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 ACEOSS THIBET 
 
 BEING A TRANSLATION OP 
 
 DE PARIS AU TONKING- A TRAVERS 
 LE TIBET INCONNU'' 
 
 GABEIEL 'BONVALOT 
 
 oW^ 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY 
 PRINCE HENRY OF ORLEANS 
 
 
 c^ 
 
 ^yUi/ 
 
 TRANSLATED BY C. B. PITMAN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 104 & 106 Fourth Avenue 
 
 \% 
 
 "\\ 
 
Copyright, 1892, by 
 CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 '^X i%^ 
 
 MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, 
 RAHWAY, N. J. 
 
ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 AMONG THE LAMAS. 
 
 How the Journey was Suggested— Rachmed — At Moscow — Through the Ural Moun- 
 tains — Arrival at Djarkent — Organizing the Caravan — At Kuldja — Father Dedeken — 
 Abdullah, the Interpreter — Across the Tien-Chan — ^In the Province of Hi — Kirghiz 
 and Kalmucks —Chinese Justice — The River Kungez — ^Moguls — Exposing the 
 Dead — Visit to a Grand Lama — A Lama Monastery and Pagoda — Timurlik — 
 Kirghiz Immigrants — Valley of the Tsakma — The Joy of the Desert. 
 
 It used to be the fashion to invoke the 
 muses before one began to write a narra- 
 tive, but all that is out of date, and, for 
 my own part, I would simply entreat 
 the cross-grained rheumatics and treacher- 
 ous fever to be so kind as to let me keep 
 my word with my publisher, and write 
 him with as little delay as possible the 
 story of a journey which I undertook 
 with great ])leasure, and which, as I must 
 frankly admit, it is much less agreeable 
 EACHMED. to put upon paper. 
 
 In January, 1889, we were talking, at 
 the house of my good friend Henri Xjorin, as he reminded me 
 upon my return last winter, about travel and exploration, and he 
 asked me if I had any fresh project in view. I told him that a 
 very interesting journey would be one from Paris to Tonquin over- 
 land, cutting out a route of one's own across the whole of Asia. 
 And when he asked me to indicate my probable itinerary upon 
 the map, I drew a line through Chinese Turkestan, the higher 
 tablelands of Thibet, and the valleys of the great rivers of China 
 
2 AGEOSS THIBET. 
 
 and of the ludo-CIiiuese peninsula. Those wlio were looking 
 over my shoulder thought this scheme a splendid one, but, for 
 my own part, still feehng the effects of my journey over the 
 Pamir, I v/ould not allow myself to think of putting it into 
 execution, for the good reason that when I let my fancy tui-n to 
 travel I am sure to be carried away by it. 
 
 A few months later, on coming back from the Exhibition, 
 where I had been to catch a glimpse, as it were, of the distant 
 lands in which I had wandered, this same friend wrote to say 
 that there was a person desii'ous of traveling with me in Asia. 
 The first thing to ascertain was whether it was someone pre- 
 pared to follow me blindfold, for my intention was not to play 
 the globe-trotter but to explore. I was told that this was so, 
 and, forgetting all about my resolve to take a rest, I plunged into 
 the study of the narratives of Father Hue and Prjevalsky. 
 
 Little time was lost in coming to an understanding with the 
 Due de Chartres, who offered to participate in the expense of an 
 exploring expedition in which his son was to take part. We at 
 once agreed that our undertaking should be a national one, and 
 that the collections we might make should be handed over to 
 our Museums. My future companion. Prince Henry of Orleans, 
 was delighted at thfi plan Avhich I submitted to him, though it 
 was a somewhat vague one, for traveling has this much in com- 
 mon with war, that, before getting upon the ground, it is idle to 
 commit one's self to any positive ari'angements. 
 
 The preliminary preparations ha^dng been rapidly completed, 
 we left Paris on the 6th of July, just when Paris was in the full 
 fever of her Exhibition. At Moscow we were to l^e joined by 
 Rachmed, my faithful companion during my two pre^dous jour- 
 neys, he having been found out for me in the Caucasus at the 
 place where I had expected he would be, for I knew where 
 Rachmed prefers to live when he is not on the tramp. The 
 worthy fellow was preparing to come to the Exhibition, by way 
 of realizing a dream he had for some time been cherishing ; his 
 ticket had been taken and he was about to embark at Batoum, 
 
OBQANIZma THE CARAVAN. 3 
 
 when lie got my telegram, saying that if lie cared to come to 
 China mth me he was to go and wait for me at Moscow. So 
 he went and changed his ticket for one to Moscow, not in the 
 best of humors, for it cost him a pang not to see the Exhibition. 
 Still he did not hesitate, being afraid, as he confided to one of 
 my friends, that he would displease me. Rachmed is an Uzbeg 
 by birth, and belongs to one of the branches of that fine Turkish 
 race which, as I am never tired of repeating, comprises so many 
 noble specimens of humanity. 
 
 In Russia we were treated most handsomely, and furnished 
 with all necessary letters of recormnendation to the Consuls along 
 the Chinese frontier. Remaining at Moscow only long enough 
 to make the many necessary purchases, we just stopped at ISTijni- 
 ISTovgorod, went down the Volga, ascended the Kama, and 
 traversed the Ural chain of mountains. At Tinmen we again 
 took boat, and landed at Omsk, whence, after making some 
 purchases, we started again for Semipalatinsk, where we pur- 
 chased the European goods which we were afraid of not being 
 able to get at the frontier itself, and, after being very much 
 jolted in a tarantass, arrived at Djarkent, the last town on 
 Russian territory. 
 
 Before entering China we had to organize our caravan and 
 recruit the staif needful for carrying out our project, but I will 
 spare the reader an enumeration of the details and trouble en- 
 tailed by these preliminaries of an exploring party. Let me, 
 however, say that the thorough organization of a caravan, for a 
 journey which is to end Heaven knows when or where, is the 
 most difficult part of an explorer's work. In the Asiatic coun- 
 tries we were about to traverse vehicles are not used and the 
 rivers are not navigable, being obstacles instead of means of com- 
 munication as they are elsewhere. It is imperative, therefore, 
 neither to forget anything nor to take a single superfluous article. 
 So one tries to think of everything, to foresee all contingencies, 
 and, after having eliminated as much as possible, it is astonishing 
 i;o find how heavy the load is. 
 
4 AC'EOSS THIBET. 
 
 Mean while, we had to recruit our men at Djarkent on the 
 frontier of Siberia. This was most difficult, for here we could 
 only secure men very much below the mark, and not at all built 
 for a long journey. E-achmed inspected them first, and, in pre- 
 senting them to me, his unvarying observation was, " They are of 
 no use for the road." I could see that he was right. There was 
 not one of them who had respectable antecedents ; they were a 
 pack of lazy and penniless fellows who were anxious only to get 
 across the frontier in our wake. Among them there is not one 
 of those adventurers, vigorous and ready for anything, who have 
 abeady looked death in the face, and would go through fire after 
 the leader whom chance had given them, provided that leader 
 had succeeded in attaching them to himself by a mixture of good 
 and of bad usage. How much we regretted not having our 
 base of operations in Russian Turkestan — at Samarkand, for 
 instance, where there is no lack of good men. It is true we 
 had three Russians who would suit us very well, but they made 
 it a condition, when they took service with us, that they should 
 not go beyond the Lob Nor. 
 
 S'ejytember 6. — We left Djarkent on the 2d, and, marching by 
 short stages, reached Kuldja to-day, and were most hosjDitably 
 received by the Russian Consul and his secretary. We spend a 
 few hours very pleasantly with the members of the Belgian 
 mission, one of whom, Father Dedeken, has completed his 
 engagement, and is about to return to Europe. As he has an 
 appointment at Shanghai, he mil go mth us to the coast, and 
 perhaps accompany us to Europe. He speaks Chinese, and as he 
 is a man of strong will we are glad to have our party reenforced 
 by him. His Chinese servant, Bartholomeus, who is to accom- 
 pany him, is honest — which few Chinese servants appear to be — 
 but very obstinate, which, on the contrary, seems to be veiy 
 common in China. 
 
 Prince Henry, Father Dedeken, Rachmed, Bartholomeus, and 
 myself form the nucleus of the expedition. We have, too, an 
 interpreter named Abdullah, who speaks Chinese and Mogul, and 
 
ABDULLAH, THE INTEEPliETER. 
 
 
 
 
 FATHER DEDEKEN. 
 
 who accompanied the celebrated Prjevalsky. He seems to be an 
 honest sort of fellow, but his vanity, his boastfulness, and his 
 talkativeness make us very uneasy. 
 
 His account of what he went through in the Tsaidame alarms 
 ■our followers, and he seems bent upon dissuading us from under- 
 taking anything out of the beaten tracks. It must be added 
 that the Russian Consul at Kuldja is not much more encouraging, 
 
Q ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 and when Piince Henry tells him we are going to tiy to reach 
 Batang he smiles incredulously, and advises him not to be lured 
 on by that idea. He points out to us that we have no escort, no 
 felt tent, no Chinese passport. But experience has taught us that 
 one can get on mthout either of these three things which he 
 regarded as indispensable. As regards the passport, I must sa}' 
 that the main cause of our success was our omission to give notice 
 of our journey to the Tsong li Yamen at Pekin. By asking for a 
 passport to travel in those parts of China which have been little 
 visited we should have excited the attention of Chinese diplo- 
 macy. The Mandarins would have given us the warmest letters 
 of recommendation, and then, as soon as our itinerary was known, 
 would have sent orders for every sort of means to be used to stop 
 us on the road, and compel us "to turn back. Such has been the 
 lot of all travelers in China, from the late Prjevalsky down to 
 Richthofen, Count Bela-Szechny, and so many others who have 
 been stopped in their journeys by various devices. 
 
 After having completed our caravan as best we could at 
 Kuldja, all we wanted, in order to continue our jom'ney, was the 
 authorization of the Chinese governor of the province. This was 
 granted us after a visit in which etiquette Avas very carefully 
 observed, insomuch tlfat we were offered three cups of tea and a 
 bottle of champagne, and the Governor gave us two safe-conducts 
 to take us to the frontiers of the province of Hi. 
 
 September 12. — To-day the small European colony kindly 
 escorts us to the gate of the town, and cordially mshes us a safe 
 journey and happy return home. 
 
 And so at last we find ourselves in the saddle. We first make 
 in an easterly direction, but change our course as soon as we have 
 crossed the Tien-Chan, as it is Tonquin that we have in view. 
 Shall we ever get there, and, if so, by what route ? There is all 
 the old continent to cross, the least known portion of China, 
 Thibet and its highlands, the deserts and the deep rivers, to 
 say nothing of the human beings Avho look upon eveiy stranger 
 as an enemy. All this I might have said to myself, and to these 
 
IN THE PROVINCE OF ILI 7 
 
 reflections might have added that we were only five or six to 
 face an unknown situation before which so many others, better 
 equipped and prepared, had quailed. But I must confess that I 
 had not one of these rhetorical thoughts in my head when 
 once I found myself fairly started, abandoning myself to the 
 pleasure of being in the open and looking about me with the 
 eager curiosity of the traveler whose eyes, almost starting from 
 their orbits, scan the horizon like a hungry hawk in search of 
 prey. 
 
 After getting quit of the dust, which reminds me of 
 Turkestan, the soil, the landscape and the cultivation of the 
 plain recall the neighborhood of Samarkand and Tashkendt. 
 The beardless faces, the sunken eyes, and the long dresses of 
 the men show that one is in China. The fertility of the valley 
 of Hi is remarkable, so that for the last few years its population 
 has been growing very rapidly. A great many of the Tarantchis 
 who had fled to Russian territory are coming back to the places 
 which their forefathers had cultivated, and a number of emigrants 
 come from Kashgar, and even from Eastern China ; but it will 
 be a long time before the inhabitants are numerous enough to 
 cultivate to the full extent this region, which would feed hundreds 
 of thousands. 
 
 Leaving the valley of Hi to our right, as far as Mazar, built 
 upon an affluent of the Kach, we followed a very good road, 
 frequently coming upon villages which have been abandoned by 
 the Tarantchis, who, having taken part in the massacre of the 
 Chinese, fled when the province of Hi was transferred from 
 Russia to China. The houses are falling into ruins, and are 
 gradually disappearing amid a growth of willows, poplars, and 
 vines ; weeds choke up the gardens ; the irrigating canals are 
 dried up, and the fields are fallow. Deserted though the soil 
 is, however, it has not ceased to be generous ; it is arrayed in 
 verdure, and its aspect is bright and cheerful. 
 
 One of our men recognizes the house in which he was born.. 
 The roof has fallen in, the door has been carried off, for fuel no 
 
8 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 doubt, the walls are all cracked, and there are patches of barley 
 growing at the extremity of the hearthstone. The Tarantchi 
 was overcome with grief at the sight of the place all in ruins, 
 and recalled how happily he had lived there with his parents, 
 what fine crops they grew, and how cheap the food was. 
 
 I asked him why he had not remained there. 
 
 " We killed too many Chinese, Solons, and Sibos," he replied, 
 " and upon the Chinese returning we fled." 
 
 " Now that you have crossed the frontier, mil you retm-n to 
 Djarkent ? " 
 
 " Heaven preserve me, no ! The soil is not good, and water is 
 scarce. I shall go to Kashgar, where the family of one of my 
 wives lives." 
 
 " Were you not married at Djarkent ! " 
 
 " Yes, and I had a child as well. He died the day before I 
 came to offer you my services, and I gave my Avife back to her 
 father. I am quite free." 
 
 THE CAUAVAX ON THE MARCH. 
 
KIRGHIZ AND KALMUCKS. 9 
 
 The facility mth avMcIi this Mussulman abandoned his wife 
 surprised me, but in this country it appears to be quite common. 
 
 What this Tarantchi told me about Hi was repeated to me by 
 many others. Most of those who live in Russian territory are 
 on the lookout for a chance of slipping across the frontier. The 
 Chinese Mandarins have the wit to entice them ; they do not ask 
 them for papers. They let them settle on the uncultivated lands, 
 and do not bother them about the past. 
 
 In the province of Hi, beyond Mazar, we meet a great many 
 Siberian Kirghiz, whom the excellence of the pasturages along 
 the affluents of the Hi has attracted. They have kept the chiefs 
 whom they had elected, being Russian subjects. By order of 
 the Chinese Mandarin, and with the assent of the tribes, these 
 -chiefs Avill transmit their powers to their descendants. 
 
 Side by side with these very wealthy Kirghiz we see some 
 very poor Kalmucks. The rich pastures and flocks belong to 
 1;he former, while the latter are relegated to the less fertile tracts, 
 which they cultivate without gaining a sufficiency. These 
 Kalmucks are certainly not taking in appearance. They are 
 frail, badly fed, badly housed, badly clad, and have a placid 
 rather than an energetic and intelligent air. Nevertheless, they 
 have for some time been intrusted with the defense of the coun- 
 try, and they must not leave the place assigned to them without 
 asking permission from their chief. They are not only bound to 
 the soil, but are liable to be requisitioned for police or orderly 
 duty, and must have in readiness the saber, the flint-lock gun, or 
 the bow. Theii' " banners," to the number of twenty, distributed 
 over the Tien-Chan, play more or less the same part as those 
 families which in Austria were established in the south of the 
 empire in the region of the " military frontiers," as they were 
 styled. Their neighbors do not appear to hold them in high 
 esteem, for a Kirghiz, to whom I observed how mild a physiog- 
 nomy these Moguls have, replied with a laugh : 
 
 " That is true. They ai'e as mild as cows." 
 
 " In what way ? " 
 
 IB 
 
10 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 " Because they can be milked witli(nit any trouble." 
 
 It appears that the Kirghiz, who are daring, well armed, and 
 unscrupulous, do not think twice about cheating and pillaging' 
 these Moguls. As the plunderers are Mussulmans they can 
 easily settle matters with their consciences, seeing that the vic- 
 tims are Buddhists, that is to say, people who have no " book," 
 neither a Bible nor a Koran, and so are of no account. 
 
 The Chinese authorities intervene but rarely to mete out 
 justice to those who are aggrieved ; the offenders are nearly 
 always out of reach in the mountains, where they find it so easy 
 to hide, and then again it is easy, in this case, to obtain from 
 their family or tribe either a tax which may be in arrears or a 
 present which in ordinary times would be mthheld. But when 
 brigandage has reached such a point that there is no sort of 
 security the authorities resort to a ruse. By dint of promises 
 and fair words, the chief who is the instigator of the trouble is. 
 enticed into the town and got rid of in some way or other. For 
 instance, he is put into a cage between two impaling poles, and, 
 by way of warning to offenders, he is left to die in this horrible 
 postui'e. Sometimes it is a week before his agony ends in death. 
 Having lost their leader, the nomads are thro^\Ti more or less into 
 confusion, and advantage is taken of this to obtain some kind of 
 submission. 
 
 The Chinese authorities have succeeded in embodying a certain 
 number of Kirghiz, in registering them, so to speak. Thus we 
 observed that the horsemen whom we meet wear round the neck 
 a small tablet in a felt bag. When I ask what that means, I am 
 told that for some time past every Kirghiz who is going into the 
 town must hrst appear before his leader and ask him for one of 
 these tablets, upon which his name is ^viitten in Turkish, in 
 Chinese, and in Mogul. It is a passpoit which enables him to- 
 move about freely in the bazaars, and in times of distui'bauce 
 any Kirghiz caught without it is arrested by the Chinese soldiers 
 and visited with the most terrible punishments. On returning- 
 to his tribe the traveler has to return the passport to his chief ^ 
 
THE RIVER KUNGEZ. 11 
 
 and in this way it is possible to ascertain who are absent, and to 
 exercise some sort of police control in the mountains. These 
 men, riding about with the tablet flapping against their chests, 
 enable one to realize the enormous power of an administration 
 when opposed to the weakness of private interests without 
 cohesion. The Chinese authorities have succeeded by dint of 
 patience in getting the whip hand of these nomads, who used to 
 make mock of them, and have put the yoke of the law upon 
 their necks. 
 
 Septemher 15. — To-day we left Mazar, and if the bridge over 
 the Kach had not been carried away by a storm we should have 
 crossed that river so as to reach the valley of the Kungez by a 
 neighboring pass. But we were compelled to cross the mountain 
 further north and find out a ferry higher up the river. After 
 having climbed up and then followed the undulations of the 
 uncultivated hills, we descried the valley, a sort of terrace at the 
 foot of the mountains, a grayish steppe dotted over with a few 
 tents and nomad flocks. It is commanded to the east by a chain 
 of mountains more elevated than that to the north, and the slopes 
 of which seem to us quite bare, ^vhile the summits are not white 
 with snow. 
 
 The banks of the river present a somewhat attractive appear- 
 ance, the stream flowing along like a ribbon amid verdure formed 
 by poplars, willows, tamarisks which still bear a few flowers, 
 liquorice-plants, barberries, and wild raspberries. There is 
 abundance of water, and the. grass is thick wherever the river 
 reaches, while pheasants swarm in the undergrowth. 
 
 Passing a deserted village, we cross the small stream of Nilka 
 and leave the marshy valley for the high plateau which over- 
 hangs it. In the midst of tall grass we come here and there upon 
 cleared plots where the Moguls have their felt tents, which ai-e 
 smaller than those of the Kirghiz, lower and more pointed at the 
 summit. These Moguls are busy threshing the wheat in the 
 open air, in the same way as other primitive peoples who da 
 not employ any machine. A pole is put into the ground in 
 
12 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 the center of tlie wlieat, wliich is laid out upon tlie ground, 
 and oxen are tied to this pole and made to tramp round in a 
 line, children driving them along with a stick. These chil- 
 dren are stark naked and very weakly in appearance. Their 
 stomachs are protuberant, and their skin, exposed constantly to 
 the sun, is nearly black, while it seems to be merely thrown 
 loosely over their frame, and to be about to come off whenever 
 they raise their arms and cause their angular shoulder-blades to 
 protrude. 
 
