KARGALIK TO KHOTAN 
735 
the sheep must recompense the injured party ; but not 
if the mischief is done during a buran or under cover 
of the haze of a dust-storm. 
The custodian of the serai told me, that ravens and 
other birds are often blown by unusually violent burans 
all the way from Kargalik to Guma, or from Guma to 
Kargalik, and not seldom are dashed against larger fixed 
objects and killed. The following legend illustrates the 
effect which these wind-storms produce upon the native 
imagination. Many hundred years ago a holy man dug 
a well near the station of Chullak, which is now completely 
filled up again with sand. When the holy man got down 
about eighty fathoms, the earth opened underneath him 
and vomited forth a terrific wind, which swept the holy 
man right up to heaven, and since that time all the 
winds and storms have come out of that well. Another 
apothegm is more rational, in that it is based upon actual 
observation. For instance, it is said, that if the last 
buran came from Kargalik, then the next will come from 
Guma; but that it is either the same buran going back 
again, or else one that is hurrying to find the first. 
Our next day's journey took us to Chullak-lengher (the 
Cripple’s Serai), so named from the fact, that a long time 
ago an old woman who had no feet used to sit by the 
wayside in that place begging. The caravanserai was 
like that at Kosh-lengher, and had a reservoir some 
95 yards square, and, when full, 24 feet deep in the 
middle. When I saw it, there were only about nine feet 
of water in it, and it was protected against contamination 
by a glittering covering of ice. The serai was built on 
a hill, and commanded a sheer unbounded view towards 
the east. The plains stretched away like narrow ribbons 
one behind the other, fainter and fainter, until they melted 
into the horizon. Earth and sky did not meet in a 
sharply defined line, but blended together in a ye ow 
The entire distance between Kashgar and Khotan has 
been divided by the Chinese \nto potai (2i-mile distances), 
like the road -between Kashgar and Ak-su. Hence t e 
