732 
THROUGH ASIA 
of Yakub Beg’s rule, of grey-green bricks, and enclosing 
a square courtyard paved with large paving-tiles. The 
four sides contained ten guest-rooms for travellers, all 
of them paved with stone ; whilst the daylight found 
admittance through an aperture in the vaulted roof. 
Alongside this splendidly solid brick structure — a re- 
markable contrast to the clay hovels in which we were 
accustomed to put up — were several outhouses and 
stables, built of ordinary clay, and covered in with timber 
roofs. Immediately on the south-east of the station there 
was a large kdll (reservoir) surrounded by rows of fine 
willows. There water is collected off the mountains and 
stored up against the hot season, when everything is 
parched up. 
From Kosh-lengher it is reckoned one and a half day’s 
journey to the beginning of the desert proper, which is 
known under the names of Takla-makan, Jallat-kum, 
and Adam-ollturgan-kum, or the Sand that Slayeth Men. 
This region is characterized by a strictly continental 
climate, that is, the winters are harsh and the summers 
oppressively hot. The burans begin to blow towards 
the end of March, and continue till the close of summer. 
It is estimated, that there are on an avmrage fifteen “black 
burans ” every year. They almost always occur in the 
afternoon, scarcely ever in the morning or during the 
night. As a rule, they only last about an hour, and are 
rather more frequent from the west than from the east. 
Their violence is almost inconceivable ; they drive across 
the open, level plains with a force that is absolutely 
irresistible. Sheep grazing around the villages are some- 
times swept bodily away, or get separated from the rest 
of the flock in the dust-haze. This has given rise to 
certain peculiar local enactments : for instance, if a sheep 
goes astray from the flock when the weather is still and 
fine, then the shepherd is responsible, and must make 
good the loss to the owner of the sheep ; but if a sheep 
gets lost during a storm, then no man is responsible. 
If straying sheep do damage to a man’s field or crop, 
and the mischief is done in fine weather, the owner of 