 September 16. — This evening we reach the banks of the river, 
 which is at least 650 feet wide at the point where we are to cross 
 it, for it branches out and forms numerous small islands, while 
 the current is very imjDetuous. We hope that in the morning, 
 when the water is lowest, we shall get our caravan over without 
 mishap before sunrise. From our bivouac we can distinguish to 
 the north white specks in the plain, at the foot of the mountains. 
 These, it appears, are the tents of the lamas engaged u]:)on the 
 harvest ; and when it is over they will return to winter in the 
 monastery built upon the left bank of the river. 
 
 We are now in a Buddhist country, in a land where the 
 people believe in the transmigration of the soul from one body to 
 another. This does no^ tend to respect for the human body or 
 to regard for the dead. While walking through the reed-beds 
 in search of small birds for our natural history collection, my 
 foot comes in contact with the upper part of a human skull. 
 It is quite white, stripped cleaner than could have been done 
 by the cleverest medical student. Upon examining it, I find 
 that it is the very image of the Kirghiz skulls which I have 
 had in my hand in Tm^kestan, there being the same depression 
 of the occiput, the same bi'eadth of cheek, the same prominent 
 eyebrows, the same protruding cheek-bones, but mth the fore- 
 head apparently less developed and rather lo\ver, though quite 
 as receding. We may assume that this skull was that of a man 
 who did not possess any very marked intelligence, who was short 
 in stature — as I learnt fiom the thigh-bone, which I picked up 
 
EXPOSING THE DEAD. 
 
 13 
 
 a little furtlier — and who had excellent teeth, as is proved 
 by a fragment of his lower Jaw. The bits of clothing hanging 
 from the thorn bushes show that he was not a man of wealth. 
 
 A LAMA DOCTOR. 
 
 This was the place were his remains were exposed as soon as the 
 soul had passed into a better body. Four stakes with bits of 
 stuff at the end of them indicated that the corpse was deposited 
 there, and the wild beasts, the birds of prey, and no doubt the 
 
14 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 dogs from tlie adjoining tents, have cleared away tlie teiTestrial 
 envelope of this Mogul, devouring his flesh and grinding his 
 bones, and then the j^i'ocess of time and of weather completed 
 the work of destruction. There remain only a whitened skull, a 
 half -gnawed thigh-bone, and a fi-agment of jaw; the soul has 
 taken its flight, and the bits of stuff at the end of the stakes are 
 praying for it, for, inscribed in black letters upon a yellow 
 ground, are marvelous supplications brought from Lhassa. 
 
 Se'ptemher 17. — To-day, as we were certain of being able to 
 overtake our caravan, which will be delayed in its progress by 
 having to cross the feriy, we paid a visit to the Grand Lama, the 
 head of the monastery. Our approach to the tents was heralded 
 by the furious barking of some splendid long-hauled dogs. The 
 noise brings out the lamas, young and old, who drive away the 
 angry mastiffs by throwing stones at them. We explain the 
 object of our visit to the oldest of them, and he sends on in 
 advance two young monks, and himself conducts us to the 
 I'esidence of his superior. The person who acts as our cicerone 
 has an enormous head, a rather long neck, small e}^es, and a big 
 face covered with warts, so that his physiognomy would not be 
 very pleasing but for the mouth and the smile playing upon his 
 thick lips. It appears'that this worthy man, whose age it would 
 be very difficult to guess, is a celebrated doctor. His headdress 
 is a greasy leather cap surmounted with a tuft, a small cap such 
 as might fit a chorister ]3oy, and which is much too small for so 
 huge a head, upon which it produces much the same effect as 
 would a wafer on the top of an orange. For a dress he has a 
 long serge robe coming down to the feet and fastened round 
 the waist with a belt, while his small feet are encased in 
 untanned leather, which does duty at once as stocking and 
 boot. 
 
 The Grand Lama received us very affably at the entrance 
 to his tent of white felt, which was larger than any of the 
 others. He himself drew aside the curtain, and invited us into 
 his residence ; and we, as soon as we had entered, seated our- 
 
THE aBAND LAMA. 15 
 
 selves in Eastern fashion to tlie left of the aperture. The yellow- 
 looking little man asked us as to our health, offered us the 
 services of his doctor, and talked to us in the most paternal and 
 friendly tone. Leaving our interpreter to answer for us, we 
 proceeded to inspect at our ease, but with due discretion, this 
 incarnation of Buddha and his abode. 
 
 The Grand Lama appears to be about sixty. Like all the 
 priests of his creed, he wears his hair short, and being beardless 
 by nature he has no need to shave. His features are regular, 
 especially by comparison with those of his doctor. He has rather 
 a broad face, but the black eyes are very intelligent, the mouth is 
 delicate, and the eyelids very clearly defined. He is easy in his 
 gestures, and has a good deal of unction in the voice. T should 
 not be at all surprised if he ruled the fraternity excellently, for 
 he gives the impression of being a man of mark. From time to 
 time he takes a pinch of red snuff, which he puts out on to the 
 nail of his thumb from an oval jade bottle with a silver stopper. 
 He takes care that we are served with some tea with butter 
 in it, which is the favorite drink of the Moguls and the 
 Thibetans, and which I found very much to my liking upon 
 tasting it for the first time. 
 
 Behind my host there stands upon a slab a gilt statue, which 
 represents the Grand Lama of Lhassa. The Grand Lama seems 
 to be very like him, and has the same smiling physiognomy. 
 
 There is nothing in the tent which indicates any effort at 
 cleanliness or luxury. The whole of the furniture seems to be 
 about equally neglected, and the only apparent value possessed 
 by anything is a row of small Jade vases placed upon a coffer 
 covered with some yellow material opposite to the entrance ; an 
 altar has been raised, and some sacred images are inclosed in a 
 sort of tabernacle or movable chapel, the shape of which reminds 
 me of those I have seen in Italy ; and, as is the case in Italy and 
 also in Spain, these saci'ed images of Buddha are carried to the 
 residences of such persons as ask for them in order to facilitate 
 their cure, which the doctor also helps to effect by means of 
 
16 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 remedies that have received the priestly benediction. Among 
 these remedies are some truly extraordinary ones, of so singular 
 an origin that I dare not explain them, for fear of being con- 
 sidered improper. 
 
 Presently there is a great noise of drums and cymbals, which 
 is the call to prayer. So we take leave of the Grand Lama, who 
 rises, offers us his hand, and mshes us a safe journey, with the 
 same smiling face which is- seen alike in the Buddhas of statues 
 and in the Buddhas of flesh and blood. The aged priest readily 
 gives us permission to visit the pagoda built close to the mnter 
 monastery. 
 
 As we go out we notice the cymbal-players, who are standing 
 in front of a large tent which is used foi' religious service dui'ing 
 the harvest. The lamas are nearly all out in the fields, and the 
 numbei' of worshipers is very small, the congregation consisting 
 mainly of youths with skull-caps on theii* clean-shaven heads, 
 and a long monkish robe fastened round the waist with a belt. 
 
 The monastery consists of a congeries of houses in the Mogul 
 style, f oj'ming a square. Nothing can be simpler than the archi- 
 tecture of these buildings : four walls, a door, a mndow, a fire- 
 place, a hole in the ceiling, some forage on the roof, and that is 
 about all. As far as*we can Judge by what can be seen thi'ough 
 the chinks in the closed doors, the furniture is not worth speaking 
 of, for we can see only a few chests, some clothing, and a certain 
 quantity of tools. Moreover, the lamas, faithful to their nomad 
 habits, are said to inhabit, even dui'ing the cold season, their felt 
 tents, erected in the courtyards formed by these dwellings. They 
 are built of earth, rubble, and wood, and are used as much for 
 cattle as for human beino-s. 
 
 The pagoda is new, and its walls are whitewashed. The main 
 door being open, we enter into a sort of rectangular barn. The 
 first thing Avhich strikes our eye is the altar, upon which ai'e 
 burning lamps whose flame sheds a glow upon the gilding of 
 the statues. One represents Buddha in his youth, ^^Teatlled in 
 smiles and seated upon a throne. Behind him a lama, in gilt 
 
A LAMA MONASTERY, 
 
 17 
 
 metal, is smiling as amiably as Bucldlia himself. Like him, 
 lie lias long ears — the better to hear prayer, no doubt ; and he 
 holds his hands out, one against the other, in the attitude of a 
 person ready to applaud, while at the same time maintaining 
 an aspect of great dignity. 
 
 Beside the high altar, in a chapel of more modest proportions, 
 is the statue of a person dressed in yellow, with an apron on the 
 
 
 
 THE TIEN-CHAN MOUNTAINS. 
 
 knees and a chaplet in the hand. He, we are told, is to be the 
 successor of the Grand Lama, and his functions are analogous to 
 those of a Christian Saint, he having charge to intercede for the 
 faithful and to transmit their prayers to the proper destination. 
 On the table of the altar are a number of small cups containing oil, 
 and, besides these, there are bronze ewers, bells, bundles of images, 
 peacocks' feathers disposed as trophies, packets of sacred books and 
 printed prayers, vials containing grains or perfumes, and other 
 trifles, which are, nevertheless, of high value, for they have been 
 
18 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 brought from the holy city of Lhassa. The two sides of the nave, 
 if it may be so called, are used as a wai'ehouse. 
 
 Before we left, the lama who acted as our guide showed us 
 a tambourine which was used as an organ for accompanying the 
 prayers ; and, striking the cymbals which are used for the same 
 purpose, he, with raised forefinger and open mouth, bade us 
 admire their sonoi'ous properties. Their vibrations are, as a 
 matter of fact, very harmonious. Before parting mth him we 
 give him a handsome " tip," and the poor fellow did not attempt 
 to disguise his satisfaction, for these simple people do not know 
 what wealth is, and we are struck by the ^vi-etched state in 
 Avhich the Moguls encamped around the pagoda live. The 
 interior of their tents is the acme of filth, and the smells emanat- 
 ing from them are horrible. Nearly all the children are naked, 
 the parents not having the wherewithal to clothe them. As to 
 the ^vomen, they exceed in ugliness anything which can be 
 imagined ; and one cannot help wondering how the most ardent 
 of poets would contrive to idealize them. 
 
 In the evening we penetrate by a small pass into the valley of 
 Kungez, and encamp not far from a copper-mine, where we dis- 
 cover a tiny spring, which supplies us with sufficient water for 
 our tea. And this is about all, for we are on an arid steppe. 
 
 Septemher 18. — To-day we encamp among the rushes on the 
 banks of the Kungez, at a place named Timm'lik. AVe cross the 
 Kungez about six miles further on, for we have to make to the 
 southeast towai'd the valley of Tsakma, and the pass which 
 leads there is higher up the stream. We are now on the route 
 followed by Prjevalsky, and so far the crossing of the chain of 
 the Tien- Chan, which barred om* route, has presented no great 
 difficulties. The excursion, indeed, was a delightful one, and 
 the temperatiu^e agreeable, though at one in the afternoon it was. 
 100° Fahrenheit in the shade. The minimum at night was 16°, 
 just cool enough to make it a pleasui'e to \YVSi^ oui'selves up in 
 oiu" long wadded blankets. 
 
 Septemher 19. — Some Kirghiz who to-day offered us hospital- 
 
KIRGHIZ IMMIGRANTS. 19 
 
 ity declared themselves to be the happiest of men. They have 
 water in plenty ; they sow their corn at the foot of the moun- 
 tains, and find an abundance of grass in the plains for their 
 flocks and herds. They do not run short of wood, for the banks 
 of the Kungez are covered with thick plantations, where the 
 willow, the poplar, the apple-tree (with small and sharp-flavored 
 fruit), the pepper-tree, the apricot tree, hemp, the licorice-plant, 
 and the hop- vine grow mid. These Kirghiz formerly lived on 
 Russian territory in the neighborhood of Lepsinsk, and crossed 
 over to Chinese soil because they had no routes for their flocks. 
 They pay the Chinese a tax of 10 per cent. They are very 
 cheerful, well fed, lusty, and mth plenty of color, like all who 
 live in the keen mountain air. They do not strike us as being 
 very fond of work, passing all their time in going from one tent 
 to another, in eating and sleeping, though occasionally they go 
 out after game. Several of them are armed mth Berdan rifles. 
 
 September 20. — We take leave of these Kirghiz, the last we 
 shall see, their tribes not extending further east. Their chief, 
 named Sasan, is very proud of the Russian medal which he 
 wears round his neck, and of the blue button in his hat, which 
 indicates his Chinese rank. He accompanies us through the 
 reed-beds, and before wishing us all sorts of good luck recom- 
 mends to our favorable notice five men of his tribe whom we 
 may encounter in the vicinity of Yulduz. He warns us that 
 when they see us they mil take us for Chinese and make off, but 
 he begs us not to fire on them or do them any harm. We at 
 once inferred that Sasan's friends are Barantachis — that is to 
 say, persons addicted to harcmta, the Turkish word for horse- 
 stealing. 
 
 Septertiber 22. — The two guides whom the Chinese governor 
 gave us assert that they do not know the route to the valley of 
 Tsakma, and Abdullah, the interpreter, who undertook to show 
 us the way, led us right into a cid-de-sac. We retraced our 
 steps, and the plainest common sense enabled us to discover what 
 w^ould have been a convenient pass if the rain had not made the 
 
^^-■-'■^W^''. 
 
 20 AC'IiOSS THIBET. 
 
 ascent so arduous. Graiuiug the summit at last, we descended 
 into tlie valle}', and re-ascended a plateau, \vhere we fomul 
 refuge Ijeneath a splendid cluster of pine-trees ; a piece of bread 
 taken out of our pockets and some currants picked fi'om a cur- 
 i-ant-busli close by constituting oui' frugal breakfast. 
 
 The rain ceased when we reached the summit oi the pass, 
 Near the watershed we came upon a roughly defined path along 
 the edge of a gorge to our left. All of a sudden a strong gust of 
 wind made a large horizontal rent in the veil of mist spread over 
 the landscape, and we were al^le to distinguish, far to the south, 
 mountains covered with forests, the trees of which akeady had a 
 powdering of snow, while above were large banks of black clouds. 
 Then the mist slowly cleared off, and as the atmosphere gradually 
 lightened the eye wandered gladly over a broad valley, which we 
 did not suspect to be so near. Clumps of gi'een trees mark 
 the windings of the rivei' Tsakma, which traverses a steppe 
 extending toward the west and covering, as if with a grayish 
 cai'pet, the sides of the valley. It might be su23posed to be per- 
 fectly smooth, and to come down \^dthout a break to the groves 
 of trees at the bottom ; but by looking closer spots of a more 
 decided color can be distinguished, and the eye gradually detects 
 that they are moving*. They prove to Ije gazelles, which take 
 fright at our approach, and make off at full speed. It is then 
 we discover that the slope, which had seemed to us quite smooth, 
 is not so in reality, for the gazelles first go down and disappear, 
 then come up again, only again to disappear, disclosing to us all 
 the undulations of a very uneven desert, a few green patches in 
 the hollows marking the places where the watei' Avhich has come 
 down from the mountain has collected. 
 
 The horizon being more distinct, thanks to the breeze, the 
 view bi'oadeus toward the west, and stretches so far that the river 
 is only visible as a slender thread, and gradually becomes lost in 
 space. So we get once more that sensation of the desert which we 
 nomads so like. Without attempting to analyse the feeliug, I 
 may say that the steppe, the desei't, is a very fascinating place of 
 
T-^ 
 
^5J^r 
 
 THE JOT OF THE DESERT. 
 
 23 
 
 sojourn for one who has lived in large cities, and has been put 
 out of humor by the petty worries of civilization. Solitude is a 
 true balm, which heals up the many wounds that the chances of 
 life have inflicted ; its monotony has a calming effect upon nerves 
 made over-sensitive from having vibrated too much ; its pure air 
 acts as a douche which drives petty ideas out of the head. In 
 the desert, too, the mind sees more clearly, and mental processes 
 are carried on more easily. 
 
 Encamping on a natural platform near a plantation through 
 which the river runs, we light big fii^es, dry our clothes, and 
 
 A MONGOLIAN TENT. 
 
 sacrifice a good fat sheep. The sheep remaining are fastened 
 together and placed between the fii'es, within the circle formed 
 by the camels and horses, for we are in fear of the wolves reduc- 
 ing us to starvation. 
 
 This region, in which are to be found traces of wild boar, deer, 
 and wolves, is frequented by trappers and hunters, as is proved 
 by the ashes of a fire in the open, by charred logs of wood, and 
 by a shelter made out of the boughs of trees. 
 
24 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 We find a very comfoi'table resting-place under a pine tree^ 
 between two enormous roots. The soil had been trampled 
 down, and our sleeping apartment is a thick bed of grass under 
 a sort of arch, beneath which we had to creep. Of course, it 
 would not do to attempt many gestures in awaking, but one 
 can sleep here protected from nearly all winds, and light a fire 
 without fear of its being put out by the rain, the fine points of 
 the evergreen branches not allowing a drop to penetrate so far. 
 There is an abundance of game close at hand, and we shall 
 clearly be able to kill some stags, since we have come across big- 
 thigh-bones which the wolves have not taken the trouble to 
 crunch. Moreover, there is delicious water and plenty of wood 
 ready to hand. 
 

 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TO KOURLA. 
 
 / 
 
 A Good Camping -Ground— Tent Life— Arrival of Two Torgutes— Death of a Camel- 
 Concerning Obos— The Gorge of the Kabchigue-gol— A Native at His Devotions- 
 The Gliadik— Farewell to the Torgutes— A Pan-Turkish Empire— Yakoob-Beg. 
 
 /J\ 
 
 y' '/ 
 
 
 Septemher 24. — After a brief stage, 
 having found a suitable spot, we lialt 
 to prepare for crossing the pass. I 
 may say, once for all, that by " a 
 suitable spot " I mean one where we 
 can pitch our tent upon fairly level 
 ground, sheltered from the wind or 
 the snow, and, if possible, close to 
 wood and water. A splendid camp- 
 ing-ground such as this is not to be 
 forgotten, and we remained here two 
 days, busied on various repairs, ex- 
 amining the horses' shoes and substi- 
 tuting new ones where required, and 
 taking care that there is not a nail 
 ^^^,^„„ loose or missinar. The backs of the 
 
 IMATCH. O 
 
 beasts of burden and horses are care- 
 fully inspected; where the saddles gall, they are rectified, and 
 the wounds are dressed; the saddle-bags and packing canvas 
 are sewn where torn. 
 
 Our old camel-drivei', the bandy-legged Imatch, who would 
 not part from the camels we had bought of his master, looks 
 after his charges with genuine affection. They know him, and 
 when he calls to them in the steppe at feeding-time, they come 
 to him like fowls to the henwife. 
 
 Some of our men are already indisposed, and it happens that 
 
 25 
 
26 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 these are tlie most lazy of the whole troop. They are very 
 anxious to be sent back with the guides given us by the Gover- 
 nor, Avho are returning. However, they must go with us beyond 
 the pass, as we cannot afford to reduce our staff just now. 
 
 We have been leading a tent-life for barely ten days, and 
 already we have got accustomed to it and have learnt to like it. 
 And yet our tent is neither large nor comfortable. About the 
 height of an average-sized man, it is sufficiently long and broad 
 to enable all three of us to lie upon the felt, to eat out of the 
 single pot around ^vhich ^ve gather, and to sip our tea without 
 rubbing elbows. Our shelter consists of a good piece of canvas 
 sewn double, and that suffices to protect us from the bad ^^"eather, 
 and to give us the sensation of being in a well-protected room 
 wdiile the rain is pelting and the wind howling outside. 
 
