BURIED CITY OF TAKLA-MAKAN 789 
prise, resulting in extremely important and unexpected 
discoveries, the reader will learn in the following chapters. 
Unfortunately I omitted to take my Chinese passport 
with me, and in consequence came pretty near finding 
myself in a fix ; but this also ended well. According to 
my original plan I never dreamed of coming into contact 
with Chinese mandarins. 
My instruments and other things required one box, the 
kitchen appurtenances another ; and to these must be 
added several kurchins (double wallets of canvas), con- 
taining flour, bread, rice, dried vegetables, macaroni, 
sugar, tea, candles, lanterns, a kettle and saucepan, and 
divers other articles and provisions. Lastly we took furs 
and a large goat-skin sleeping-bag for my own use, some 
felt carpets, two hatchets, two spades, one ketmen (a Sart 
spade or hoe), and arms and ammunition. Tents and 
beds came under the head of luxuries. Throughout the 
whole of this journey I slept, like my men, on the bare 
ground, wrapped in furs, notwithstanding that it was the 
depth of winter and the temperature went down as low as 
- 7°6 Fahr. (-22° C.). But then we were able to procure 
an abundance of fuel, and spring was coming on. 
My new friend Liu Darin thought three camels were 
too few, and at his own expense desired to strengthen the 
caravan with two more, and two or three additional men. 
There was nothing I dreaded more than a cumbrous and 
heavy equipment ; but I had the greatest possible difficulty 
to persuade him to abandon his purpose. When we rode 
out of the town through the Ak-su-darvaseh (the Ak-su 
gate), nothing would do but he must hasten on in advance 
as far as the village of Hazrett-i-Sultan, where he ordered 
a large red tent to be pitched, quite open on the side next 
the road, but provided with an awning upheld by poles ; 
while its interior was furnished, in the Chinese manner, 
with chairs and a table upholstered in red cloth. Here, 
under the gaze of an enormous crowd of people, we 
conversed for a while, and smoked and drank tea, before 
parting. Then I mounted my splendid riding-camel, and 
to the jangling of the animals’ bells, set off towards the 
