SHRINE OF ORDAN PADSHAH 471 
March 12th. Having an eight hours’ ride to Terem, 
we started early, and rode through a strong nor’-westerly 
gale. The district between the two places was chiefly 
of a marshy steppe-like character, with occasional thickets 
of tamarisk, thistles, and tussocks of grass ; which, when 
they get thoroughly dry, are often uprooted, curled into 
balls by the wind, and so swept along the ground. The 
surface was covered with fine, loose dust, which was 
driven up like smoke before the gale. We often rode 
through swamps of stagnant arik-water, and were some- 
times constrained to make detours to avoid the more 
sodden places. In so doing we managed to lose our way 
several times, but were put right by shepherds, who with 
the help of their dogs were guarding their flocks of goats 
and sheep. 
Not a glint of the sun was discernible. The sky was 
a ruddy yellow, sometimes turning to murky grey. When 
we eventually reached Terem, by way of Kdtteklik (the 
Dead Forest), both horses and riders were smothered in 
ash-grey dust. 
March 13th. The gale .still continued unabated. To- 
day, however, the wind veered round to the north and 
north-east. It was thus a three days’ storm, what the 
natives call a sarik-bui'an (yellow storm), because it just 
tinges the sky yellow. 
From Terem we rode south-east to the village of Terek- 
lengher (the Poplar Rest-house) on the Yarkand-darla. 
It was nine hours’ smart riding through a country known 
by the name of ala-kuni, z.e. alternating steppe and sandy 
desert. In the vicinity of the river we crossed a bridge 
spanning the Khandi-arik, an important irrigation canal, 
which takes its rise a day’s journey above Yarkand, and 
supplies a great number of villages with water. Nine 
years ago it was repaired by command of the Chinese, 
a task which is said to have given employment to 
eleven thousand men. This vast undertaking seems to 
have been considerably simplified in the first instance by 
the utilization for long distances of a former bed of the 
Yarkand-daria. Between the canal and the river several 