 The departure of the two guides provided by the Governor of 
 Hi created a void, which was at once filled up by the arrival of 
 two Torgutes. They came to our encampment on horseback, 
 Avith their rifles slung across the shoulder, and with a long coil 
 of hair banging down the back. Approaching our men's fire, 
 they began to converse with them in the Mongolian language, 
 and, after having had some tea, said, in reply to our questions, 
 that five days before they found four of their best horses miss- 
 ing, so they went in search of them. Emerging from the valley 
 of the Yulduz, where their tents ^vere pitched, they found traces 
 of horses, but without knowing whether they were theirs or not. 
 So they resolved to visit the valley of the Tsakma, thinking that 
 the thieves had passed that way. As a matter of fact, they dis- 
 covered traces northward — that is to say, in the direction of the 
 Kirghiz of the Kungez. But, rain falling, they could not trace 
 them any further, so they retui'ued, being certain that they could 
 catch us up, for they saw that we had camels. 
 
 Upon our asking them why the Kirghiz had stolen their 
 horses, they said it had always been so, and they coidd not in- 
 dulge in reprisals, f(^r the Kirghiz were the stronger. Formerly 
 they lived in com})lete security in tliis valley of the Tsakma. 
 
TWO T0RGUTE8. 27 
 
 Then the Kirghiz came, and at first occupied part of it, but then 
 they wanted to take the whole of it. For some time there was 
 a constant interchange of robberies and murders between the 
 two peoples, until at last the Chinese authorities intervened and 
 decided that the only means of re-establishing peace was to 
 compel the two parties to quit the pastures. " Since that time," 
 they added, " neither Mongols nor Kirghiz have lighted their fires 
 in the valley of the Tsakma." 
 
 We had no difiiculty in inducing the two Torgutes to remain 
 with us and shoAV us the way. They were much interested in 
 what went on around them — in the arms which were being 
 iurbished, in the birds which were being stuffed, while they were 
 surprised at finding the shin from the leg of a stag which Prince 
 Henry had killed being preserved. They exchanged remarks 
 when they observed the terrible effect produced by the bullet of 
 the express-rifie, and then, chin on hand, feasted their eyes upon 
 the palao-meat which was cooking nicely in the pot, the sight of 
 this completing our conquest of them. 
 
 September 25. — To-day, after going up hill and down dale, we 
 gradually climb to the ]3ass, which Rachmed and myself consider 
 very easy by comparison with many others. A strong cold wind 
 gets up from the W.N.W. — that is to say, at our back — but we 
 are on a desolate steppe, where we can find neither a shrub nor 
 anything else which can help to combat the cold that is begin- 
 ning to be unpleasant. On the other hand, we come upon some 
 very pretty flowers, lovely wild pansies and edelweiss that would 
 delight the heai't of an Alpinist. In the evening we encamp on 
 the banks of the Yulduz, which we reach by descending a path 
 fi'ee from stones. The clouds conceal from us the mountains, 
 which shut in the valley, and this does not add to the attractive- 
 ness of the view. We are glad to huddle away in a deep gorge, 
 for the wind is most cutting. 
 
 Before night-time all our camels have come in, but one of 
 them, purchased at Kuldja, is ill, and he drops as soon as he has 
 got in. His burden is removed, but he cannot rise. There is a 
 
28 
 
 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 divergency of opiniou as to whether he will recover, and the 
 interpreter, who knows all about everything, says : " Wait a 
 minute, and I will tell you. Tlie hairs of his tail will indicate 
 to you what his fate will be." 
 
 He pulls out a few of these hairs and examines them, after- 
 
 
 THE YULDUZ VALLEY. 
 
 ward pressing them between the thumb and the forefinger, close 
 to the root, and rubbing his two fingers together. 
 
 " I can assure you that he will die." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because I had no ditiiculty in pulling out the hairs, because 
 the adipose tissue adheres to the I'oot of the hairs, which indi- 
 cates a fatal sickness." 
 
 The face of the little interpreter glows with satisfaction at 
 having given proof of his sagacity, and in the meanwhile our 
 poor camel is in his death-throes, exciting the pity of his driver, 
 who ]_)uts a sheepskin undei' his head for a pilloAV. The d^dng 
 
DEATH OF A CAMEL. 29 
 
 iDeast's eye is dilated and lie loses consciousness. He struggles 
 as he lies, and one would fancy tliat all tlie thoughts of his past 
 existence were chasing one another hurriedly through his brain. 
 He seems as if anxious to go through all the acts which have 
 been so often reiterated as to have become habits with him. He 
 makes an effort to rise, he kicks his legs in the air as if to walk, 
 he moves his jaws as if to eat, he seeks to make a noise in the 
 throat as if to ruminate ; but the gaze fades away, the eye closes, 
 and the good servant gasps in death. 
 
 The two Torgutes, who are Buddhists, look on with much 
 sadness, and mumble some kind of a prayer — or, rather, a few 
 words wishing a safe journey to the soul which is on the point 
 of transmigration. That does not prevent them, as soon as the 
 soul has taken its flight, from stripping the skin oft* the body 
 which held it. As the soul has fled, what could it matter ? 
 
 Septemher 26. — To-night we have a minimum of four degrees 
 below zero, and when they wake up the men complain of the 
 cold. We follow the valley, which continues to run through the 
 steppe, and, gradually getting further away from the Yulduz, the 
 waters of which flow over sand and pebbles, we encamp on the 
 banks of the Zakiste-gol, a river abounding in fish. On the way 
 we meet the caravan of an important lama, and make him very 
 uneasy by proceeding to photograph him, Prince Henry succeed- 
 ing none the less. These worthy lamas, with their pointed head- 
 gear, seem to us to be a little the worse for drink. 
 
 The landscape remains much the same ; for we are still on the 
 steppe shut in by mountains, bare, and in places quite white 
 with salt, while in places there are peat-pits, where the water is 
 either stagnant or runs off very slowly. We notice some arkar 
 horns on the ground, but we have no time to go in pursuit of 
 these animals on the mountains. 
 
 September 28. — This evening we encamp beyond the dried- 
 up bed of the river Bqrokuste, and find plenty of grass for 
 the camels and hisiah (droppings) for the fire. To the north 
 we can see on the sides of the mountain an inscription in 
 
30 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 very large letters. These are the sacred sayings of the Bud- 
 dhists, which believers can decipher miles off. Never in my 
 life have I seen such big letters ; all the slopes of the Tien- 
 Chan would scarcely be sufficient to print a whole book. 
 The Buddhists like to manifest their devotion in the open air, 
 and when we leave the valley to reach by a pass the defile of 
 Kabchigue-gol, we meet obos, or heaps of stones, upon most of 
 which prayers have been engraved, at each culminating point of 
 the undulating ground. 
 
 These obos are generally placed on an eminence, at one of 
 those spots where the beasts of burden are allowed to halt 
 and get breath. Advantage is often taken of these halts ta 
 make a light collation* after that, prayers are offered that the 
 road may be a good one, when starting on a journey, while 
 thanks are returned because it has been good, if the journey 
 is ending. By way of shomng respect or gratitude to the 
 divinity, stones are heaped up, and a pole is often placed in 
 the ground, with a prayer written on a piece of canvas tied to 
 the end of it ; those who follow after add more stones. Workmen 
 specially employed, and traveling lamas, engrave prayers upon 
 slabs and deposit them at the spot. Thus the obo is constituted, 
 and the shepherds, th'e travelers, and the tiibes on the march 
 swell its proportions every time they pass, the heaps of stones 
 gradually acquiring such colossal proportions that they have the 
 appearance of monuments. Many Buddhists deposit there images 
 of Buddha, and of Tsong Kaba, the great reformer ; and small 
 pyramids of earth represent chapels, as I was informed. Others 
 deposit carved fragments of horn, pieces torn off their garments, 
 bits of horsehair (which they tie on to a stick), or an}i:hing 
 which comes handy to them ; and when they are making the 
 presentation they offer up prayer. 
 
 In order to reach the defile of Kabchigue-gol — a word whicli 
 we are told means " river of the narro^v place " — we follow the 
 left side of the valley. The road, which is fairly good, winds along 
 the spurs of the mountain, ^vith a view to the right of the valley 
 
-^ r- 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 f'Ji 
 
 ^-' 
 
 
 M. \ 
 
 
 (f- 
 
 ;\r 
 
 — _ i" 
 
GORGE OF THE KABCHIGUEGOL. 33 
 
 where tlie Torgutes have their tents, with theii' flocks and herds 
 roaming over the green steppe. The sun is shining in all its 
 splendor, and its heat seems excessive after the severe cold of the 
 previous night. We have only to look behind us to be convinced 
 that this fine weather will not last, for we can see the dark mass 
 of a storm coming upon us from the extremity of the valley. The 
 wind howls, the sleet and then the snow beat down upon us, 
 with all the severity of winter. Fortunately we have reached 
 the summit of the pass — those of us, at least, who have horses, 
 for the camels come at a slower rate and do not alter theii' 
 pace. 
 
 The fury of the storm is intensified at the very moment I 
 reach the large obo which indicates the beginning of the descent. 
 I am alone, and the opportunity for helping myself to some of 
 the numerous stones with prayers engraved upon them is too 
 good to be resisted. But I had i-eckoned without the spirit of the 
 mountain, who makes my horse so restive that he will not move 
 a step forward. I deterinine to dismount and tie him up some- 
 where, but there is nothing to be found which would answer the 
 purpose ; so I get up again, and once more endeavor to bring him 
 up to the obo, but the noise of the stones striking against one 
 a,nother in the wind frightens him again, and, after losing my 
 astrachan cap, I have to give up the attempt in despair. All 
 these incidents did not prevent us from meeting in the evening 
 beneath the willows of Kabchigue-gol. 
 
 Octoher 2. — We have remained at this spot for three days, 
 partridges swarming and enabling the guns of our party to 
 make large bags ; they are gray in color and very succulent. A 
 great many thrushes, tomtits, and wagtails people the brushwood 
 and trees growing on the mountain- side. We are in the country 
 of the Torgutes, and the two who have accompanied us have 
 their tent in this pass. They are not rich, but own a few head 
 of stock — horses, cows, and sheep. They are the descendants of 
 the Kalmucks, who left the steppes of the Volga in 1779, and 
 found their way back after much hardship to the land of Hi. 
 
34 ACEOSS THIBET. 
 
 Those nomads tliat ^ve meet liave preserved a vague so^^venir 
 of tins great exodus, and tliey tell us that tliey came from the 
 country of the Grosses (Russians), " where we left the people of 
 our race. It is about 200 years that we have inhabited the 
 Tien-Chan." But they can give us no details ; they have forgot- 
 ten the sufferings and the energy of their ancestors. They show 
 us their square caps mth laps for the eai's in sheejDskin, and they 
 assert that this form of headdress comes to them from the Rus- 
 sians. This shows how difficult it is to get authentic infoima- 
 tion as to the history of Asia. 
 
 We are not sorry to leave this narrow gorge of Kabchigue- 
 gol, despite its mldness and picturesqueness, and its Avonderful 
 spring, which cures rheumatism, and which is called Archan- 
 buluk (that is to say, " the spring of healing "). We meet a few 
 patients here, Mongolians of small stature, well built, with verj 
 small hands and feet — not the broad hands of the toiler, but the 
 elongated hands of the unoccupied. Theii' head is very much like 
 a round bit of wood which has scarcely had the corners squai'ed 
 off, their cheek-bones prominent, their eyes imperceptible, and 
 when seen in profile, it is scarcely possible to distinguish the 
 nose. A lama owns a small hut near the spring, under an elm 
 tree, and he is at once the consulting physician and the manager 
 of this primitive bathing establishment. From him we learn that 
 the young Khan, who is the heir of the Torgutes, has started on 
 a pilgrimage for Thibet. 
 
 Making a start, we emerged fi'om the defile on to the steppe, 
 the approach to which ^vas heralded three-quarters of a mile in 
 advance by bunches of yantag, upon which the camels fed ^^dth 
 manifest delight. The change is a very brusque one, for all of 
 a sudden ^ve are amid stones, sand, and a vast horizon; the 
 temperature has already risen, and while an hour ago the aii" was 
 fresh and pleasant we now begin to sweat. Marching along 
 beside a narrow channel for irrigation, we reach a surface dotted 
 with reed-beds, where the Torgutes are busy upon the wheat 
 harvest, and encamp iqjon fallow ground, close to a fine elm 
 
A NATIVE AT HIS DEVOTIONS. 
 
 35 
 
 ■with an obo beside it. Under tlie shade of the tree is a sort of 
 altar, analogous to the ara of the Romans, in the hollow part of 
 which we can see ashes and charcoal, odoriferous plants being 
 burnt upon it in honor of the divinity. Resting against the 
 trunk of the tree is a whole bundle of sticks with rags and slabs 
 of wood, with prayers written on them, while on the branches are 
 a number of skins of lambs and goats, in an advanced state of 
 decomposition, which have been hung there as votive oii'erings. 
 
 
 Toward evening, at the hour Avhen one is inclined to reverie, my 
 attention is excited by a murmur which seems to be drawing 
 nearer and nearer in the tall grass. A man appears, well 
 advanced in years, the shoulders bent, and a chaplet in his hand. 
 He casts an uneasy glance at me, but without breaking off his 
 murmuring, and, standing upright before the obo, he tells his 
 beads; then, going up to the tree, stoops down and rubs his 
 forehead with the sap which he has let run on to his fingers from 
 the bark. He next picks up two or three leaves, presses them in 
 
36 
 
 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 Ms hand, and, having again looked at us, makes off without saying 
 a word, muttering as he goes, " Om mane padme houm " — a phrase 
 whicli thousands of men repeat all their liv^es without under- 
 standing its meaning, but l^elieving that they are insuring their 
 future salvation. In the course of the day Prince Heniy had 
 great difficulty in photographing some of the Torgutes who were 
 prowling about our bivouac. Only one of them would accept the 
 
 SANDHILLS AT KOTJRLA. 
 
 money we offered him, and was willing to sit for his photograph. 
 They do not understand the box which is turned uj^on them, and 
 they generally make off at the sight of it with terroi' depicted on 
 their countenance. Like children, savages are always afraid of 
 what they do not understand ; and if the person photographed 
 should happen to fall ill in the course of the year his illness 
 would be attributed to " that box the Europeans had with them." 
 We observe that tlie young men in some cases wear a sort of silver 
 ornament in the left ear, and we are told that this is an eno^ao^e- 
 
THE GHADIK. 37 
 
 ment to marry the young girl who has received the fellow- 
 earring as a present. 
 
 Octoher 3, — We are again on the steppe, where we see the 
 thorny plant which the nomads call toiiia Jcwiruk (camel's tail) 
 and the sweet yantag, on which our camels revel whenever they 
 get the chance. Then the approach to the river Ghadik, whose 
 waters fall into the lake of Karachar, is announced to us by tents, 
 saklis^ and cultivated fields. The Ghadik, as it runs down 
 from the Tien-Chan, ramifies over a considerable surface, as if 
 delighted to be at liberty in the open plain, and it embraces a 
 great number of islands which are almost buried beneath a 
 vegetation quickened by periodical inundations. We encamp in 
 the tall grass of one of these islands, our tent being shut in by a 
 thick grove of willow^s, elms, tamarisks, jujube, and licorice trees. 
 There is no trace of any paths upon this archipelago, for they 
 have been effaced by the waters, and we requisition some 
 Torgutes to guide us through this grassy labyrinth. 
 
 We emerged from it in about two hours, after having crossed 
 several arms of the river, which are very deep at fiood-time, and 
 which are certainly not fordable then. In fact, we are told that 
 when the snows melt the Ghadik forms a regular lake, with the 
 tops of the trees just emerging out of the water. The pasturage 
 is excellent, and constitutes the w-ealth of the tribes grouped 
 around the kino; of the Toro-utes. 
 
 We had no sooner crossed the last irrigating canal which de- 
 rives its waters from the Ghadik than the desert began. The 
 transition is a very sharp one, and there is a difference of 
 temperature before we have gone a hundred yards. Behind us 
 the air is moist and comparatively warm, but now it is dry and 
 very keen. A path which has been trodden in by camels, at an 
 epoch when the soil was softened by rain, winds its way upward 
 
 * The name of snkli is given to the walled square within which the tents and the 
 flocks are inclosed during the winter. In most cases some sort of a shelter or hut is 
 built in one corner, which serves as a shed or cooking-place when the cold is very 
 severe. 
 
38 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 to a deeper depression, rimuiug in a S.S.E. direction, in a small 
 mountain chain very abrupt and denuded. 
 
 Beyond, there is a sort of valley without ^vater, sandy, and 
 skirted by elevations of the soil, which are full of deep furrows 
 and seem crumbling away,- with the appearance of some abandoned 
 city whose monuments are falling to ruins. 
 
 Further on, in the land of the black tree {Kara motoun), a 
 name given to a species of elm planted along the irrigating 
 watercourses, we again encounter the Torgutes. The last of the 
 Mongolian Torgutes are to be found here ; they cultivate a few 
 plots of the land, which is not very fertile, for it is a mixture of 
 salt. A number of tall, well-set-up men, with black bushy beards, 
 come round our bivouac ; they are the first we have seen since 
 leaving Siberia and Kuldja, 
 
 They enter into conversation with our men in Turkish, 
 greeting them in the Mohammedan fashion, and one of them at 
 once makes off, and speedily returns with some melons which 
 recall those of Turkestan by their oblong shape and delicious 
 taste. We all of us — French, Russians, Tarantchis, Kirghiz, and 
 Uzbegs — are pleased at this meeting with men whom we feel 
 to be closer to us than the Mongolians. We feel as if we had 
 met some old acqimintances, and a very merry e^'ening is 
 passed. 
 
 If the principle of nationalities — determined by the unit)^ of 
 the language — ever prevails among those who speak Turkish, 
 if a kingdom be reconstituted out of the scattered members of 
 this great nation, the monarch or the caliph of it will never see 
 the sun set upon his dominions, and he will command a countless 
 host of valiant warriors. But they would be scattered over 
 more than three-fourths of the surface of the Old World, and 
 that would render it difficult to mobilize them in the event of 
 war. 
 
 October 5. — To-day we have entered upon the last stage which 
 separates us from Kourla. We again traversed a corner of the 
 desert, and, as yesterday, low chains of crumbling marl, also 
 
YAKOOB-BEG. 39 
 
 liaving the aspect of turrets, cupolas, and mausoleums. Before 
 getting near to tlie Kutche-Darya, upon a heiglit commanding a 
 full view of tlie plain, we could distinguish the remains of a 
 fort of dry brick, built by Yakoob the "blessed one," also 
 surnamed the " dancer " by the people of the Ferghana. 
 
 This man was made in the mold to do great things, and 
 Prjevalsky, the celel^rated Russian traveler, was struck with his 
 intelligence Avhen he had an interview with him at Kourla in 1877. 
 The good fortune of Yakoob was prodigious, though his rise was 
 slow, inasmuch as he was a man of mature age when he became 
 master of Kashgar and Chinese Turkestan. During the few years 
 that he governed this country he displayed no ordinary activity, 
 covering it with useful buildings, tracing canals, and organizing 
 an army after the European model, having recruited, through 
 the intermediary of the Sultan, officers in all countries of Europe. 
 Several came from Turkey, and a member of the present French 
 Chamber of Deputies was on the point of being employed by 
 Yakoob-Beg. Heaven only knows what would have happened if 
 this hardy Uzbeg had not been checked in his career. He would 
 certainly have got together the " twelve thousand good soldiers " 
 whom Lord Hastings in his day considered sufficient for the con- 
 quest of China (this was Prjevalsky's estimate also of what would 
 be required), and we should have witnessed the constitution of a 
 Turco-Mongolian state, which would have extended from the 
 Terek-Davan to the north of the Pamir to the Gulf of Petchili. 
 But Allah had decided that Yakoob was not to go beyond 
 Kourla, and it was there that he closed his interesting career 
 in the fortress built by him, which still exists. He died of 
 poison administered by his Prime Minister, to whom the Chinese 
 made alluring promises which they took good care not to 
 keep. 
 
