THE KHOTAN-DARIA SHEPHERDS 617 
in the woods with their flocks, and for their monotonous 
work were paid collectively only 20 tengeh* (or 9 shillings) 
a month, together with maize meal and bread. After their 
flocks had eaten up all the grass in one pasture-ground, 
they moved on to another ; and in each fresh place they 
came to, they built a hut, unless there was one there already, 
left standing from the previous year. They had been only 
five days in the spot where I found them ; and they were 
shortly going to a better place. The district as a whole was 
called Buksem (Close Tangled Wood). 
The life these shepherds lead must be exceedingly 
lonely and devoid of pleasure, and one day remarkably like 
another ; yet they looked both cheerful and contented. 
Togda Bai was married; but his wife lived in Khotan. 
When I asked him, why she did not accompany him into 
the forest, he told me that the Chinese, who sometimes 
travelled that way, would persist in molesting the native 
women, so that for this reason he preferred to be alone. 
Once or twice a year however he got leave to go into 
the town to see his wife. My arrival at their camp was 
clearly an important event in their monotonous life. All 
the same, they looked askance at me ; it was evident 
they regarded me as a suspicious character. But their 
suspicion was to some extent disarmed by the fact that 
I was able to speak their own language, and readily con- 
versed with them. 
They lived almost exclusively upon maize bread, water, 
and tea, this last strongly flavoured with pepper. Twice a 
day they baked a large loaf, and divided it between them. 
They mixed the maize flour with water and salt, kneaded 
the dough and shaped it in a circular wooden vessel or dish, 
then spread it out in the form of a flat cake upon the glow- 
ing embers, and covered it up with hot ashes. In three- 
quarters of an hour it was cooked, and tasted exquisitely. 
I fairly revelled in it ; and the shepherds were generous, 
despite the fact that they knew perfectly well, I had not a 
single tengeh to give them in return. 
* A tengeh of Khotan is equivalent to two tengeh of Kashgar ; and a tengeh 
of Kashgar is worth about 7,\d. 
