1 1 28 
THROUGH ASIA 
ever, and every evening Islam made me a wh eaten loaf. 
We had brought with us a small stove made of sheet iron, 
and it now proved very useful, although employed for the 
first time. Islam put it on the ground inside the tent, and 
the chimney was fastened with wire to the brass ferrule or 
socket that held together the two halves of the tent-pole 
in such a way that it peeped out of the tent -opening. 
Then he lighted the stove with dry sticks, and it crackled 
and hissed away beautifully. This was a first-rate idea : 
it made the tent quite warm and cosy and comfortable — as 
comfortable as my own study in Stockholm. Yolldash 
thoroughly approved of the innovation, although he 
pricked his ears at first, when he heard the dry branches 
crackling, and the iron prickling under the heat. At night 
I let the stove die out of itself, and after that the tent 
grew icy cold. But I cared little about that : I was well 
wrapped up in my furs, with nothing except my nose 
peeping out. I always kept a cup of tea from my supper 
standing by the head of my bed. But in the morning any 
tea that chanced to be left in the cup was frozen into a 
lump of ice, and so too was the ink. 
The men also were well off. They had a large fire, 
round which they all gathered. That night at Sorgotsu 
was the coldest I had experienced for two and a half years 
— namely - i4°8 Fahr. (-26° C.), and inside the tent 9°4 
Fahr. ( - 23° C.). 