 In Yakoob's lifetime the people were dissatisfied at having 
 been roused out of the state of torpor so agreeable to the people 
 of Asia. Now, this same people, which is under the administra- 
 tion of the Chinese, regret the " good time " of the Badoulet 
 
40 
 
 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 (the " blessed one "), wlio is s2)okeu of as liaving been a great 
 man, while the " bakchi " sing his great deeds at the festivals. 
 The j)eople are so anxious for a fi^esh master that they ask us, 
 hailing from the West as we do, if " the Russians are soon com- 
 ing to take us ? " 
 
 
 0^ 
 
 '"^^^jif'/i 
 
 A MOJSGOLiIAN L,AMA. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TO TCHAKKALIK. 
 
 Kourla — In the Bazaar — Provisioning tlie Caravan — Parpa — Visit from the Akim of 
 Kourla : A " Mandarinade '" — Tehinagai — Music in the Camp — A Forest of Pop- 
 lars — Crossing the Kutche-Darya and the lutchigue-Darya — Aktarma — The River 
 Tarim — The " Silk Plant" — Arkan— Hard Words and Blows Compared— Talkit- 
 chin— The Hat of the Tarim— At Tcharkalik. 
 
 Oetobei' 6. — Kourla is a small town 
 situated in a fine oasis. It is traversed 
 by the Kutche-Darya, over which a 
 wooden bridge has been built, con- 
 necting the suburbs on the left bank 
 Avith the bazaars and the fortress 
 on the right. The population is a 
 mixture of Chinese, Dounganes, and 
 Tarantchis ; but, as the Mussulmans 
 form the majority, the chief of the 
 town (the Akim) is of that persua- 
 sion. It was he who came and laid 
 siege to us upon our arrival, not giv- 
 ing us time to enjoy the satisfactions 
 and pleasures which an oasis always 
 offers to those who have crossed the 
 desert ; and Kourla is charming, with its gardens, its green trees, 
 its fine river, and its bazaars, where are to be found melons, 
 apples, figs, grapes, and apricots, which nomads like ourselves 
 find so delicious. 
 
 We arrived in the night of this day (the 5th October), having 
 done a stage of nearly thirty-five miles. We are lodged in the 
 house of a Mussulman who is a Russian subject and a merchant 
 in the town. 
 
 41 
 
 KOURLA WOMEN. 
 
42 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 October 6. — To-day we received a great many inquisitive visit- 
 ors. We learn that tlie authorities are summoned to meet at 
 the Yamen in the evening to take counsel together concerning us, 
 and the chief asks permission to pay us a visit the next morning. 
 
 We find ourselves in the first bazaar we have seen since we left 
 Kuldja, and we shall not encounter another after we make a fresh 
 start. So we buy and buy in pi'eparation for Thibet, and, with- 
 out losing an hour, hire twenty-two camels, to carry oui* pur- 
 chases. Among these purchases are 1600 Russian pounds of 
 bread, done down in fat and salt, made up into small cakes about 
 as thick as the finger and as broad as the palm of a man's hand. 
 The reason of their being made so small is that a biscuit of this 
 size is easy to stow away ; it can, if necessary, be placed up the 
 sleeve on the march, for it may happen that while one is munch- 
 ing it one may have to pick up one's gun or whip. Moreover, it 
 represents in size almost exactly what the appetite demands, and 
 not an atom is lost. The salt aids the digestion, and the fat is, 
 of course, a preventive against cold. The purchases also include 
 520 pounds of the best flour, which will l)e kept in reserve, for 
 we shall only use these provisions at the last extremity; 280 
 pounds of mutton, salted and done up in skins; 160 pounds of 
 small raisins, very del^ate in flavor, with no pips, called "kicli- 
 mich," which will be mixed with rice, and only distributed later, 
 when the cold, the salt meat, the forced marches, and the great 
 altitude have brought about that state of weakness which is so 
 like scurvy; 80 pounds of salt, though we are pretty safe to find 
 plenty in the desert, upon the surface of the soil, or on the shores 
 of the lakes ; 80 pounds of sesamum oil for hasty puddings ; 
 tobacco, bags, pieces of felt, and 6000 pounds of barley for our 
 horses, although the interpreter Abdullah, and a man named 
 Parpa, an inhabitant of Kourla, tell us that "\ve need not concern 
 ourselves about them. 
 
 This Parpa ^^^as formei'ly in the service of Carey and Dalgleish, 
 the English travelers, and we have engaged him in the hope that 
 he will furnish us with useful information. This adventurer. 
 
VISIT FROM THE AKIM OF KOUBLA. 
 
 4B 
 
 with a long black beard, very taciturn, and with a tragic air, is a 
 native of the Ferghana, and he came with Yakoob-Beg into 
 Chinese Turkestan. He gets the horses shod, makes saddles for 
 the camels, and has the reputation of being a brave man. 
 
 The preparations are rapidly completed ; we have treated with 
 a Doungana whom we are to pay a high price, but he will bring 
 
 A BIT OF THE TARIM. 
 
 with him three servitors, two Dounganas and one Turkish Mus- 
 sulman from the Oasis of Hami. 
 
 Octoher 7. — Returning to the house to-day, we find the servants 
 of the Akim, who announce the coming of their master. Soon 
 afterward there arrive, followed by an escort, some mandarins, 
 dressed in the Mohammedan style, but wdth the Chinese head- 
 dress — a globular hat, and wearing the pigtail, which is the 
 mark of vassaldom that the Chinese insist on from the Moham- 
 medans, whose head is generally shaved. So the head men of the 
 town, most of them advanced in years, enter our room. We 
 offer them seats on the white felt which has been unrolled for 
 
44 
 
 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 them, and wait for them to question us, without uttering a word. 
 They begin the conversation in Chinese, politely asking as to our 
 health, congratulating us upon having made a safe Journey, and 
 
 
 4l 4v'' 
 
 raHABITA^fTS OF KOURLA. 
 
 promising us their help. Between ^vhiles their attendants j)lace 
 before us an offering of dried fruits, melons, and almonds, in ac- 
 cordance with the custom of Turkestan. AVe thank them mth 
 the utmost cordiality for their good-nature, and then wait to see 
 
COMPLICATIONS. 45 
 
 what is to follow. It is easy to see tliat tlie chiefs are somewhat 
 embarrassed ; they exchange a few words, and then the one who 
 is highest in rank begins to make a rather solemn speech, pointing 
 out that it is a habit to ask strangers for their papers. To which 
 I reply that it is a very good custom, as it is impossible to take 
 too many precautions with regard to strangers who come on to 
 the territory of others. As concerns ourselves, he has seen by 
 our cards on red paper, and written in Chinese characters, that 
 one of us is a prince allied to the Kings of the West, and that he 
 must be aware that the White Pasha has facilitated our passage 
 through his states, and that we hope the Emperor of China will 
 not be less obliging. Although we did not understand why 
 papers should be demanded of us at Kourla, after we had been 
 allowed to cross the frontier and go through the province of Hi, we 
 were willing, in order to please him, as he was so kind to us, to 
 let him have the general pass, which had been seen by the Gov- 
 ernor of the province of Hi. He asked our leave to keep it, which 
 we give all the more readily because we know from Prjevalsky 
 and others that in China papers are only of service at places 
 where they are not required. After an interchange of respectful 
 and dignified greetings the chiefs go off. 
 
 What will happen to-morrow? We foresee complications, 
 and Rachmed, who is much affected by all this, fully realizes our 
 position. He says, " It is the beginning of the ' old story,' and 
 the Chinese are going to bother us as much as they can. It is 
 not surprising on the part of people who eat pork." And so 
 Kachmed rattles on, loading with opprobrium this people, which 
 allows its women to have wooden legs, which emits an odor in- 
 tolerable to a true Mussulman, and so on. 
 
 The chief result of this interview is to make us hurry forward 
 our preparations, for we have seen the advance-guard to-day ; the 
 declaration of war will be brought us to-morrow. 
 
 The same evening before sunset the chiefs of Kourla arrive in 
 full dress, and, almost before the greetings have been exchanged 
 and the cups of tea served, the Akim tells us to visit the Gover- 
 
46 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 nor of Karacliar before continuing our journey. We reply that 
 tlie Governor is a person of too little consequence for us to turn 
 aside from our route to go and see him. " If lie wishes to say 
 anything to us, let him come and say it. Moreover, he must 
 have seen our papers." 
 
 " Your papers are of no value, and, to tell you the truth, here 
 is the order to arrest you which has arrived from Ouroumitchi at 
 Karachar." 
 
 We display great surprise at this, and ash him to let one of 
 our men read this order. And then the conversation is resumed. 
 as f olloAvs : 
 
 " Where is our pass then ? " 
 
 " At Karachar." 
 
 " Well, we shall keep your order until you have restored the 
 paper we confided to you, for you have it in your possession, and 
 you are not speaking the truth." 
 
 I accordingly take the order, put it into my pocket, and re- 
 quest them to go. 
 
 The small Chinese mandarin who had brought it gets as pale 
 as his yellow complexion admits of his doing, and begs us to re- 
 store it, makins: a motion with his hand across his throat as much 
 as to say that he will lose his head if he does not get the order 
 back. I repeat that he shall have it if they restore us our pass, 
 and when they again deny having it we make them leave, saying 
 that the sun has set, and that we want to rest. 
 
 They go off very crestfallen, and a few minutes later one of 
 the chiefs returns, holding the pass in his hand. He offers it to 
 us and we take it back, promising to restore him his order, but 
 only the next day, in order that we may have it photographed. 
 This photograph is reproduced, and the translation has been 
 made by the Marquis d'Hervey de St. Denys. It is as follows : 
 
 "I, Han, sub-prefect, having the honorary title of Foutchi, 
 fulfilling the duties of prefect of the district of Kola-Chacul 
 (Karachar), have received from the temporary governor Wei an 
 order thus conceived : ' At the present time, a prince of the 
 
A CHINESE WARRANT. 
 
 47 
 
 blood in the kingdom of France, Ken-li-lio (Henry), traveling 
 without a Chinese passport and on his own initiative, is making 
 toward Lo-pou-ta-cul (Lob Nor). I order the local authorities, 
 in no matter what place the French prince may be found, to pre- 
 
 ji ykf ,^ ^^ ^ A^ 4: 
 'S ^'^ Hi -f^ji -f^ 
 
 it, jJf ^ 
 
 f7 I'-a ^J^ -rr i. '^^ "5?; 
 
 X- -i'^ k' :i ^^ 
 
 -J f ;f ^ %^ 
 
 A CHINESE WARRANT. 
 
 vent him continuing his route and to turn him back.' In conse- 
 quence of this order my duty is to send out agents to gather 
 information, and I accordingly direct two agents to proceed at 
 once to Kou-cul-li (Kourla), and to act in concert with the Mus- 
 
48 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 sulman chiefs of tMs locality in order to inspect the country. If 
 the French prince is met, his progress must he arrested, and he 
 must be prevented penetrating any further and compelled to turn 
 back. The agents must not Ije guilty of negligence or delay, 
 under pain of incurring penalties. This must not be disobeyed. 
 Twice recommended, and his instructions are given to Tchang- 
 Youy, and to A-li. They will take care to conform to them. 
 The eighth day of the ninth moon of the iifteenth year of Kou- 
 ang-Sin. Valid until the return, to be afterward given back 
 and annulled." 
 
 I might, with reference to this order, say a good deal as to 
 the perhdy of the Chinese with regard t(3 Europeans of all kinds, 
 even to Europeans who have behaved generously toward man- 
 darins. But it would be a waste of space, for in the course of 
 this narrative the reader will have opportunities of appreciating 
 at its proper value the administration of provinces remote from 
 the frontier and the coast. Thus, on the northern frontier, one 
 encounters, side by side with the mandarins, Russian consuls who 
 command not only respect but obedience, while on the coast 
 there are consuls and persons of all nationalities who maintain 
 amicable relations with the mandarins. But in the interior of 
 the empire the situation is not the same. 
 
 October 8. — The chiefs of Kourla, with the Akim at their head, 
 return to see us again, and we restore to them the order. They 
 repeat that we cannot continue our route. We reply that nothing 
 will stop us from going to the Lob Nor, where we msh to enjoy 
 the chase. When we are ready, we shall load our beasts and 
 start, and if any effort is made to stop us by force there ^^^ll be 
 bloodshed, and the blood will be upon their heads. We are not 
 evil-doers ; we do no harm to anyone, and why should we not 
 enjoy the immunities accorded to the smallest of traders ? We 
 tell the Akim that this is our ultimatum, and bid him reflect. 
 He hangs his head down, and, dropping the Chinese language in 
 his emotion, says in his native Turkish : " I am only executing 
 the orders given me. I do not msh you any harm. I can see 
 
BEADY FOR A START. 49 
 
 you are not bad people. What would you have me do ? I am 
 in a cruel position, for my life is at stake. Truly, I am like the 
 nut between two stones ; by AUali, I am." 
 
 And he heaves a sigh which does not seem to be assumed. 
 
 " Help me," he went on to say. " I will go to Karachar and 
 see my superior. Let one of your party come with me ; he will 
 explain things, and, by the help of Allah, matters will all be 
 arrano-ed." 
 
 " It is impossible to do as you ask, Akim," I reply, " for the 
 explanations are already given. We do not in any wa}^ recognize 
 your sub-prefect ; and the step would be quite useless, for if one 
 of us ^vere to go to Karachar, and your superior persisted in stop- 
 ping us, we should start just the same." 
 
 The chief and his companions then rose and took leave of us. 
 
 October 9. — A fresh visit from the Akim, who insists, with a 
 pretty firm air, upon our retracing our steps. Upon our cate- 
 gorically refusing, he gets up, without pressing the matter any 
 further, and says that he shall have to resort to force — a threat 
 which makes us laugh. 
 
 The Aksakal of the Russian subjects in Kourla then inter- 
 venes, and tells us that he has been threatened with having a 
 chain put round his neck and being dragged off to Karachar if 
 he lends us assistance. A strong force arrives from Karachar to 
 reenforce the feeble garrison of Kourla, which consisted of sixty 
 soldiers, who seemed to us more or less stupefied with opium. 
 
 We hurry on our preparations for starting. The purchases 
 are completed, the saddles for the camels are se^vn, and there is 
 nothing to delay us any longer. At nightfall a delegation of 
 chiefs, including the Aksakal of the Russian subjects, come and 
 make a formal remonstrance with us, but at last they see that we 
 are firmly resolved not to let ourselves be stopped. 
 
 After supper we let the men sleep until midnight, and then 
 wake them up and give them orders to get all the loads ready, 
 and not to utter a word. All the preliminaries of the start are 
 .soon got through. A few hours later I get up without making 
 
50 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 the sliglitest noise, aud satisfy myself for tlie nonce that the 
 soundest sleepers have sharp ears. 
 
 October 10. — ^At daylight all our camels and horses are ready, 
 well shod and well saddled. The news of our starting soon 
 spreads through the town, and the caravan is organized in the 
 presence of a multitude which invades our courtyard, and which 
 we are ol^liged to drive out with a good stout stick. Some pick- 
 pockets have managed to sneak up to our things and steal what- 
 ever they can conceal about their persons. We prevent the 
 recurrence of this hj ci'eating a void about us. Our attitude is 
 at the same time a warning to the mandarins that we are pre- 
 pared for any eventuality as yesterday. 
 
 Having been sent to the bazaar to procure a few delicacies, 
 our Chinaman returns and says that the merchants are of opinion 
 that the Akim has arranged the matter very well, for he has in- 
 duced us to write to Karachar. I forgot, as a matter of fact, to 
 mention yesterday that we had promised to send a few lines of 
 explanation to the sub-prefect of Karachar. This letter had 
 been translated into Turkish and Chinese, and we stated in it 
 our intention of going to shoot in the neighborhood of the Lob 
 Nor, where Ave should remain long enough for all the necessary 
 papers to ariive from Pekin or elsewhere. The Akim's friends 
 consider that he has managed matters ver}-' adroitly, that he has 
 gained a diplomatic victory ; in short, to use the language of the 
 country, that "he has had the wit to preserve the face and to 
 add a plume to his hat." 
 
 The loading of the beasts of burden is completed, the presents 
 have been distributed to our hosts and acquaintances, the men 
 leap into the saddle, raise their hands to their beards, exclaiming 
 " Allah is great ! " And so en route for the Lob Nor. 
 
 Two of our men who are ridino; the best horses a;© on in front. 
 They are told not to lose sight of the leading camel-driver, and I 
 can see them both. In case of an alert they are to gallop back 
 to us. Rachmed will go on ahead of all the rest, to see for him- 
 self, when we get close to the gate. Now, the caravan gets into- 
 
LEAVING KOUBLA. 53 
 
 motion, and proceeds slowly along the street ; the camels pack 
 as close to one another as they can, and, swingmg their necks 
 and rolling from side to side, they methodically glide on 
 with their long legs, quite indiii'erent to the teasing of the 
 Chinese, but feeling perhaps the warmth of the superb autumn 
 sun. 
 
 On such a delightful day I feel that nothing unpleasant can 
 occur to us ; Natm^e is too bright and smiling for that. While 
 the camels are ruminating the sweet morning grass, I am rumi- 
 nating what remains to be done, and I rejoice inwardly at having 
 begun the second stage of our journey, which will terminate at 
 the Lob Nor. While watching the idlers posted on the roofs, 
 and the women with unveiled faces who are peeping through 
 the half-open doors, replying at the same time by a " salaam " to 
 the " salaam " of a boy with a merry and good-humored face, and 
 by a brandishing of my whip to another not so well-behaved, I 
 am reminded of similar starts from similar countries, and my im- 
 agination travels at a bound to Turkestan, Bokhara, and Khiva. 
 I note here the same faces, the same gestures, and the same 
 attitudes as there. I can perceive the same odors emitted from 
 their houses, and the vast firmament over our heads is of the 
 same inimitable blue, the reflection of which even the turquoise 
 cannot reproduce. 
 
 It is impossible that our journey should be rudely interrupted, 
 commenced as it is in such bright sunshine ; the earth presents 
 itself under too smiling an aspect to deceive us afterward. 
 
 For a little way we skirted the crenelated walls of the town, 
 against which are built various earthen huts with creepers grow- 
 ing up them, and then we said good-by to Kourla and made 
 southward. The road which leads out of the oasis is dusty, and 
 it branches out into paths which get lost in the desert, like 
 rivulets which dry up a river before it has reached the end 
 of its course. 
 
 On reaching the last of the saklis, we bought some sheep from 
 a friend of the Aksakal of the Russian subjects. . Although we 
 
54 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 are certain of having enougli to feed men and beasts as far as the 
 Lob NoPj it is as well to have ^vith one a small flock of fat sheep, 
 as a matter of precaution ; and then, again, this will enable us to 
 purchase others of the natives at a lower figure for our daily 
 consumption, for when they see that we are not at their mere}', 
 they will not put up their prices. 
 
