26 o 
THROUGH ASIA 
I 
strument of music); others sat about in little groups 
chatting. Some of the women, wearing enormous white 
head-dresses, ate bread and drank milk out of big wooden 
bowls. The children ran about and played. Our hostess 
was engaged in suckling her infant, a boy of about one 
month old, leaning over his cradle to do so. The head 
of the family, old Abdu Mohammed, was the only in- 
dividual who heeded the obligations of religion. He 
alone punctually observed the hours of prayer. None 
of the rest heeded them, but went on laughing and 
talkinm There was the usual fire in the middle of the 
tent. 
There was a good deal of humus and luxuriant herbage 
in the vicinity of the aul of Keng-kol, which was situated 
on the right bank of the stream. Immediately opposite to 
it, on the'’ other side of the river, the bare rock cropped out 
in several places, consisting of clay-slates, alternating with 
a hard species of crystalline rock. The stream was at 
that time very insignificant ; but the water was limpid, cold, 
and wholesome. In consequence of the recent rams, it 
was expected to rise soon to flood-level. The rainy season 
in that valley is coincident with May and June. Snow 
never falls except during the four winter months. 
During the following days the ground became more 
broken and variable, as well as wilder, in character. 
( 3 ur route led out of the glen of Keng-kol into that of 
the Charlung, one of the tributaries of the Yarkand-daria. 
The pass connecting the two glens, like the two streams 
wlilch flowed down from it in opposite directions, was 
called Kashka-su (the Many-coloured Stream). 
The little glen, which led up to the pass out of the 
Keng-kol valley, was extremely narrow, and rose at a steep 
angle. Owing to the great variations in the contour of 
the ground, I was obliged to take frequent measurements, 
in order to calculate our rate of marching and the distance 
marched. I found that, to ascend this glen, it took the 
packhorses 4^ minutes to climb a quarter of a mile ; and 
our day’s march varied from 1 2 to 20 miles. 
Although the black clay-slates cropped out visibly on 
i 
