2^2 THROUGH ASIA 
o’clock in the evening, it was quite dark. We therefore 
stopped in the village of Yiggdeh-arik, and rested and 
took our suppers, till the moon should get up. It was 
two o’clock In the morning when we arrived at Yappchan, 
the object of our first day’s march. 
On 22nd June the temperature was so high (9i°6 Fahr. 
or 33°i C. at i p.m.) that we preferred to stay m the 
shade ; but towards evening it grew cooler, and we re- 
solved to start again. We had not advanced very far, 
when we were met by a beg, followed by two attendants 
He had been sent by the amban (Chinese governor) of 
Yanghi-hissar, bearing greetings from his master, with 
expressions of welcome into his district. He was at ^he 
same time ordered to furnish me with provisions, and do 
everything that lay in his power to help me in my journey. 
After escorting us a piece of the way, the beg rode back 
acrain, in order to find out and get ready a suitable place 
for tea. The avenues of trees and cultivated fields became 
more and more Interspersed with belts of sand as we 
advanced. Two hours after leaving Yappchan, I saw 
sand-dunes nearly twenty feet high. They stretched from 
north-west to south-east and from north to south ; but 
were so overgrown with vegetation that they offered no 
impediments to traffic. 
After stopping a short time for tea in the village o 
Soguluk, where a party of Chinese were making a fearful 
hubbub, we continued our journey in the dark towards 
Yano-hi-hissar, and arrived there early the next morning. 
An "apartment had been allotted to us^ in the Hindu 
caravanserai ; and the caravan created quite a commotion 
when it filed in at the gate, for all the guests of the “hotel 
were sleeping in the courtyard under the open sky. 
Later on that same morning, the 23rd June, I was 
awakened by a mandarin of inferior rank, who brought 
fresh greetings and protestations of eternal friendship 
from the amban, together with a sheep, two pullets, a 
sack of wheat, another of maize, a bundle of grass, and 
a faggot of firewood. All day long I had three begs 
sitting outside my door, ready to run my errands at the 