 October 11. — AVe had loaded some of our camels when we 
 saw the dust rising on the plain in the direction of Kourla, 
 and presently recognize the chiefs of Kourla in full dress, ac- 
 companied by several horsemen. When they got close to our 
 bivouac, they politely dismounted, and one of their attendants 
 came to ask for an audience on the part of his masters. This 
 we at once granted, and the chiefs advanced with a certain 
 degree of haste, no doubt to signify thereby that they were 
 under the influence of some strong emotion. They had smiling 
 faces, they shook hands cordially with us, and leaned forward as 
 they did so, their whole attitude being one of sympathy. They 
 had no sooner seated themselves on the white felt ^vhich had been 
 laid down in their honor, the younger ones remaining on their 
 feet out of deference, than they hastened to tell us that they had 
 come as friends, that they wished us a safe journey and good 
 health. They had bjeen compelled to execute the orders sent from 
 Karachar, but had done so much against their own inclinations. 
 They could see very clearly that we were great personages and 
 honest people. One of them invited us to believe that the 
 Akim was a very good fellow ; another whispered into the ear 
 of one of our men that ^ve should do well to mark our gratitude 
 and forgiveness by a few little presents, such as our hosts at 
 Kourla had received the day before. 
 
 We thanked them politely and gave orders for presents to be 
 handed to the chiefs, as souvenii's of om* visit, and at the same 
 time asked for a guide to introduce us to the people we should 
 meet on the way, and ^vho "would facilitate the passage of the 
 Kutche-Darya, a river \vhich has no bridges oi' ferries, and which 
 has to be crossed on a raft. 
 
WB OBTAIN A G UIDE. 
 
 55 
 
 We were at once furnished with a man of about sixty, named 
 Ata E-achmed, the same who formerly accompanied Prjevalsky 
 
 
 YANGI KOUL. 
 
 in his excursion to the Lob Nor. Our interpreter, Abdullah, 
 Tecoo-nized him and assured us that Rachmed was the best of 
 
66 ACEO>JS THIBET. 
 
 men. Formei'ly attaclied to the person of Yakool), lie passed 
 into the service of the Akim of Kourla. 
 
 After having received our small gifts, the chiefs rose to their 
 feet, wished us a safe journey once more, and pressed our hands 
 very effusively ; they then mounted their horses and cantered 
 back toward Kourla, while we packed up our things and 
 regained our caravan, which was making its way toward the 
 small village of Tchinagi. 
 
 Such is the end of what I must style a " mandarinade," for 
 this is the only name to give to the series of Avorries which the 
 Chinese mandarins reserve for Europeans in order to prove to 
 them that China possesses an '^ administration." I have related 
 this incident too nuich in detail, perhaps ; but I believe that I 
 shall have done a service to future travelers by showing that it 
 is not well to be alarmed by the threats of the mandarins, and 
 that one may travel pretty comfortably in this region of the 
 Chinese Empire, always provided that one keeps clear of the 
 large centers of population, Avhere a countless population does 
 not scruple to commit acts of cowardice and ferocity with the 
 certainty of escaping punishment. 
 
 After nine or ten miles of the desert, we bivouacked near the 
 village of Tchinagi,* on the banks of a canal planted ^vith 
 Avillows. 
 
 At Tchinagi, the aged Ata Rachmed got together a score of 
 woebegone men, whom we promised to pay well if they would 
 help us to construct our rafts on the Kutche-Darya. Among 
 the number was one who had the broad face of the Kirghiz, the 
 same small eyes, scanty beard, and guttural way of speaking. 
 Upon being questioned he told us that he was a native of the 
 neighborhood of Semipalatinsk, and that having come into the 
 country in Yakoob-Beg's time, with one of his brothers, he had 
 married there and settled in it. "That's like me," says our 
 Russian Borodjin ; " I served at Kuldja and then at DJarkent, 
 where I married, and I never returned home to Tobolsk." I 
 note this trifling incident in order to point out that, on man}^ 
 
TCHINAGI. 57 
 
 occasions, I have observed that the Russians and the Turks 
 move from place to place very readily, and especially that they 
 soon abandon all idea of returning to their native country, even 
 when they have left it more or less under compulsion. To 
 inhabitants of the vast and monotonous plain, with horizons as 
 boundless as those of the sea, it matters little at what point of 
 the ocean — for such the plain I'eally is — they may live ; all 
 they want is a few birch trees, lighting up the landscape with 
 their silver trunks, a rivei' full of fish, the banks of which, covered 
 with reeds, give shelter to waterfo^vl and wild boars, and with 
 that a few patches of cultivated ground around the small 
 wooden or earthen hut. 
 
 The inhabitants of Tchinagi, who resemble the Sarthians of 
 Turkestan, say that they came fi'om Andidjan — that is to say, 
 from Ferghana — about a hundred years ago. This does not 
 mean anything definite, for Eastern peoj^le are incredibly negli- 
 gent as to dates. 
 
 An old man talked to us of Russians whom he had seen in the 
 country, and we know, as a matter of fact, that some of the old 
 believers came as far as the Lob Nor in search of land a long 
 time ago. Then we listened to some singers who played upon a 
 two-stringed guitar, and, as we were free in distributing tea and 
 rice, a good part of the village surrounded us, our men dancing 
 to the sound of the accordion, after the custom of their country, 
 and the evening passing in festivity. Even our old camel-driver, 
 carried away by the music, executed a rude sort of a dance with 
 his feeble legs, the Chinaman being the only one who did not 
 stir. Upon our asking him to give us a specimen of the dancing 
 in his district, he replied : 
 
 " Oh, we don't dance ; we amuse ourselves by sitting down 
 and doing nothing." 
 
 " And what is your music like ? " 
 
 " Oh ! our music is very similar to that which you hear." 
 And he endeavors to prove this by singing an air, but the eii'ort 
 is so unmusical, despite his extreme seriousness, that we cannot 
 
58 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 help laugliing outright. It does not take miicli to amuse 
 travelers. 
 
 After having crossed a strip of desert, we soon reach a regular 
 forest of poplars. But they are not the same trees as the French 
 poplars ; for these grow on the sand, the bark is all wrinkled, 
 and the hollow trunks are covered all over Avith Ijindw-eed. 
 Their foliage varies very much, for the leaves are oblong in the 
 lower branches, and resemble those of the willow, while alcove 
 they are like those of the ordinary poplar. It is \vith these trees 
 that we shall have to cod struct our rafts, and this ^^ill increase 
 the difficulty not a little, for this Popidus cliversifolla is porous 
 and dry internally, although its bai'k is extremely hard, while, if 
 it remains long in the water, it sinks to the bottom. 
 
 Upon the advice of an old man who directs the ^vork, and 
 who affirms by his white beard, three rows of beams are placed 
 one upon the other ; they are tied together and flanked by thick 
 bundles of reeds, so as to elevate the floating line. The I'aft will 
 only be put into the water at the last moment. In this con- 
 juncture our Russians, accustomed to the water, like all their 
 fellow-countrymen, are very useful to us. As to Rachmed, who 
 has nearly been drowned on several occasions, and who has a 
 horror of all kinds of ^navigation, he bemoans his fate, and im- 
 plores, with a very comical face, to be allowed to retrace his 
 steps, for he is sure he shall be drowned. 
 
 October 12. — The evening is spent in getting together the 
 trees which have been cut in the forest, or which have been hid- 
 den away on the river banks. They have already been used for 
 making rafts, and the natives di'ag them to oiu' camp with oxen. 
 
 October 13. — The smaller bao;o;ao;e is loaded in canoes, and a 
 sort of feriy is organized by means of I'afts. The I'aft is covered 
 with earth to place our camels under the illusion that they are 
 on terra firnia. They ai'e not at all fond of the A^'ater, and it is 
 necessai'y, even, in order to get them on to the raft, to prepare a 
 sort of landing-stage with stakes and fagots, for the bank is 
 steep. At the first attem})t ^ve succeed in getting two camels on 
 
CROSSING THE KUFCHEDABTA. 59 
 
 to the raft ; we keep tlieir heads down by pulling at the ring 
 placed in their noses. The raft is pulled across by a rope, and 
 when the passengers have been landed it is brought back to the 
 landing-stage by means of another rope. But this time there is 
 the greatest difficulty in getting a camel to advance ; persuasion, 
 ruse, and blow^s are alike powerless, and at last the beast has to 
 be carried. But it slips backward, its hind legs dropping into 
 the water, and the rest of its body on the raft, and in this posture 
 it is pulled across, like a schoolboy lolling over his desk. So we 
 go on until they have all been got over, the horses as well as the 
 sheep swimming across. 
 
 This operation lasts all day, and tJie work is accomplished in 
 very good humor, the Mussulmans interlarding it with the 
 prayers to wdiich they are called by theii' mollah. 
 
 The natives again speak to us of Yakoob-Beg, and it is clear 
 that they regret him very much. They would like to be de- 
 livered from the Chinese, who, they say, " eat dogs, and even 
 children." 
 
 By nightfall the crossing of the Kutche-Darya is completed, 
 and we distribute numerous "tips" to the workmen who have 
 been employed, leaving them two sheep as well. 
 
 As the Huns and the Tartars mostly had horses, they were 
 able to cross the rivers and streams pretty easily. The armies 
 which possessed elephants could soon construct rafts, as these 
 animals could drag trees along with their trunks, and probably 
 hauled the baggage, and even people, as almost certainly hap- 
 pened with Hannibal in crossing the Bli^iiio. The camel of 
 Central Asia is made for a desert withouL ^\:uor, and he only 
 likes rivers that he may drink greedily of tLcin. 
 
 We make for the Lob Nor by the itinerary which Prjevalsky 
 and Carey followed. At times we are obliged to diverge from 
 it, as inundations have modified the aspect of the country, and 
 ive prefer making a detour if we can thereby avoid constructing 
 ^ raft. 
 
 October 14. — ^Our route lies through the tougrak woods, which 
 
60 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 form a variety to the violet tamarisk trees. These tougrak, or 
 poplars, are burnt in many places. Flocks of sheep have been 
 roaming through the woods, and traces of them are visible upon 
 the saline soil, into which the foot sinks as into ashes covered 
 over with a light crust. The trees are less thick on the sand- 
 
 S2j-^£i:as:*Si, 
 
 ''mm-. 
 
 ' CANOE ON THE TAKIM. 
 
 hills, for in this region a great many people come and go. Iil 
 the afternoon we cross the Intchigue-Darya, a small river which 
 forms another arm of the Tarim, but the crossing is effected by 
 a bridge, which is repaii'ed to admit of the camels going over it. 
 In the evening we encamp at Goumbas, near a piece of water on 
 a bare hill. The natives bring us some trout, and are very well 
 satisfied with the pieces of money which ^ve give them. For 
 our bivouac we prefer a clearing where the breeze will rid 
 us of the mosquitoes, which bite us to death even under our 
 covei'ings. There is an abundance of waterfowl, ^vild geese, 
 ducks, teal, and cormorants in the reed-beds. This region is ver}^ 
 sparsely inhabited. 
 
AKTARMA. 61 
 
 October 15. — To-day we start for Aktarma, whicli is noted on 
 Prjevalsky's map. It is always the same sandy desert, which 
 reminds some of ns of the Gobi in Mongolia, others of the Kara 
 Koum. Like the latter, it is dotted over with nmnerous tama- 
 risk trees, which have helped to consolidate the sand-hills. The 
 wind and the shrub are at war with each other, the latter seek- 
 ing to retain by means of its roots the moving surface of the 
 desert, clutching, as it were with tentacles, little heaps of sand 
 and solidifying them, while the dust whirls round and the wind 
 converts it into a diminutive piece of artillery for besieging the 
 fortress. The pools are very numerous, lending to the plants 
 the sustenance of their moisture, and making the struggle less 
 unequal. 
 
 Coming to our first halt, we are advised to make to our right, 
 in a westerly direction, and we thread our way between pools 
 and pieces of water which remind one of fragments of river 
 which have suddenly come to a stop, for, when the wind ruffles 
 the water, one would imagine that it was flowing, but when the 
 wind drops it is still. But our horizon, u]3 to the present rather 
 narrow, opens out, and the plain upon which we enter is, as we 
 are told, that of Koul-toukmit-Koul. We see green djiddas of a 
 very respectable size, while the prickly broom waves its white 
 tufts in the depression of the soil, and between the low sand- 
 hills runs a fine stream of clear water glistening in the sunlight. 
 This is the Tarim, which flows along, as if fatigued by its long 
 journey, toward the Lob Nor. One can guess mthout much 
 difficulty that a large lake, or a number of pools, will be formed, 
 for this river has no outlet into the ocean. 
 
 Marching away from the Tarim, in the afternoon we arrive at 
 Aktarma, indicated in the desert by groups of poplars. A herd 
 of cattle announce our approach in a very disagreeable manner, 
 for they make a stampede in front of us, raising a column of 
 dust. They are animals of very small stature, and exceedingly 
 agile. We see men cultivating small patches of ground impreg- 
 nated v^dth salt, not far from the score or so of huts which con- 
 
63 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 stitute what is one of the most important towns of the Tarim. 
 These huts, made of reeds twisted into hurdles and mud, are for 
 the present deserted. 
 
 The chief of Aktarma, surrounded by his council, offers us 
 some very insipid melons, and inquires after oui" health. These 
 people are very frightened and suspicious, like the true savages 
 they are ; they have round heads and eyes, appealing to be the 
 produce of unions between the most divergent tribes, all that 
 they have in common being their savage and poverty-stricken 
 mien. One would imagine them to be outlaws who had come 
 from all parts, and who had settled here fi'om Aveaiiness of 
 wandering. They assert that they are Kalmucks by descent, 
 but they speak Turkish. Abdullah, Avho ^vants to ingratiate 
 himself Avith them, says that he is himself a Kalmuck, and that 
 the Emir Timour was also a Kalmuck, whence it is to be con- 
 cluded, judging by the tone of our interpreter, that this nation 
 has possessed at least two great men — the Emir Timour, long 
 since defunct, and Abdullah, our interpreter, the greediest of 
 created beings, who asked them to give him some melons for his 
 own consumption, and who will fall ill from eating too many of 
 them. 
 
 Octoher 16. — We halt all to-day. As the village remains 
 deserted, the news of our arrival has, perhaps, frightened away 
 the people of Aktarma. But it A\'ould appear tliat at this season 
 the population migrates with its flocks and herds to the banks 
 of the Tarim and its pools, men, Avomen, and children fishing, 
 shooting, and drying fish for the winter while the cattle and 
 sheep are feeding. 
 
 Beyond the wood men are at work digging the ground with 
 the same simple implement which one meets with among all 
 primitive peoples, consisting of two pieces of wood. The savages 
 invented it first of all for delving; into the earth and robbins; it of 
 its treasui'es. Here the people grow wheat, but not enough for 
 their food, and they have to go and buy more at Kourla, where 
 they sell sheepskins, dried fish, and a coarse sort of cloth. Tliey 
 
THE TABIM. 
 
 63 
 
 gi'ow a little barley for tlieir horses, wliicli, tliough not nnmerous 
 are sturdy and good for tlieir size. 
 
 Octoher 17. — ^The plain across wliicli we are traveling, witli 
 its gray October sky^, fomis a very typical Pomeranian landscape, 
 and one might fancy one's self on the shores of the Baltic or the 
 North Sea. The horizon is flat, water extends everywhere, and 
 the lowlands seem to be floating on their surface, while the banks 
 
 CKOS8ING AN ARM OP THE TAKIil AT ARKAN ON AN UIPROYI^ED RAFT. 
 
 of the river are too low to regulate its course. It ^vould seem as 
 if a mere scratch on the bank would suffice to open a way for the 
 Tarim. The river is constantly overflowing, or, rather, it spreads 
 out and forms pools or lakes in a hundred different spots, as 
 evidenced by the name of the village of Yangi Koul (the " new 
 lake "). We arrive there along a dusty road, shaded by reed-beds 
 and thorns, running through ground with a good deal of salt on 
 the surface, and we have to wind in and out so as to avoid the 
 water. The village is perched upon the slope of a sandhill on the 
 
64 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 opposite bank, and the walls of tlie liouses, veiy irregularly built, 
 look as if they were slipping down toward the river. Our arrival 
 brings out tlie whole population, whicli comes to take a good look 
 at us wliile we are having our tea. The women alone do not 
 cross the stream, which is nearly 500 feet wide, but men and boys 
 jump into the water and tuck up their clothes so as to reach the 
 mole of sand which lines the course of the Tarim. The well-to- 
 do, who have boots or shoes to their feet, get themselves carried 
 across, or come over in canoes. They bring presents with them, 
 including fish both fresh and preserved. One lad has brought a 
 wild goose alive, and when, while refusing it, we make him a 
 present, he shows our gift to the others, and the ice is broken. 
 
 The natives come so close that I have time to examine them, 
 and can see that they are a mixture of all races, with noses and 
 eyes of all shapes and colors, as in any large town of the West. 
 I detect some regular Kirghiz, thick-set, with scarcely perceptible 
 eyes, salient cheek-bones, and scanty beards ; Sarthians mth finer 
 figures, and black, bushy beards, while gray eyes are not rare. 
 A fair man, with a very fresh complexion and light eyes, wears a 
 turned-up cap on his head, and the Siberians themselves are 
 struck by his resemblance to a Russian. Moreover, ^ve are told 
 that the Russians have been here. 
 
 Our presence excites the greatest curiosity, and the canoes are 
 kept busy, bringing the whole of the male population ; and the 
 women, clustering on the opposite bank, watch the spectacle, and 
 doubtless wish that the etiquette of their sex did not prevent 
 them from coming across. These people bring us some excellent 
 melons and boiled fish, this meal having been prepared for us in 
 a huiTy. When we eat, the crowd kneel down and watch us with 
 almost reverent interest. They exchange remarks in a low tone, 
 and appear very pleased to see us, but one of them remarks : 
 "Had you been Chinese, we should have made off." After 
 making a few presents, we encamped some distance further on, 
 on high ground, which is rather dryer. 
 - October 18. — We traverse Oulong-Koid, the chief of which, a 
 
OVLONG-KOTIL. 65 
 
 Kirghiz by descent, accords us a hearty reception in his house 
 made of withes plastered with mud. He has some furniture in 
 this house, including an X in wood upon which the Koran is 
 placed, a mat which he unrolls, and which serves both as cloth 
 and table, cushions made out of real silk taken from the stem of 
 the tchiga (asclepias), and bags made of a sort of wild hemp which 
 is very abundant in this region. He drinks his tea out of Kash- 
 gar cups, and he has several wives, being altogether an impor. 
 tant personage. Although we declined his proffered sheep, we 
 offer him in return a present, as it is always well to encourage 
 generous intentions when one is traveling. 
 
 We were able to observe here the action of the wind upon the 
 sands of the Tarim : they are being slowly driven toward the 
 northwest, for the prevailing wind is the southeast, though a 
 wind from the southwest is said to blow occasionally. The ao-ed 
 chief who gives us this information tells us that they pay a tax 
 every year to the Chinese ; he acting as intermediary between the 
 people and the chief at Kourla. The impost is levied upon the 
 crops and the stock, a tenth of the former and a fortieth part of 
 the latter. 
 
 October 19. — The route does not vary. Whenever we quit 
 the banks of the river we return to the desert, through planta- 
 tations where the tougrak trees, exuding their sap, which the 
 natives employ as soap, lift their contorted heads, and past 
 undulating sandhills driven along by the wind, but at so slow a 
 pace that the natives do not notice their advance until after many 
 years. The incidents of the route are the occasional securing of 
 a bird or a mammifer, which goes to enrich our collection. Game 
 is fairly abundant. First it is an antelope which springs up 
 within shot, and is bagged, while our Qnenu is varied by a hare or 
 by some Mongolian pheasants. Then we see a wolf, at first 
 mistaken for a dog, stealing through the rushes, or the fresh 
 trace of a tiger, which makes us take extra precautions at night. 
 We come across European birds, too, such as fieldfares and larks, 
 while there is no lack of waterfowl. We have excellent camping- 
 
66 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 ground, thougli the water is often Imd, and not a day passes that 
 it does not make some of onr men ill. They are forbidden to 
 drink water on the road, unless it is running, and even in that 
 case it is necessary to be very careful, for there are rapid flowing 
 rivers which are more or less poisoned by the vegetable matter 
 in their beds, and by other plants which, growing on the banks, 
 die and fall in, undergoing decomposition, and sowing the genns 
 of disease. 
 
