116 H. G. Raverty —Tibbctt three hundred and sixty-five years ago. [No. 2, 
water, not a drop was to be procured. We used our utmost endeavours 
to obtain some up to the time of the prayer before going to sleep, but 
without success. The cattle, which during the whole day had passed 
through a tract subject to the dam-giri malady, were thus without 
water on reaching their halting place, and forage for them was as scarce 
as silver to collect; and the little barley that was given them, they did 
not eat through want of water. At this juncture, Jan Ahmad, the 
Atkah, said that he remembered having once seen a spring hereabouts, 
and that it was necessary for us to go on about half a farsaJch (league) 
farther to reach it. We did so, and he pointed out a place among the 
ice where it should be broken. This was done, and water was found, 
and the cattle were watered; but there was a mule with us, one of the 
strongest among all the animals, which got lock-jaw for want of water, 
and notwithstanding all its efforts to do so, it could not drink, and 
died. Consequently, the necessary things with which it used to be 
laden had to be abandoned. 
“ Having reached the point where this unexplored route leading 
into Badaklishan branched off [from that leading to Yar-kand], Iskandar 
Sultan requested me to give him permission to leave us, saying he 
‘ would go to Rashid Sultan, and that perhaps out of brotherly feeling 1 
and kindness, he might take pity on him, as he might now be probably 
satiated with the destruction he had already wrought upon his kindred.’ 
I tried all I could to dissuade him, and assured him that no favour 
was to be hoped for from such an one. The difficulties and hardships 
of the way, and the distressed condition we were in, combined with 
want of resolution, and the uncertainty, tended to render him desperate, 
and the road of reason was veiled from his mind’s eye. I nevertheless 
complied with his request and wishes, and despatched four men along 
with him. Five persons having thus separated from us out of twenty- 
seven, I proceeded on my way with the remaining twenty-two ; but on 
account of their being without shoes, several of our horses broke down. 
The very same day that Iskandar left me, at the time of afternoon 
prayer, I had the good luck to kill a wild yah; and we drew pieces of 
its hide over the hoofs of the broken down horses [in place of shoes], 
and carried away as much as we possibly could of its flesh. Of food; 
save some barley, merely sufficient for the horses for one or two days, 
none remained, therefore this yah was quite a God-send for us. We 
loaded the horses with as much of its flesh as they could possibly bear 
—about enough for us all for four or five days — and even then three- 
fourths of the flesh remained, which we left as a feast for the crows and 
1 They were not brothers by the same mother. Rashid Saltan’s mother was 
one of Sultan Sa‘Id Khan’s other wives. 
