8o8 
THROUGH ASIA 
went towards the south. We began to be afraid it was the 
time of year when the shepherds drive their flocks nearer 
to Keriya, and that we should not meet any of them. 
When the day, and with it our march, was nearing its 
close, we passed, a short distance from the river, a bed 
of reeds surrounded on all sides by primeval forest. There 
we were agreeably surprised to hear the bleating of 
sheep. A large flock was grazing peacefully among the 
tall kamish. There must be people somewhere in the 
vicinity. We shouted ; we whistled. There was no 
answer ; nobody appeared. 
I sent all four men into the forest, each in a different 
direction, whilst I stayed behind with the camels. At the 
end of a good half-hour Ahmed Merghen came back ac- 
companied by a shepherd and his wife, who, terrifled by our 
appearance, had fled and hidden themselves in the under- 
wood. They were soon reassured however, and showed us 
the way to their sattma (reed hut), which was not very far 
away. There we spent the night. The poor shepherd was 
cross-questioned unmercifully. In fact, I thoroughly turned 
him inside out, exhausting the whole of his not very exten- 
sive stock of knowledge about the things of yesterday and 
to-day, and storing them all up in the pages of my diary. 
“What is your name?” I asked; and was told in 
answer: “Hussein and Hassan.” 
When I remarked that the double name seemed rather 
unusual, the man explained, that Hassan was really the 
name of his twin brother who lived at Keriya, but that he 
himself always used both names, as they were twins. 
Hussein then told me, that to the north, as far as the 
river reached, were shepherds, camped with flocks and 
herds, but at long intervals apart, and they belonged to 
rich bais in Keriya. 
The separate flocks ranged between three hundred and 
two thousand sheep. To each shepherd is assigned a 
particular district, beyond which he has no right to 
trespass, and in which he lives the whole year through, 
wandering from one woodland tract to another, and 
stopping ten or twenty days at a time at each aghil 
