SHRINE OF ORDAN PADSHAH 469 
was made of bronze ; it is said to date back eight hundred 
years, from the time of Ordan Padshah himself. Next 
came a handsome copper vessel, 3 feet 4 inches in diameter, 
a present to the shrine by Yakub Beg of Kashgar, who 
himself made three pilgrimages to the place. The other 
three were smaller and of various sizes. When there 
is a great influx of pilgrims, the custodians of the shrine 
make ash or pillau (mutton with rice and spices) in the 
biggest vessel for everybody at once. At other times 
the smaller vessels are used, according to the number 
of the pilgrims. The “cauldron-house” was built two 
years ago. The old one is now half buried in a sand- 
dune ; which already threatens to enclose the new structure 
within the horns of its hollow crescent. The winds which 
determine the movement of the sand-dunes in this region 
blow from the north-west. 
On the windward side of the nearest sand-dune was 
a half- buried grave - mound decorated with tughs. It 
contained the dust of Shah Yakub Sheikh, and was said 
to be 710 years old. According to the direction in wTich 
the dunes are at present moving, the tomb will soon be 
entirely exposed again. The maximum breadth of the 
sand-dune was nearly 400 feet, and its height about 
16 feet, so that it overtopped the roofs of the houses. 
The little village stands in the clay hollow between the 
leeward side of this sand-dune and its nearest neighbour 
on the south-east, on a space some 170 yards broad. In 
violent storms the sand is blowm right across from the one 
dune to the other. 
The khanekah or prayer-house contained an oratory, 
and a balcony, with an eastern aspect, supported by 
sixteen pillars. Immediately north of the village the 
freshwater spring, Chevatt-khanem, bubbled up out of 
the ground, filling a round pool surrounded by a wooden 
railing. The water was tolerably clear, considering that 
the sand was only cleaned out once a year ; but it issues 
so slowly, that it is insufficient on festival-days. On such 
occasions the pilgrims have to fall back upon another 
spring, Cheshmeh (a Persian word meaning “a spring ’), 