 October 20. — A strong wind from the southwest brings a 
 little snow by way of warning that winter is at hand, and as we 
 sit round the fires at night the conversation turns upon the lofty 
 plateaux. Our interpreter, in his vanity, exaggerates the difficul- 
 ties of the route, for, as he is the only person who has gone 
 through a winter in these regions, he regards himself as a being 
 of some special essence. In the village of Tchigali we halt in 
 the hut of the chief. This villag-e received its name from the 
 abundance of the tchiga (asclepias), which the natives found 
 when they settled there. Wherever we go we encounter this 
 plant, as well as the poplai', the tamarisk, and the Jujube tree, 
 and it gives a special character to the valley of the Tarim. 
 
 October 21. — Before entering the desert, which has to be 
 crossed to get to Airiligane, we go through regular fields of 
 tchiga. Of this the natives weave garments, the work being 
 always executed by women. The grains of the " silk plant," as 
 the asclepias of Europe is called, are surmounted by a silky 
 substance as soft to the touch as the finest velvet. Cushions ai'e 
 made of it, and it also makes a very soft bed for children, and 
 when the dark and hard pod which contains the grain is pressed, 
 these emerge all at once in the shape of a bouquet of great deli- 
 cacy, as by a magician's wand. 
 
 October 22. — The event of to-day is the visit of a chief who 
 offers us presents, consisting of melons, fish, onions, and carrots. 
 The carrots excite general enthusiasm, it being a long time since 
 we had seen any of these excellent vegetables. 
 
 October 23. — We are still in the desert, and can see the Tarim 
 
ABKAN. 67 
 
 flowing lazily along its banks, all white witli salt. We kill an 
 enormous wild boar and some gazelles. The day is a magnif- 
 icent one, after a minimum of 16° of frost at night, whereas 
 during the day the temperature rises to 83° in the shade. The 
 sky is overcast, and with the aspect of autumn we have the 
 warmth of spring. 
 
 October 24. — Once more w^e are on the banks of one of the 
 branches of the Tarim, and have no difficulty in constructiug 
 two rafts, one with a treble row of trunks of trees, the other 
 with canoes brought us by the natives, who are more wretched- 
 looking than those who live higher up the river, more suspicious, 
 and more savage. They are amused and alarmed at a mere 
 nothing, and even our camels inspne them with such terror 
 that they will not go near them. 
 
 The men of Arkan (this being the name of the place) are 
 poor ^^Tetches all in rags, dressed in pieces of coarse cloth, and 
 fi'agments of a wadded coat, having on their feet abascas, boots 
 without any heels, or strips of stuff wound round their legs. 
 They are of a very marked type, being small, dark, very agile, 
 shomng little muscle, with skinny legs, and the calf high up 
 toward the knee. They have broad faces, salient cheek-bones, 
 and small round eyes of a dark color, while one is struck by the 
 long nose, coming down to a chin ending in a very scanty beard. 
 Then cheeks are hollowed as if by hunger, and their mouths are 
 very large, with the corners puckered down, and with thick over- 
 lapping lips. Their necks are long and thin like those of the 
 cormorants, which they resemble in the sense that they are 
 in search of food from the hour of their bii^th. Their teeth, 
 as a rule, are yellow, decayed, short, and worn sideways from 
 gnawing at dried meat and munching grain. They are much 
 amused at seeing us sneeze when we take some yellow snuff 
 which they are constantly thrusting up their nostrils. 
 
 Savage and devoid of intelligence as they look, they have their 
 code of honor. The Doungane camel-driver abuses them because 
 they have pushed one of the camels into the water by theii' 
 
68 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 awkward movements, so tliey steer clear of him, heap curses on 
 his head, and intimate their intention of going away. They mil 
 not do anything for him, and we are compelled to intervene and 
 explain that he is only hii'ed by us, and that in reality it is for 
 us that they are working. So they set to work again, but only 
 on condition that the Doungane keeps away from them. 
 
 It so happens that this morning, by way of punishing them for 
 some careless act, Parpa had taken a stick and beaten some of 
 them, whereupon, instead of being angry, they had offered ex- 
 cuses and had promised to behave better. I asked one of their 
 graybeards the meaning of this. 
 
 " Why do you say nothing to Parpa and get angry with the 
 Doungane ? " 
 
 " Parpa is a Mussulman, a sunni, like ourselves." 
 
 " But the Doungane is a sunni too." 
 
 " We do not believe it, for he wears a pigtail like a Chinese ; 
 he speaks their language, and knows nothing of ours, except 
 insults. Whereas Parpa is one of our acquaintances, he speaks 
 our language and does not insult our mothers or the tombs of our 
 fathers. He beat the men who made such a stupid blunder, and 
 he was quite right. He is not a Chinese with hair falling down 
 his back, and, besides, blows are not like the w^ords which pro- 
 ceed from an evil heart." 
 
 As a matter of fact, the stick is used for chastisement in these 
 Eastern countries, and there is nothing ignominious in the 
 injuries which it inflicts. Insults, on the other hand — and I mean 
 thereby the curses upon relatives, ancestors, and tombs, uttered 
 with the object of dishonoring the person at whom they are 
 leveled — are rarely forgiven. 
 
 Octoher 26. — Having got the whole of the caravan across, we 
 encamp to-day in a wood at Talkitchin, a name ^vhich signifies 
 " the small poplai' " in the dialect of the coimtry. The scenery 
 is much the same, and directly one leaves the banks of the river 
 one is in the desei't ^vith the tamarisk tree, the tchiga, and tufts 
 of reeds growling in its salt soil. 
 
BOUOON BACHI. 69 
 
 As I Avalk throngli the wood I observe that if it lias been 
 able to resist the desert it lias not escaped the effects of time, 
 for the leaves have been stripped from the trees earlier than 
 they would have been if there had been much vigor in them, 
 and the branches of the poplars are much twisted and bent. 
 The trunks are either split or are devoid of bark, the ground 
 is strewed with dead branches, and the roots, laid bare to the 
 air, seem to have no hold in the ground. Seen from a distant 
 elevation, these trees present the forlorn aspect of an abandoned 
 vineyard, and the meager trunks, devoid of a single branch, rear 
 their heads like the poles in a hop field which has beeu allowed 
 to go out of cultivation. The effect of all I see around me is to 
 depress the imagination, the sand being so slippery that the 
 footprints made in it are effaced in a moment ; there is no sign 
 of life, and the pale sun goes down in a gray sky which it 
 scarcely tinges with gold, while the silence is so complete that 
 one can almost hear one's arteries beating. 
 
 The old Kirghiz Imatch indulges in some very comical reflec- 
 tions about the camels, of which he is very fond, as, indeed, 
 he is of all animals, taking care that the horses and dogs are not 
 left without food. His only failing is that he has a very coarse 
 tongue, and a boundless store of rich invective. He points out 
 to me that the kouirouk (tail) of the sheep is not so thick as in 
 the Hi, this being a proof that the pasturage is poor. There 
 is nothing better than the fat of the sheep's tail. 
 
 October 27. — After a march through the sand, we encamp a 
 little way beyond the ruined fortress constructed by Yakoob- 
 Beg, and the four walls, still standing, serve as a refuge in bad 
 weather. The spot where we encamp is called Bougon-Bachi, 
 Bougon being the name given to the stags, ^vhich are pretty 
 numerous in this country, while " Bachi " means head, the Tarim 
 making a sharp bend, w^hich is very like the head of a stag 
 surmounted by his two horns. 
 
 Octoher 28. — We direct our steps southward, delighted at 
 the thought of entering the region of Lob. As we advance the 
 
70 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 aspect of tlie country changes, tlie vegetation becoming rarer, 
 while the trees have disappeared ; the shrul^s and plants are 
 scantier, the hillocks further apart, and are frequently separated 
 by the smooth surface of the takirs. There are traces of evapo- 
 ration everywhere. 
 
 We take a south-south-westerly direction, ^vith the Avind at 
 our backs. Quitting the banks of" the Tarim for good, the desert 
 becomes more and more in keeping with its name. All of a 
 sudden we can see the glistening of water, a large sheet of which 
 extends to our left, forming numerous creeks. Overhead thou- 
 sands of birds are flying in clouds, while others allow themselves 
 to be carried along the surface of the water by the wind, but at 
 a considerable distance from the low banks, which are bare, 
 coated with salt, and devoid of the thick belt of reeds which is 
 to be found on most lakes. Further on is another sheet of water, 
 and when we ascend a hillock we can distinguish an endless chain 
 of them, with their sandhills, salt-coated shores, and water- 
 fowl. 
 
 One of the guides says this region is the Lob, another that it 
 is Kara-Bourane ; but in reality it is called the " Black Tempest,'' 
 to the extreme west of the Lob. 
 
 The stream whiclf runs in a current through this stagnant 
 water is the Tcherchene-Darya, which comes down from the high 
 table-lands to the north. It is not so broad as the Tarim, and a 
 very modest-sized bridge enables us to cross it, and to encamp 
 in the island formed by it, the grass being good for the horses 
 and camels. 
 
 The village of Lob is not far off, and the inhabitants come to 
 pay us a visit. These starved and feeble-looking people offer us 
 for sale smoked fish and duck, which they have snai*ed, and a few 
 presents soon make them friendly. They tell us that Petzoff, the 
 Russian traveler, is expected shortly, and the Chinese have 
 spread the report that smallpox is raging in the region of the 
 Tchei'chene, so that the inhabitants of Tchai'kalik have made up 
 their minds to take flight before the Russians arrive. In this 
 
TCHABKALIK. 
 
 71 
 
 country smallpox terrifies tlie population, causing tliem to dis- 
 perse in all directions, and even to abandon tlie sick. 
 
 October 29. — After having slowly steered our way tlirougli 
 tlie marslies we again see the bare plain in the desert. To the 
 
 ^*>\*v 
 
 
 \1 
 
 A NATIVE OF LOB. 
 
 south we can distinguish a tall peak rising out of the mist, like 
 an island in the sky, and the guide, pointing to it with his whip, 
 says, " Altin Tagh, the mountain of gold." It is the first of the 
 
72 AGJiOSS THIBET. 
 
 mountain walls wliicli bar access to the liigli table-lands ; and as 
 we are looking at it it vanishes like a dream. 
 
 We trot along a narrow, rough path, hewn, so to speak, out of 
 the soil, wherein the feet of men and beasts have Avorked a series 
 of holes some distance apart. The path gets smoother, and at 
 last we enter a tamarisk wood, while the poplars are still green 
 and the air warm as in spring when we enter the oasis of 
 Tcharkalik. Here there is abundance of irrigation, and the fields 
 are well cultivated. There are peach and apricot trees, and even 
 vines Avith hedgerows inclosing the fields, and the presence of 
 huts and cottages reminds one a little of the gardens outside 
 large cities like Marseilles. 
 
 We are very Avell received by the elders of the village of Tchar- 
 kalik, who bring us a profusion of melons, peaches, and grapes, 
 and have some cakes of new bread baked for us ; and in our 
 delight at having reached the end of our second main stage we 
 sacrifice a whole hecatomb of these good things. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AlSr EXCUESION TO LOB WOE. 
 
 (by prince HBNET op ORLEANS.) 
 
 A Region of Salt — On the Tarim Again — Abdnllali : the Place and the Man — Residence 
 of the Chief — His Family — ^Wild Camels — Lost in the Darkness — More About Wild 
 Camels — Waterfowl — An Exchange — Disappearance of a Lake — Down the Tarim in 
 Canoes — Youtchap Khan — Another Native Type — Kamchap Khan — Straddling a 
 River at Its Mouth — At Eutin — Ichthyophagists — A Native Legend — Probable Causes 
 of the Drying up of the Lake — Native Customs — Another Abdullah — Festivities — 
 Back to the First Abdullah— Tchai — A Couple of Good Shots — A Moonlight March — 
 Tcharkalik Once More. 
 
 We had already been four days at Tcharkalik, and were not 
 nearly ready to start, having to engage men of the district in 
 place of our Russians who were returning home, to get in pro- 
 visions for the winter, to mend clothes, and to make covering for 
 protecting the feet from the cold. All this takes time, and as 
 Bonvalot had promised to see after this. Father Dedeken and 
 myself, who could be of no service at Tcharkalik, availed our- 
 selves of the compulsory halt of the caravan to explore the Lob 
 Nor, starting on the 3d of November. 
 
 Our horses had already traveled more than 600 miles since we 
 left Djarkent, and as we have still to tax their powers a great 
 deal, we left them to rest at Tcharkalik. Riding some animals 
 which we hired there, thick-set ponies, with deep chests, short 
 and heavy necks, and small heads, and that seemed able to stand 
 plenty of work, we found it as much as we could do to hold 
 them at the start. Abdullah, who takes the attention which 
 these stallion ponies bestow on the mare he is riding as meant 
 for himself, casts a patronizing look at the natives who have 
 come to see us off. He is in his element going to the Lob Nor, 
 and thinks that he will be able to do as he likes with us, and 
 keep us well away from the villages, while he remaius thei'e 
 
 73 
 
74 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 eating, smoking, and flirting with, tlie young ladies of tlie place. 
 A smile of self-satisfaction plays over his face as he abandons 
 himself to his reveries. In front of him Father Dedeken and 
 Barachdin, both keen for the chase, are discounting their coming 
 triumphs, while behind them Couzuinetzoif, bent double, has as 
 much as he can do to keep his i^ony in order, and, when he can 
 find a quiet moment, wipes his spectacles, and hopes that we 
 shall not kill too many birds foi' him to stuff. 
 
 A little way behind us come half a dozen small donkeys, 
 accompanied by two Mussulmans from Tcharkalik, and carrying 
 some provisions and our beds, which consist of a piece of felt 
 and a coverlet. Abdullah declares that we shall find very good 
 houses, and that it is useless to encumber ourselves with a tent. 
 We have also two small barrels of water and a little dry wood. 
 
 When we left the encampment at 9 a. m. the weather was cold, 
 but there was no wind or cloud. Still the sky was overcast, 
 having that iron-gray tint which I have often noticed on the 
 Terai in Nepaul, and which is caused by a mist intercepting a 
 portion of the light. 
 
 M. Bonvalot came a little waj' with us through the oasis of 
 Tcharkalik, as far as the limit of the desert. The arrangement 
 was that if we found tlie shooting in the Lob Nor anything out 
 of the common we were to let him knoAv and he -would join us. 
 If not, we were to rejoin him in a]:>out a week. 
 
 As far as a small hillock Avhere we took tea when coming 
 from Lob, the road is the one over which we have already 
 traveled, and we then turn to the right, that is, to the northeast. 
 All day we go through the desert, mth nothing but sand in 
 ^dew, in some places level and smooth as a carpet, in others 
 wrinkled and raised into rido-es which are close too:ether like so 
 many petrified waves. Sometimes, too, we notice small cavities 
 in the soil, which are half full of saline crystallizations. These 
 are geodes forming under our very eyes, and it is })robably to all 
 this salt that are due the mirages ^^'hich are constantly tantalizing 
 Tis in this arid region, where the passage of the caravans has 
 
EMIGRANTS FROM THE LOB NOR. 75 
 
 -traced a rougli sort of road whidi lias l^een hardened by the 
 drought, and which winds along in the distance like a furrow 
 traced by the hand of man. One might imagine one's self to be 
 transported into the scenery of the moon, and we really begin to 
 forget where we are. Our march soon becomes horribly monot- 
 onous, and we cease singing and even talking, the solitude being 
 quite contagious, and the general silence is only broken by the 
 footfall of the horses when they are crossing dried-up ponds and 
 their hoofs break through the crust. We are only aroused from 
 our reveries by meeting with a caravan, and when we shake oft' 
 our torpor we have the same feeling of returning to the reality 
 which is experienced by the sleeper who wakes up with a 
 start. 
 
 From time to time we pass emigrants from the Lob Nor who 
 are going to spend the winter at Tcharkalik, Avith their luggage, 
 their dwellings, and their furniture loaded on the backs of a few 
 donkeys, and of their wives. In the midst of one of these con- 
 voys I am particularly struck by one family. The woman has a 
 piece of felt on her back, with a gun slung across her shoulders, 
 and she is driving the donkey along with a stick, while the hus- 
 band follows quietly nursing a child in his arms. He does not 
 seem to be the least astonished at meeting us, and continues his 
 journey without even looking round; he would not be a whit 
 more surprised if death were to overtake him, for he is a Mussul- 
 man and knows that " it is written." 
 
 Despite the sameness of the route, time passes quickly, and 
 we have to think about encamping. We calculate that we 
 have come about twenty-five miles, and though we are still in the 
 midst of the desert our guides are not in the least at a loss to 
 fasten up our horses, after having unloaded them. They make 
 small holes in the ground and put the halters into them, then 
 filling these holes up with sand and treading them down. This 
 mode of fastening horses offers much more resistance than one 
 might be inclined to think. Having spread out our pieces of 
 ielt, we light the dry wood we have brought with us, and our 
 
76 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 frugal meal of caverclak,* washed clown with, tea, is soon over. 
 It is not long before we roll ourselves up in our rugs, and with 
 the desert for a mattress, the sky for a ceiling, and the moon foi- 
 a night-light, we ask for nothing better, especially as we are vei-}' 
 sleepy. 
 
 Novemher 4. — We are awoke at break of day by a deep mui'- 
 mur over our heads. It is a rhythmical sound, similar to that pro- 
 duced by the paddles of a steamer as they strike the water, and 
 it is produced b}^ flocks of birds which are flying southward. 
 The season is advancing, and it is time for them to get away 
 from the cold. 
 
 And very cold it is, the thei'mometer marking only five degrees 
 above zero, and, being anxious to start so as to re-establish oui* 
 circulation, we do not lose much time in folding up our beds, 
 preparing our tea, and loading our donkeys. Some Avild geese 
 that had got left behind are standing in long rows upon the sand, 
 and seen from the distance they look gigantic, and give the idea 
 of troops drawn up in battle array. We, no doubt, present a still 
 more formidable appearance to them, for as soon as they catch 
 sight of us they utter the most discordant cries and fly away, 
 forming in the air immense triangles wdth the apex in front. 
 
 The sun bursts out, at last, and though rather behind time he 
 makes up for this by presenting a quite unlooked-for spectacle. 
 The ground is covered with the seeds of reed grass carried hither 
 by the wdnd, and this seed, white and silky, sparkles like an infiji- 
 ity of small stars in the horizontal rays. It seems as if the desert 
 was ashamed of its horrible nudity, and that, in order to con- 
 ceal it from our sight, it had borrowed from the star of day its 
 rarest jewels and its most dazzling stones. Besides the brilliant 
 diamonds, large round sapphires of a deep and splendid blue are 
 represented by small circular pools, which owe their somber tints- 
 to the saltness of the water. These pools of water indicate the 
 vicinity of a river, and it is not long before ^ve regain the course 
 of the Tarim, which is fifty feet broad, A\ith a limpid l3ut shal- 
 
 * Caverdak is meat cut up into very small pieces and fried in the pan. 
 
VILLAGE OF ABDULLAH. 11 
 
 low current, flowing slowly between two sandy banks, wMcli are 
 covered in places with reeds. 
 
 Its course will guide us in future along our route, for we follow 
 it pretty closely, putting to flight now and again herds of gazelles 
 ivhich have come to drink of its waters, but they are very wild, 
 and we do not succeed in bringing any down. 
 
 But the sun is rapidly sinking beneath the horizon, and we 
 see no trace of dwellings. The thirty versts, which, as the guide 
 told us this morning, separated us from the village of Abdullah, 
 seem to us very long ones ; we have covered, indeed, quite double 
 the distance, and it is night when we reach four or five wretched 
 reed hovels. Can this be the village of Abdullah ? Where are 
 the houses built of stone, or, at all events, of earth, which he told 
 us about ? Where, too, are the trees, the wood of which was to 
 have given us warmth ? and why should he have dissuaded us 
 from bringing our tents ? 
 
