73 ° 
THROUGH ASIA 
welcome to Kargalik ; and lastly I received from the 
amban {Chinese governor), Li Darin, a number of useful 
presents, such as sheep, rice, wheat, maize meal, fuel, and 
forage for my horses. As soon as my guests were gone, 
and my journal for the day had been written up, I hurried 
into bed, to drown the memories of the day in the oblivion 
of sleep, for they crowded in upon my mind with especial 
importunity in that 1 was alone. 
The amban of Yarkand was politeness itself; but he 
was easily outdone by his colleague of Kargalik. In fact, 
the attentions of the latter were tiresome. Before I had 
an opportunity to pay my respects to him, he called upon 
me, on Christmas Day morning, before I was awake ; and 
when I returned his visit, and was riding across the yamen 
courtyard, I was received with a salute of three guns. 
The honour nearly cost me a summersault, for my horse 
was not accustomed to such demonstrative welcomes. The 
amban was an agreeable little old man of some fifty years 
of age, and of gentlemanly manners, with a small, grey, 
well-cared-for moustache, and big round spectacles. He 
invited me to stay to dinner with him. After dinner I 
sketched him ; then to my astonishment in tripped his 
dainty young wife, on her tiny goat’s-feet (scarcely two 
inches long), and in her turn begged me to make a sketch 
of her ; she wanted to send her likeness to her parents in 
Peking. I was of course only too happy to comply with 
such a flattering request. 
