288 
THROUGH ASIA 
Khoat Beg took such a strong fancy to my spectacles, 
that he asked me to give him them ; but as I could not 
do without them, I told him that, as he had managed to 
get along without such things for one hundred and eleven 
years, T thought he might do without them a little bit 
longer. 1 afterwards made him presents of cloth, caps, 
and handkerchiefs. Later on in the autumn the old chief 
was to go with one of his sons to Yanghi-hissar, climbing 
a pass which came within about 350 feet of the altitude 
of Mont Blanc. He was going to look at some land he 
owned there, as well as to indulge in a little merry-making 
before the beginning of the long winter sleep. 
A he-goat, in the literal sense of the word a scape- 
goat, was dragged in front of us. A Kirghiz sliced the 
animal’s head off with a single sweep of his knile, and 
let the blood flow until it ceased of itself. The carcass 
was, so to speak, the prize of the subsequent mimic 
warfare, the object of the contestants being to obtain 
possession of it. 
A man came forward, caught up the sheep across his 
horse, and rode away with it. We waited a few minutes. 
Then we saw a troop of horsemen approaching at a 
furious gallop. Eighty horses’ hoofs rang on the hard 
ground— the grass gnawed off to the very roots by the 
sheep. The din was deafening. Wild, shrill shouts 
mingled with the jingling of the stirrups. On they came, 
enveloped in a cloud of dust. The foremost horseman 
flung the dead goat immediately in front of my horse s 
forefeet. Like a horde of Huns or a band of robbers 
they dashed past us, away across the plain. ^ But wheeling 
smartly round, they were soon back again at the spot 
where we stood. 1 he person who is thus honoured with 
having the dead goat flung down before him is expected 
to testify his sense of the favour conferred in some tangible 
fashion, either by offering dastarkhan — which is what 
the Kirghiz usually do— or by the present of a handful 
of silver tengeh (about 2^d. each), which was what 1 
offered on this occasion. 
We had barely time to draw back before the wild 
