6o2 
THROUGH ASIA 
as wood, swelled out again. My skin, which had been 
like parchment, turned moist and elastic. And soon 
afterwards an active perspiration broke out upon my 
brow. In a word, I felt my whole body was imbibing 
fresh life and fresh strength. It was a solemn, an awe- 
inspiring moment. 
Never did life seem to me richer, more beautiful, more 
valuable than it did that night in the bed of the Khotan- 
daria ! I he future smiled upon me from the midst of 
a magic sea of light. Life was worth living. The talk 
about life being a vale of misery seemed to me utter 
nonsense. An angel’s hand had guided me through the 
darkness of the night to the little pool in the river-bed. 
I imagined 1 saw a heavenly being floating by my side, 
and thought 1 could hear the rustle of his wings. Never 
before, and never since, have I so vividly realized the 
sublime influence of the Eternal. 
After drinking' my fill, and making sure of my wonderful 
escape from a miserable death, and after the ecstasy had 
subsided which came upon me when I felt new life 
streaming through my veins, and as soon as my entire 
physical being had entered upon a more normal course, 
I drank several more tins of water. After that my 
thoughts began to flow back in ordinary channels, and I 
awoke to the realities of the moment, and became atten- 
tive to my immediate surroundings. 
The pool was situated in the deepest part of the 
river-bed, near the eastern bank, and had been left 
behind by the preceding summer’s flood. It lay there- 
fore below the general level of the river-bed, so that I 
had been unable to observe it until I almost stumbled 
into it. Had I gone fifty paces farther to the right or 
fifty paces farther to the left, I should have missed it ; 
and, as I learned afterwards, it was a long distance to 
the next pool both up and down the river. The merchants 
who are accustomed to travel every spring with their 
caravans between Khotan and Ak-su know where all 
these pools are, and always make them their camping- 
places for the night. Perhaps I should have lost my way, 
