466 
THROUGH ASIA 
maize as an offering, and placed them in a bronze vessel in 
the prayer-house, Then they made a thorough good meal 
off it, in which they were joined by the custodians of the 
shrine. The tribute w'as, however, a prayer for a fruitful 
year. 
There were ei^ht houses in the villaee, standingr in two 
rows, with a street running east to west between them. T o 
the north two or three more houses were half buried in 
the sand-dunes, which were threatening- the villagfe itself. 
I was assigned an exceptionally comfortable room in the 
upper storey of the guest-house, with latticed windows, 
looking out upon the dreary desert on the south. In spite 
of the hideous din that was kept up in the street below all 
night long, by the pilgrims marching in procession back- 
wards and forwards, playing flutes, singing, beating drums, 
and waving flags, I slept soundly till morning. When I 
awoke, I found a furious sandstorm blowing, and clouds of 
dust whirling in through the latticed window and dancing 
in giddy eddies round the room. 
March nth was devoted to making a nearer acquaint- 
ance with this curious place of pilgrimage, which has only 
been visited once before by a European, namely by Major 
Bellew in April 1874. He reached it from the west, I 
approached it from the east ; our investigations therefore 
supplement each other. 
In addition to the principal sheikh, the permanent 
personnel of the shrine consisted of an imam or reader 
of prayers, a mutevelleh or steward of the shrine pro- 
perties, and twenty supehs or men-servants. All these 
are fed and maintained at the exclusive expense of the 
pilgrims. These, according to their circumstances, bring 
horses, sheep, cows, poultry, eggs, seed-corn, fruit, khalats 
(coats), and other useful articles. With the exception of 
the live stock, everything goes into the largest of the 
metal vessels set apart for receiving the pilgrims’ offerings. 
Of these there were five, all built into a brick fireplace 
in the walls of the kazan-khaneh or “ cauldron-house.” 
The Altyn-dash or Gold Stone, as the largest of the five 
vessels is called, was about five feet in diameter, and 
