296 
THROUGH ASIA 
men, had already made himself at home and was guarding 
the tent. When we first made his acquaintance, he was 
travelling with some Chinese horsemen, who had visibly 
reduced him to the brink of starvation. However, when 
the dog saw us, he thought that, no matter who we might 
be, we should surely be better than the Chinese, so he 
turned back with us. I thought the creature so starved 
and miserable, that I wanted to send him away. But my 
men begged so hard for the new member of the expedition, 
that I gave way ; and he followed us faithfully for a long 
while. He had a fine time of it now, ate as much as he 
liked, and enjoyed the sole right to the remains of our 
meals. He soon picked up, and grew into an unusually 
good and handsome dog. He was the best of watchdogs 
and the best of companions, and when, later on, we made 
a second visit to the Russian Pamirs, he became a great 
favourite among the officers on account of his liveliness. 
By degrees he grew to be such a companion to me that 
I coulcl not do without him, and when, about a year later, 
he died of thirst in the Takla-makan Desert, the parting 
was really bitter. 
We bought a sheep, which we now proceeded to kill, 
and all had a good meal. Islam roasted a chisslik (steak 
or chop) ; the Kirghiz provided us with yaks’ milk ; rice 
and tea we had ourselves, so that we could not have fared 
better. 
That evening the sunset was beautiful, and threw a 
peculiar light on the clouds and western mountains, which 
were illumined with various shades of grey and yellow. 
The wind had been in the north, but towards evening 
went round to the east ; and the waves, which broke 
against the stony beach with a sleepy, melodious murmur, 
were crested with dancing white horses. The moon soon 
rose over this beautiful picture ; and, the temperature 
being pleasantly warm (62°6 Fahr. or 17° C.), we were 
able to enjoy our new camp, which was called Yanikkeh, 
to the utmost. 
The following are a series of notes from my diary just 
as I wrote them down. 