 These are c|uestions which we should have liked to put to 
 Abdullah, but it is cold and late, and all that we can do is to 
 content ourselves with what we have got, and settle ourselves 
 as comfortably as possible, taking care to be on our guard in 
 future against the information supplied by our interpreter. 
 While our people are unloading the horses and donkeys, 
 the natives emerge from their miserable hovels, and with 
 many "salaams" and "alcons" beg us to accept their hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 We enter one of these huts, the earthen floor of which is 
 covered in places with old bits of felt, while in the center a 
 cavity surrounded by flat stones serves as a fireplace. In the 
 corner are sacks of corn and an old cartridge box, the latter be- 
 ing a souvenir of Prjevalsky's visit. This is all the furniture, 
 and on the walls, constructed of reeds, are hung long guns with 
 powder flasks, so the inmates are evidently given to shooting. 
 The ceiling is made out of the branches of trees brought from 
 Tcharkalik, the interstices being filled uj^ with osiers, and a 
 space is often left over the hearth to let the smoke escape. Bits 
 
78 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 of cloth are stretclied from one beam to another to prevent the- 
 droppings from the swallows' nests from falling on to the ground. 
 These ])irds are held in great respect. 
 
 This is the residence of a chief, and having inspected the 
 house I proceed to examine the figures of oui' hosts, lighted up 
 by the fire made of the reeds and dry brushwood. In the fore- 
 ground, close to the hearth, crouches a little old man, very bent 
 and wrinkled. He resembles some of the Tarautchis that we 
 saw at Kourla. With a more or less automatic motion of his 
 lower jaw", he raises his white beard to the level of his hooked 
 nose, this movement being all the easier because he has no teeth. 
 This is Abdu Keremata, who might be any age between 95 and 
 105, and as he is the chief of the family, the haha, he is, as such, 
 held in great respect. 
 
 Around him ai'e his sons, the youngest of whom is at least 
 forty. They are all devoted to the chase — tall men, clad in 
 sheepskins tied round the waist with a belt, with a fm* cap on 
 their head, and wearing sandals made of the skin of donkeys or 
 wild camels. Their features show that they are not of pure 
 blood, the forehead being narrow and the eyes more or less 
 elongated, but not raised at the corners, as is the case with the 
 yellow race. As a rmle, they scarcely open their eyelids ; the 
 nose is large, and, usually, rather hooked, the lips thick and in- 
 clined to turn up, and the haii' coarse and scanty. Such are 
 their general characteristics, to which I may add one peculiarity 
 which I noticed everywhere in the Lob Nor. The people get 
 wrinkled from their early youth, and their faces show signs of 
 this all over — on the forehead, round the eyes, under the cheeks, 
 and at the corners of the mouth — this producing an air of pre- 
 mature age and of grimacing which makes men, ^vho are, taking 
 them altogether, rather handsome, appear very ugly. The 
 family of Abdu Keremata invite us to come round the fii'e ; the}' 
 pour us out tea and luring us the best bits of mutton — that is, 
 the breast and the loin. Om* hosts keep complete silence, only 
 a word here and there being exchanged in an undertone while 
 
RESIDENCE OF A CHIEF. 
 
 79 
 
 we are eating. In the next room women are rocking cradles to 
 a tune whidi produces tlie dull sound of a pestle being worked 
 in a mortar, while at a respectful distance from the hearth 
 children nearly naked look from us to their fathers, and keep 
 quite silent out of timidity. 
 
 " Allah-Akbar ! " exclaims Abdullah, passing his hands through 
 his beard, while the guests express their satisfaction by some 
 
 »\^Vi 
 
 Juf 
 
 
 VILLAGE OF ABDULLAH. 
 
 incongruous sounds. The meal being finished, it is time to talk, 
 and there is a piece of good news for us, for some animals have 
 just been eaten by a tiger, so perhaps we may have a chance 
 of tracking him. 
 
 With regard to the wild camels, our hosts have killed four in 
 the last two years, but they have cut up their skins. In telling 
 us this, they guess that we should want them whole, with the 
 head and the feet. The only Europeans who have come here 
 before wanted them like this, so they suppose that '' the people 
 
80 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 of the West attacli great importance to these skins; perhaps 
 they extract valuable remedies from them." 
 
 Whatever may be their object, travelers never come to the 
 Lob Nor without inquiring about the wild camels. One of the 
 men present provided Prjevalsky with some. The tariff has 
 always been sixty rubles and an article of European manu- 
 facture for a complete skin. But we spoil the market at the 
 risk of incurring the displeasure of those who come after us. 
 We are pressed for time, the wild camels are only to be found 
 some way to the east, and a fortnight is soon gone ; so we 
 promise seventy rubles for each skin, and promise the men a 
 gratuity even if they do not kill any. Abdullah goes bail for 
 us, and in doing so incurs little risk, as he does not intend to 
 return to the Lob Nor sooner than he can help. 
 
 November 5. — A¥e are in the saddle before sunrise, following 
 for another four miles the Tarim, which runs between high 
 banks, and haltino; ao;ain at a fresh villas^e with five or six reed 
 huts similar to the one we have just left. This, again, is an 
 Abdullah, and all that it has more than the first is a pole, to 
 which we fasten our horses, on the "public square." Hospi- 
 tality is offered us by a native about forty years old, with a 
 straight, big nose, thiek but not protruding lips, and a very 
 wrinkled skin. He has a very genial face, and breathes an aii' 
 of jollity which is quite communicative. This is Kunchi Kan 
 Bey, whose portrait has already been dra^^ii by Prjevalsky, who 
 was his guest for more than a month. Like Abdu Keremata, 
 he is the head of a family of hunters, and he promises to do 
 what he can to procure us the skin of a wild camel ; and when 
 he hears our proposals he induces five of his men to get ready 
 for a start into the desert. Other natives are lono:ino; to o-et on 
 to the track of the tiger referred to above. 
 
 While Abdullah was interpreting our promises, garnished with 
 some of his own inventions. Father Dedeken went up to two 
 Mongolian yourtes (tents), close to which five camels were 
 picketed. These tents were inhabited by five very dirty lamas, 
 
LOST IN THE DARKNESS. 81 
 
 wlio were preceding tlie Khan of the Kalmucks on his return 
 from Lhassa. As we know that they have just traversed the 
 highlands of Thibet, upon which we are about to enter, they 
 may perhaps be able to give us some useful information. Father 
 Dedeken accordingly calls out to them in Chinese, " Amour sen. 
 Amour sen bene."^* Come and take tea with us." They under- 
 stand perfectly what is said to them, and accept the invitation 
 with pleasure. The pleasure, however, is scarcely reciprocal, for 
 they smell atrociously. Nor do they seem to understand this, as, 
 the more I sheer oft' from them, the closer they come up to me. 
 We feel that it will not do to be too particular, but we are 
 poorly rewarded for our courage, as, while they drink our tea 
 very readily, they will not tell us anything worth knowing, doing 
 all they can do to deter us from going on. 
 
 The rest of the day is employed in shooting in the vicinity. 
 The waterfowl are pretty numerous, and they keep to small 
 pools, which, as a rule, are circular, and are surrounded by a belt 
 of reeds fifteen or twenty feet high, forming a regular forest ; the 
 ground is marshy, covered in some places with rushes, which 
 make the walking very bad. When one has got through these 
 on to the bank, it is easy to have a double shot, but the birds all 
 get up, and it is necessary to walk round the pond and go to the 
 other side, or else pass on to the next. This is very fatiguing work, 
 and so we soon return, after having seen a great deal of game 
 but no great variety of species. This is not the time of year 
 when there is a great passage of birds, and, as we have not 
 enough cartridges to amuse ourselves by making a big bag, we 
 must only kill what we require for our collections or for food. 
 
 On returning to Abdullah, I utilized the few remaining hours 
 of daylight to get on my pony and ride back over yesterday's 
 route, in the hope of seeing some more gazelles. I did not see a 
 single one, but I was so absorbed in looking about for them that 
 I let night overtake me. In these regions it comes all of a sud- 
 den, without any twilight. With a carelessness without excuse 
 
 * " Good health," in Mongolian. 
 
82 AGEOSS THIBET. 
 
 in such a case, I had forgotten my compass. Only one resoui'ce 
 was left to me. and that answered. I let the reins drop on my 
 horse's neck, and he, after sniffing for a moment, set oft' without 
 hesitation at a slow trot, and took me straight to the village, which 
 I could not distinguish until I was within a hundred yards of it. 
 This nocturnal ride gave me an appetite, and I did justice to 
 the meal which Kunchi Kan Bey and his sons shared with us, 
 for our host had offered us a sheep, a Tcharktilik melon, and ten 
 small sandwiches similar to those made in Russia, and called 
 pirochki. The secret of making them was taught his wife by a 
 Russian Cossack, and, whatever may have been the motive which 
 actuated him, we bless this unknown philanthropist and quaft' a 
 cup of tea to his health. During our dinner, a woman prepares 
 in the same room a dish of Chinese macaroni. She is not good- 
 looking, being of the same type as the men, but her headdi^ess 
 gives her a more civilized air, while, after the fashion of the 
 Russian peasants, she covers with a ficliu, tied under the chin, her 
 coarse, black hair. One mio:ht imao;ine that she was conscious of 
 her ugliness, for she talked very little and did not take her food 
 at the same time as the men, who have not the slightest notion of 
 gallantry. The children are prettiei' than theii* mother, not being 
 yet wrinkled, and there are some fine types among them ; they 
 are all nearly naked, and seem to be in excellent health. After 
 they have had a good look at us, they withdraw into an adjoining 
 room, followed by the women, who leave us alone with their 
 husbands. The latter, having made a hearty meal, are in a good 
 humor and ready to reply to the questions we put to them con- 
 cerning their mode of life, their habits, and their pursuit of game. 
 Wild camel, we are told, begin to be found six days to the north 
 of Abdullah. In the summer they go up into the mountains, 
 but they always return to the same spots, there being certain 
 cantonments to which they are accustomed. They go about in 
 troops, one male to fifteen or sixteen females, but it is only after 
 terrific combats that the former becomes the undisputed lord of 
 his harem. The females have two young in three years, and the 
 
,11, "'1,1,, 'w^' Ai^r ,; ;ii»g%»c^ 
 
 AVOMEN OF ABDULLAH AND NATIVES OF THE LUP. XOK. 
 
WILD CAMELS. 85 
 
 male ]3rotects tliem until they are old enoiigli to do without their 
 mother's milk. It is very fatiguing and difficult to get near 
 them, the only way for the hunter being to hide near the pond on 
 the brink of which he has found their traces. He must be a very 
 good shot, for having only a single-barreled gun he cannot get 
 a second shot, and if the camel is only wounded it will make off 
 with its companions and he mil never get near it again. The 
 best season for this sport is the winter, for the water is nearly 
 everywhere frozen over, so that the places where the camels 
 come to drink are very few, and you are pretty sure of finding them. 
 
 As to whether these camels have always been wild or are 
 descended from domesticated ones, our hosts assured us that they 
 had always been wild. " Our forefathers and tradition," they 
 said, "represent them as being so. Moreover, a domesticated 
 camel cannot do without man, but comes after him. Every do- 
 mestic animal has a wild antecedent, but only in some secluded 
 spot. The camel must have one like other animals.* 
 
 "When the chase has been successful it is very profitable, as 
 the camel's skin is in great demand for boots, while the hair of 
 the younger animals is fine and silky, that of the older camels 
 being close, and making very good cloth. But only rich people 
 like Kunchi Khan can organize these expeditions, as it is neces- 
 sary to send several men on in advance, forward provisions, 
 furnish animals for transporting them which sometimes die, and 
 altoo;ether considerable risk has to be incurred." 
 
 It is much easier and less dangerous to capture the waterfowl. 
 Snares are set among the reeds, and during the season a single 
 native in the course of a single night will take as many as fifteen 
 
 * The reader is probably aware that the wild camel is spoken of as far back as the 
 fifteenth century in the deserts of Central Asia, and that the fact of its existence has 
 been confirmed in the last fifty years, but has also been definitely proved since Prjevalsky 
 brought back some skins of that animal, which is rather smaller than the domesticated 
 kind, with thinner limbs and no callosities at the knees. These characteristics are not 
 distinctive. The question as to whether the wild camel is the parent stock of the do- 
 mesticated one, or whether, upon the contrary, he descends from some tame camel, as 
 has happened in Spain, and more recently in Guyana, is not yet settled, nor is it likely to 
 be yet a while. 
 
86 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 ducks. ^' The swans are more profitable than the ducks, coverlets 
 and even clothing being made with their down. They are taken 
 with snares, while in the winter they are decoyed by means of 
 fish. 
 
 The chase and fishing form the staple industry of the inhabi- 
 tants of Abdullah. They use nets similar to seines, and when 
 the fish have been caught they are split in two, cleaned out, and 
 then dried for use in winter. There are three varieties of fish, 
 the most abundant of which has a thin and yellow skin like 
 that of the tench, with a round mouth set off by appendages 
 on each side. They are rarely more than twenty-two inches 
 long. 
 
 The natives of Abdallah also eke out their livelihood by the 
 rearing of stock, which they possess in large numbers. They do 
 not till the ground, but they own some fields at Tcharkalik, 
 which workmen cultivate for them, and they pay them in kind 
 Avith a part of the crop and a few sheep. Altogether, the people 
 of Abdullah are regarded as rich, and they are under the imme- 
 diate protection of the Chinese — that is to say, the authorities of 
 Turf an, to which they are attached, levy on them a tax which is 
 e(]^uivalent to one ruble per horse, forty copecks per cow or ox, 
 two rubles per hundred sheep, and nine skins of seals for the 
 headdress of the mandarins. In return for this, the Celestial 
 Empire declares them to be its well-beloved children. But 
 although they are Chinese subjects they have not the character- 
 istics of their masters, being less proud and more simple than the 
 sons of Heaven. Befoi'e quitting us for the night, they show 
 
 * The swallows arrive at Abdiillali in April, and leave again in September. A 
 species of red duck, called here Turfau (in Chinese, Olioumi cMzen, red beak), arrives in 
 large numbers in February, and leaves in July. The geese arrive from the 20th to 38th 
 February, remaining till the middle of March, and then going to Siberia. They return 
 from September to October, remaining a month, and then going southward. The swans 
 arrive from the south at the end of July, remain throughout September, and then return 
 south. They do not nest at the Lob Nor, because of the mosquitoes, according to the 
 natives. The other ducks arrive toward the end of .January, some remaining onlv ten 
 days, but those which stay longer build their nests, like the puffins, the gulls, the herons, 
 and other birds sedentary in the Lob Nor. 
 
DISAPPEARANCE OF A LAKE. 87 
 
 US in a very amusing way how preferable common sense is 
 to conceited knowledge. In this instance common sense is 
 represented by Kunchi Khan Bey, and instruction by Abdullah, 
 who is a savant by comparison, as he can speak four languages, 
 and has a great opinion of himself. The former shows a stereo- 
 scope and a musical box which Prjevalsky gave him. Abdullah 
 thinks that if he were to send these two articles back by the, 
 Russians to his family at Djarkent, he would dazzle his com- 
 patriots, and appear a great man in their eyes, while Kunchi 
 Khan Bey says to himself that if he had Abdullah's wadded 
 coverlet he should be very warm in the winter. The exchange 
 is accordingly made, each thinking that he has got the best of 
 the bargain. I know which of the two really has, and I shall 
 ask our " intelligent " interpreter, later on, if he thinks that 
 Kunchi Khan Bey is nice and warm. 
 
 November 6. — We are anxious to get away to the Lob Nor and 
 see the immense lake, the beginning of which we noticed near the 
 village of Lob, and the surface of which, according to Abdullah, 
 is dark with myriads of waterfowl. 
 
 " But," say the natives, " you are at the Lob Nor." 
 
 " What do you mean ? Where then is the great lake ? " 
 
 " There is no great lake." 
 
 " Then what becomes of the Tarim ? " 
 
 " It gradually dwindles away, and finally disappears." 
 
 " But Prjevalsky saw a lake which he compared to a small 
 sea. 
 
 " No doubt, but since the Russian general came here thirteen 
 years ago the water has run off, and the largest liquid surface is 
 that which yon saw near Lob. Besides, there are no longer any- 
 thing but small pools." 
 
 " Thank you. We are quite ready to believe you, but we 
 should like to see for ourselves what the state of things is, and we 
 jDropose to go down the Tarim a little way." 
 
 In order to carry out this project, all we have to do is to em- 
 bark, mth our beds and a few provisions, on two large canoes 
 
88 ACEOSS THIBET. 
 
 hewn out of tlie trunk of a tree. These canoes are about twenty 
 feet by three, and they hold four men, including two natives, one 
 in the bow and the other in the stern, who use theii' paddles 
 much after the fashion of the Venetian gondoliers. These boats 
 are light and not very steady, so the wary Abdullah suggests that 
 we should follow the example of Prjevalsky, and tie them t<j- 
 gether, but we did not follow his advice, time being short. The 
 weather is fine, we have a light westerly breeze in the poop, and 
 so we make rapid headway down stream, upon both banks of 
 which are low hillocks of sand, with a few stunted tamarisk trees 
 growing on them. The Tarim is from twenty-two to twenty-five 
 feet broad, dividing at places into two branches and forming an 
 eyot, upon one of which we halt for a little, and are overtaken 
 by boats that have come from Lob loaded with provisions for 
 the winter. 
 
 A few miles further on we come to Youtchap Khan, as four or 
 five reed huts erected under a sandy hillock are called, the village 
 having a small canal which was cut about fifteen years ago to let 
 off the overflow of water. 
 
 At Youtchap Khan we make a fresh halt, to oblige Abdullah, 
 who is not very fond of this sort of navigation, and the whole 
 population comes out* to have a look at us. The men are like 
 those at Abdullah, but the women are even uglier, having snub 
 noses, prominent cheek-bones, eyes almost on the level with the 
 face, and large mouths some distance from the extremity of the 
 nose, being altogether very much of the Mongolian type. Men 
 and women receive us in very friendly fashion, and allow us to 
 inspect their dwellings, and to photograph their implements, 
 which are simple and few in number. The guns are the same 
 as those we have seen before, Avith a single barrel, which is long, 
 and has an iron prong attached to it. Spending most of their 
 time in the chase, they breed a few sheep like the people at 
 Abdullah, and make use of their wool, which they comb out by 
 stretching it upon a rope fastened to a wooden handle, and mak- 
 ing the rope vibrate by means of a sort of mallet. When they 
 
KAMOIIAP KHAN. 89 
 
 have got tlie wool to the required degree of fineness they roll it 
 on to a spinning-wheel, formed by two parallel indentated wheels, 
 the points of which are fastened together with pieces of string. 
 Besides wool, they use for their clothing the bark of a variety of 
 wild hemp (tchiga), which they root up with a hoe made of a 
 triangular piece of iron, with a cane as the stick. They cut 
 their wood with a primitive sort of hatchet, which consists of a 
 fragment of iron fixed on to the extremity of a piece of bent 
 wood. The corn is ground between two flat stones, each fastened 
 in the middle to a piece of wood. They use pumpkins instead 
 of gourds, while the skins of antelopes, with the hair taken off, 
 dried and scraped, are cut into long strips for making fishing- 
 nets. Adding to these few articles of prime necessity a horse's 
 tail for driving away the flies, and a reed mat which answers the 
 purpose of a napkin, an exact idea may be formed of what is to 
 be found in their dwellings. 
 
