256 
THROUGH ASIA 
any return for the hospitality he showed me. But I in 
some sort satisfied my conscience by making him a present 
of the amban’s sheep and firewood, together with a knife 
which I added out of my own stores. Kasim Beg escorted 
us as far as the canal of Mangshin-ustang, which has a 
volume of 280 cubic feet in the second. There he dis- 
mounted, bowed, and took his leave ; his place being taken 
by another beg, Niaz, who accompanied us throughout the 
whole of the journey. About six o’clock in the evening we 
were assailed by an extremely violent whirlwind, which 
came out of the north-west, and filled the air with dense 
clouds of dust and sand. The gust only lasted five 
minutes ; and was shortly afterwards followed by a heavy 
pelting rain, which wetted us to the skin before we were 
able to reach shelter in a hut by the roadside. But it 
brought a compensating advantage, in that it purified the 
air and settled the dust. 
From the village of Kara-bash (Black Head) we 
directed our march due south, leaving on our left the 
highroad to Yarkand. For a pretty considerable distance 
eastwards the country was diversified with ranges of low 
hills of sand, clay, and conglomerate. The route we 
followed was excellent riding, being a perfectly level 
steppe, diversified by a few scattered knolls. We rested 
two hours in Sughet (the Willow Tree), then started 
again in the night ; but it was so pitch dark that we had 
to be guided through the narrow lanes of the village by 
a man carrying an oil-lamp. It was about two in the 
morning when we arrived at the kishlak (winter village) 
of Ighiz-yar (the High Terrace). There we took up 
our quarters in a finely situated court-yard. 
The amban of Yanghi-hissar had despatched a man 
on before into the mountains to prepare the way for us. 
We met this man, Emin Beg, on the 25th June, returning 
with the intelligence that the torrents had really become 
much swollen during the past few days, but that never- 
theless they were not so high as to offer any serious 
impediment to the progress of the caravan. As a reward 
for his welcome news, I invited him to take tea with me. 
