THE KHOTAN-DARIA SHEPHERDS 619 
only travelled by the forest paths when driven out of the 
river-bed by the water. 
After the noontide heat was passed, the shepherds again 
went off into the woods with their sheep and goats and 
cattle, and I was left alone, though not for long. For 
a caravan of about a hundred donkeys, carrying rice 
from Khotan to Ak-su, went past the hut. The caravan 
leaders rode straight on without observing me ; but Pasi 
Akhun had seen them, and told them of my adventures. 
As soon- as they were gone by, I went into the hut to 
rest ; but almost immediately, hearing the rattle of stirrups 
and the echo of voices, I hurried out again. It was three 
well-to-do merchants, each riding a capital horse, on their 
way from Ak-su to Khotan. They had left the former 
place eleven days before, and hoped to reach the latter 
in six days more. 
They came riding through the forest at a smart trot, 
and bore straight down upon the shepherds’ hut. They 
hastily dismounted, and advancing towards me, without 
hesitation, as though they knew I was there, and had 
come to seek me, they politely greeted me. I invited 
them to sit down. Then one of them, a well-dressed 
man with a black beard, told me some news' which 
beyond measure delighted me. The day before, whilst 
riding along the left bank of the river, some twelve 
hours north of Buksem, they saw a man, more dead 
than alive, lying by the side of a white camel, which 
was grazing on the border of the forest. Like the 
good Samaritan, they stopped and asked him what was 
the matter. All he could answer was to gasp out "‘Suf 
su!” (Water! water!). One of the merchants im- 
mediately rode off to the nearest pool, and brought 
the man a hingmi (iron pitcher) full of water. The 
sufferer, who, I soon understood, could be nobody but 
Islam Bai, drained the pitcher at a single draught. They 
gave him bread, and raisins, and nuts to eat. He revived, 
and told them how he came to be there in the pitiable 
condition in which they found him. 
Islam then begged the three merchants to look for 
