 
him company. Then the Khan bade the trumpeter 
sound his trumpet. Instantly the scattered fragments of 
his forces were gathered around him. But they were far l 
too weak to stand against the Chinese, who drove them 
before them, pursuing them over hill and valley until they 
had slain nearly all of them. When Khan Khoja at 
length came to Yeshil-kul (the Green Lake), he had but : 
fifty faithful followers left. There he went up alone into : 
a high mountain ; but when he looked down, his men 
were surrounded by their enemies, the Chinese. Khan ^ 
Khoja gave them a sign with his hand, and they flung 
themselves into the lake. Then lo and behold! a new 
marvel happened. They would not sink ; and the Chinese , 
shot at them as though they had been shooting wild-duck 
or other game. But Khan Khoja took up a handful of 
dust, muttered a prayer over it, and cast it over the lake. 
In a moment the heroic fifty disappeared beneath the 
waves. The Khan himself fled to Badakshan ; but the 
Shah of Badakshan cut off his head and sent it to the 
Chinese. His body was taken possession of by certain 
of his friends, and by them sent to Kashgar, where it I 
lies buried in Hazrett-Apak. I 