 Keturning to our boats, we continue the descent of the Tarim, 
 the sandbanks of which continue as far as Kamchap Khan (" Dug 
 out from the Sand "), which is another collection of reed hovels. 
 The inhabitants seem even more woebegone than the people 
 already described, with nothing but a few pieces of ragged felt to 
 barely cover them, while their enormous sheepskin caps, the wool 
 of which is mixed up with their unkempt hair, make their phys- 
 iognomy seem all the more savage. Yet, beneath this repulsive 
 exterior, we find them very amiable and friendly. They are nine 
 families in all, with about sixty members, and we cannot refuse 
 their invitation to stay a few minutes and take a cup of tea. The 
 sides of the house we enter are covered with white patches pro- 
 duced by the damp, and as the interior is dirty we are not sorry 
 to be off. / 
 
 The Tarim divides into two arms beyond Kamchap Khan, 
 the greater part of the waters flowing to the left and forming 
 a large marsh, with islets of sand rising above the surface here 
 and there. At the rear of the village is a lake about 330 feet 
 long, but not more than a foot or two deep, while beyond that. 
 
00 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 are peat-bogs, salt-ponds, and strips of ground covered by a few- 
 stunted gorse-buslies and reed-beds. At Kamcliap Khan the 
 sand banks come to an end, and the right arm of the Tarim, 
 which continues to flow eastward, is only from seven to sixteen 
 feet broad, its banks being scarcely visible, while the immense 
 reeds which grow along them have their roots in the w^ater. The 
 stream, already so much shrunken, is still further diminished 
 by the number of small furrow^s cut on the right bank by the 
 natives to guard against certain inundations. The river bends 
 very much, and we have a difficidty in getting round some of the 
 bends, owing to the length of our canoes, but our boatmen have 
 made up their minds to the inevitable, and they accompany the 
 motion of their oars with a rhythmical song, ending with a sort 
 of sigh which Ave all repeat in chorus. Soon we are navigating 
 a stream al)out five feet wide ; and, at the risk of whetting my feet, 
 
 1 cannot resist the temptation of standing astride one of the 
 largest rivers of Central Asia at its mouth, and seeing it flow 
 between my legs. In front, behind, on each side and above us, 
 are nothing but bulrushes, with patches of sky on Avhich stars are 
 beginning to appear, for night is drawing on, and our men 
 advance but slowly, while our stomachs remind us that it is high 
 time to find a place o^ rest. 
 
 All of a sudden, as if by enchantment, at the bend of the 
 stream we come upon a little creek to the left, a clear space amid 
 the rushes, a mead coming down to the bank, and on the bank a 
 man ! I do not know" whether he or our party are the more sur- 
 prised. 
 
 On jumping ashore, my first impulse is to give him a coi'dial 
 shake of the liand, as a man represents to my mind inhabitants, 
 a village, fire, and dinner. But I cannot help being angiy wdth 
 our boatmen for having deceived us by saying that there was no 
 village beyond Kamchap Khan. 
 
 I tell Abdullah to ask where Ave are. 
 
 " At Eutin." 
 
 "Did the boatmen knoA\' of tliis A'illao:e?" 
 
ICHTHT0PHAGI8TS. 93 
 
 " Yes, they belong to it." 
 
 " Why did they not tell us of it ? " 
 
 " They were afraid that we should steal their wives." 
 
 "Reassure them, and say that we only ask them to give us 
 shelter, and that we do not mean them any harm." 
 
 Our men do as they are bid, and take us to the hamlet, the 
 name of which means "a place that has been burnt," for the 
 houses are built upon a small clearing made by a fire in the 
 midst of the reeds. There is a population of about fifty. Our 
 boatmen had been away for several days, so their aged fathers 
 greset them by kissing them on both cheeks ; while they, in their 
 turn, embrace their sons. We ingratiate ourselves with all the 
 inhabitants by buying one of the two village sheep which had 
 been fattened for the marriage of the chief's son, and as soon as 
 the animal has been killed and cut up it is cooked, we sharing 
 the meal with our hosts. This is a great treat for them, as they 
 rarely taste meat more than once a year; and, in addition to 
 being too poor to afford it, they say that it would be bad for 
 them to eat it frequently. Perhaps this is another case of 
 " grapes being sour," but, in any case, it is certain that, like 
 certain peoj^les of Arabia, they are ichthyophagists, though they 
 eat duck as well as fish. In theii^ view, as in that of the medi- 
 aeval monks, the flesh of ducks is not meat ; though the motive 
 for holding this view may not be the same. They also eat the 
 young sprouts of the reeds, and the roots of the wild hemp, 
 which they fry. I am delighted at their friendly feeling, and 
 take advantage of their loquacity and of Abdullah's good- 
 humor to pursue the investigation which I had begun at Ab- 
 dullah. We shall probably not go any farther on the Lob Nor, 
 or ever return there, so it would be a pity to lose the oppor- 
 tunity of getting information with regard to regions of which so 
 little is known. 
 
 Here, as in the other villages, we are seated in a circle round 
 the hearth, the fire being made of bundles of dried reeds. The 
 ends are lighted first, and the flame gradually consumes the 
 
94 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 stalks, a little girl pushing the bundle further in as it bums. 
 The flame is very vivid ; so as we get a better light than we should 
 from a lamp, and are well warmed into the bargain, we have 
 nothing to complain of. 
 
 The bulk of our conversation is mth an old woman, whose 
 skin is so wrinkled that it is scarcely possible to distinguish her 
 toothless mouth between her nose and her chin. According to 
 the custom of the country, her head is covered with a fichu ; her 
 hands are mere skin and bones, and on one of her fingers is a 
 ring with a small blue stone — a colored pebble, which has j)rob- 
 ably been palmed off upon her by a Chinaman. From the 
 frontiers of Siberia to Tonquin, and even beyond, it is safe to 
 say : " Wherever there is a robbery, a Chinaman is in it." The 
 old lady appears to be held in high esteem in her village, this 
 beino^ due to her a2:e and to her musical talents ; for whenever 
 the conversation flags she takes u]3 a two-stringed guitar and 
 sino-s long; leojends to a monotonous, but soft and harmonious 
 tune, relating the history of her ancestors, their origin, theii* 
 struggles, their flight, and their return. She sings in a nasal, 
 deliberate tone, in a Turkish dialect which Abdullah has a dif- 
 ficulty in following. But one of our boatmen, who knows the 
 Tcharkalik language, S^ssists him, and, with the help of Father 
 Dedeken and his Chinese, I succeed in noting down a good part 
 of the legend, as follows : 
 
 '' Once upon a time four kings ruled the country, which was 
 very prosperous ^vitli its Mussulman inhabitants. These kings 
 were : Attagout Aglia [Agha is a title], residing at Kargalik ;* 
 Nouniaz Agha, Mardjan Agha, both of whom resided at Gashar,f 
 and Cher Agha, at Mienchari, near Abdullah.;^ Then came the 
 Mongolians, who entered upon a struggle with them. They 
 massacred a portion of the male inhabitants, and as the others 
 did not choose to remain as slaves they fled, mth some of the 
 
 * Kargalik, now Tcharkalik. 
 
 f Three days' march from Tcharkalik, on the route to Kliotan. 
 
 X These rcsick'nces were towns, the ruins of which are still visible in the desert. 
 
A NATIVE LEGEND. 95' 
 
 women, and succeeded in escaping eastward three days' marcli 
 from Entin.* 
 
 " There was still water there then, though now there is only 
 saltpeter, but as the fugitives had no house they dug down into 
 the ground to make fire, vv^hence the name of the place, Kara- 
 houtchoun (black chimneys). There they began to feed only on 
 fish and ducks. 
 
 " They remained more than a century, but in the meanwhile 
 the Mongolians had gone away, after having destroyed every- 
 thing, and the exiles, driven from their new colony by the 
 drought, gradually returned to the west. 
 
 " Some went along the banks of the Tarim, between Kourla 
 and Lob. Others proceeded as far as the former site of Kar- 
 galik, the name of which they had forgotten. Seeing ruins, they 
 re-excavated them in search of treasure, but the Mongolians had 
 carried off everything, and the exiles found nothing but a spin- 
 ning whee'l. So they gave the name of Tcharkal, which means 
 spinning-wheel, to the town which they built. 
 
 "The chase and the rearing of stock sufiiced for their needs 
 until the arrival of an aged chief from Khotan, Ismail Ata,f who 
 offered to teach them tillage. His offer being accepted, he 
 brought several companions with him. And now differences 
 arose between the former owners of the soil and the Khotanese ; 
 and the latter have many sons, who take in marriage the daugh- 
 ters of the former. But our race has always remained intact, 
 and has not been subjected to any mixture of blood." % 
 
 She then abandons the domain of history for that of romance, 
 and her improvisations, which seem to captivate the attention of 
 her hearers, have less interest for us. I prefer learning all I can 
 about the Lob Nor, and question those next to me. 
 
 I am told that it was also by exiles on their return from 
 
 * Some went as far as the Tsaidam, where Prjevalsky discovered their tombs. 
 
 f We passed a night under his roof. 
 
 X She forgets that a good many of the people who came from Karahoutchoun took 
 hack their wives, although they had borne children or were heavy with child to the 
 Mongolians, their masters. 
 
96 ACEOSS THIBET. 
 
 KarahoutclioLm tliat tlie little villages along tlie banks of the 
 Tarim in tlie Lob ISTor were founded. Ata (the aged father) was 
 born at Karahoutchoun sixty-eight years ago, and thirty-five 
 years ago founded the hamlet of Eutin. Beyond Eutin, going in 
 the direction of Karahoutchoun, there are two villages : Kara- 
 kayuk and Deutchne, the latter being already uninhabited, for 
 the water has run off, the reeds have disappeared, and their 
 places are taken by sand and salt. Karakayuk will soon be 
 abandoned, as its two last inhabitants are collecting their 
 Avretched belongings before leaving, and the people of Eutin are 
 on the point of migrating westward. 
 
 The fishermen are taking refuge in the oasis of Tcharkalik, 
 and are becoming tillers of the soil. The inhabitants of the 
 Lob IN or, like the waters of the Tarim, are gradually Avithdrawing ; 
 the hovels are falling in, the hamlets are disappearing, and their 
 very sites are invaded by giant reeds, which, in turn, no longer 
 having the water needed to nourish them, are drying up atid 
 withering away. Then will begin the slow but certain work of 
 the sand, which will come and cover the ruins of ancient cities, 
 the remnants of villages, the houses whether of mud or of wood, 
 the withered rushes, and the dead reeds, spreading over all this 
 district a vast pall wtich it will be impossible to raise, for the 
 sand will have buried what is now the Lob Nor in evei'lasting 
 oblivion. 
 
 This has already partly done its w^ork, for the Lob Nor, as we 
 see it, is not as it was in Prjevalsky's time, and the Russian 
 general himself could not find the lake * which is marked upon 
 the old Chinese maps, and the existence of which is confirmed 
 by the old woman we are talking with. According to the tradi- 
 tion handed down from generation to generation, there was at 
 one time here a vast inland sea, mthout any sedges or reeds. 
 
 * It is this great lake whicli, according to tlie tradition, has given the Lob Nor its 
 name — Lob being a local word signifying wild animals. It was already given to the 
 district when the Kalmuck caravans traversed it, and they added the Mongolian word 
 ISTor (great lake). 
 
NATIVE CUSTOMS. 97 
 
 Tlie old men of tlie tribe themselves had seen' large lakes, though 
 nothing to compare with the sea which they had heard spoken 
 of. One of them says that the water recedes every day, and 
 that it must be absorbed by the saltpeter. To this reason, which 
 may be to some extent valid, I will add another — for the last ten 
 years Chinese Turkestan, which was formerly the theater of con- 
 stant civil wars, seems to have been pacified, at all events for a 
 time, and the inhabitants take advantage of this truce to devote 
 themselves to the cultivation of the fields, which they had been 
 compelled for some time to abandon. In order to irrigate theii* 
 fields they have diverted part of the waters of the Tarim, which 
 are thus lost in irrigations or artificial inundations ; while crops 
 like cotton or rice, which require a great deal of moisture, are 
 becoming more extensive each year, and consequently the body 
 of water brought into the Lob Nor district is very considerably 
 less. 
 
 In reply to our questions as to whether they enjoy good 
 health, and to what complaints they are subject, they reply that 
 their mode of life is a healthy one, and that epidemics are rare. 
 They do not know what it is to have smallpox, and are never 
 subject to the ulcers which are so frequent in the East. When 
 they reach a certain age they generally live to be old ; but 
 among young children the mortality is at the rate of one in five. 
 They tell us that the children have no malady, but " they will 
 not keep alive," and this is the best explanation we can get. 
 The complaints from which adults suffer come chiefly from the 
 damp — either a chill, or rheumatism in the legs, which some- 
 times partially paralyzes old people ; or else a disease of the 
 bones. This is often the consequence of rheumatism, and the old 
 dame tells us that when this disease of the bones attacks a woman 
 who is with child she is sure to die. 
 
 When a marriage takes place the father of the bridegroom 
 gives the father of the bride ten bundles of wild hemp, ten packets 
 of dried fish, ten cups of fish oil, a stewpan, twenty oi' thirty 
 loaves of bread, from fifty to a hundred ducks, a flint and steel, 
 
98 
 
 AOIiOSti THIBET. 
 
 and a boat. TMs is the ordinary tariff, tlie ricli giving a few 
 additional fisli or ducks. The eatables are, moreover, consumed 
 at the wedding feast. The reader will gather from this list of 
 presents that the principal occupation is shooting and fishing. 
 
 They can neither read noi' write, and the traditions of the 
 country are handed down Ijy word of mouth from one generation 
 to another. Some of these traditions comprise lofty ideas ; for 
 
 THE LATTER END OP THE TAEIM. 
 
 these people, though very poverty-stricken, are not savages. They 
 are religious, and declare themselves proud of being Mohammedans 
 — this constituting one of the reasons for their contempt of the 
 Chinese and Mongolians, whom they describe as people having 
 " no books." Their religious practices consist in listening to a few 
 verses of the Koran recited by one of the elders of the tribe ; but 
 their ceremonies are simple, being limited to burials. When a 
 man dies, his hands and feet are tied, and if his family has any 
 cloth a new garment is made for him ; but if not he is dressed 
 in an old one. An elder recites a few Mussulman prayers, and 
 the corpse is then placed on a stretcher made of reeds and osiers. 
 It is covered with rushes, and placed in the midst of the reeds,. 
 
NATIVE BURIALS. 99 
 
 and his relatives cut more reeds and heap them on the dead 
 body ; a pole bearing a bit of paper at the end is fixed in the 
 ground, and so the cei^emony ends. 
 
 All along the lower course of the Tarim the mode of pro- 
 cedure is the same, with this slight diiference, that in certain 
 places for the pile of reeds is substituted a small hillock of sand. 
 
 We have been conversing for a couple of hours, and before 
 going to rest the aged Ata asks us in turn a question — he can- 
 not believe that we are not Russians, and he wants to know why 
 ^^Te do not come to deliver them from the Chinese. We promise 
 him we will do what we can, and, in wishing each other good- 
 night, we cordially agree in expressing our detestation of all the 
 Chinese. The parents embrace their children, and the family 
 affections are evidently strong among these good people. It is 
 not a long business for them to go to bed, as they stretch them- 
 selves out on the ground, the women remaining in the same room 
 as the men, separated oidy by a sort of awning made of lough 
 canvas, and stretched on to reeds from the ceiling. 
 • November 7. — It is very cold, and when Ave get up there are 
 eig-ht dcOTees of frost, with a strong: northeast wind. Before 
 leaving we endeavor to have a little sport in the reeds, but they 
 are too thick, and we cannot go far. Moreover, we are told that 
 the wild boars, which used to be very abundant here, have been 
 driven away by a tiger. So we should gain nothing by going 
 further eastward, and if we have any spare time, we prefer to 
 ascend the Tarim, this side of Abdullah, toward Lole. Our re- 
 turn journey is accomplished without mishap, though we ai'e 
 overtaken by a tempest which at once freezes and blinds us, and 
 we are compelled to wrap ourselves up in our touloupes, to pull 
 our fur caps down over our ears and eyes, and, having thus volun- 
 tarily rendered ourselves deaf and blind, we sit quite still, at the 
 risk of getting our feet frozen, so as not to disturb the equilibrium 
 of our boats. So we are not sorry to see Couzetrzoif again, and 
 the fire before which he is cooking some birds. 
 
 Novemher 8. — One of my first visits is to the cemetery of 
 
100 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 Abdullah, which is situated on three sandhills the other side of 
 the Tarim, its site being indicated by poles on which are placed 
 the heads of horses or the tails of yaks. Upon one of the hillocks, 
 perhaps that reserved for the buiial of the chiefs, is a small reed 
 hut divided into two compartments, in each of which is a sort of 
 wooden rack filled with the horns of deer and antelopes, while in 
 front of the hut are more stags' antlers and antelope heads dried 
 with the skin on them. I bring away a few of these horns, hiding 
 them under my coat, and in the afternoon I go off for a ride with 
 Barachdin and a guide who is to show us the way to a large lake 
 to the southeast. As we leave the village we meet a Mongol 
 caravan consisting of about fifty camels and twenty horses, most 
 of them fully loaded, coming from Karachar. The Kalmucks who 
 are riding them ai'e on the way to meet their sovereign, who, as 
 we learn, has lost most of his beasts of burden on his way from 
 Lhassa. It is useless for us to stop and talk with them, for they 
 would not give us any interesting information, so we continue 
 our march. After riding about six miles, we reach two small 
 depressions in the ground which are barely moist, and beyond 
 that there is no vegetation, the stony desert extending to the first 
 spurs of the Altyn-Tagh. There is not the slightest trace of the 
 great lake we had been told of, but our guide says that it was 
 there three months ago. He adds that half a day further on 
 (extending his hand toward the south) there are ruins nearly 
 buried in the sand, only the tops of the houses being \'isible, 
 supposed to be the remains of a large town. 
 
 On our return, we find the village of Abdullah in a state of 
 uproar, the whole population rushing about, shouting and gestic- 
 ulating ; the men saddling their horses in haste, the women and 
 children crying, and two old women, bent double, gi'oaning in 
 quavering tones and exclaiming, " Allah ! Allah ! " The horses 
 are soon ready, and the men, with Kunchi Khan Bey at their 
 head, all make oif in the same dii'ection. We watch them till 
 they disappear in a cloud of dust, and ^vhen we ask the meaning 
 of this, the women, who have calmed down a little since the 
 
FESTIVITIES. 101 
 
 departure of their husbands, soothed, perhaps, by the consoling 
 tones of the gallant Abdullah, proceed to tell us, still sobbing at 
 intervals, what has happened. They ask us if we do not see 
 something in the dii-ection which the horsemen have taken, and 
 when we tell them '' No, nothing but dust," they say that the 
 men who went off on a shooting expedition a month ago have 
 been seen, but that whereas three started only two have returned. 
 Two of the three were sons of Kunchi Khan Be}^ In the mean- 
 while the little band of sportsmen draws closer and then it is seen 
 that all three are there, so that the lamentations are turned into 
 rejoicings quite as noisy. The whole village went out to meet 
 the three men, who were on foot, with emaciated faces and 
 clothes much torn, walking very slowly and leading three don- 
 keys. When asked what had become of the two other beasts, 
 they said that they had died of cold, and the loss of these two 
 animals excited fresh lamentations from among the old women. 
 
 After the elders Avho had gone out to meet them had got oil' 
 their horses and kissed them, the young men were made to 
 tell the story of their adventures. First they went southward 
 and then eastward, and though they had seen a great many 
 wild camels they had only killed two, the second at six days' 
 march from here. The skins had been cut up into rectangular 
 pieces and loaded on a donkey. Nearly all the hair had been 
 rubbed off, and they had put it into a bag for fear of its being 
 spoilt on the way. 
 
 The return of the chasseurs * and our presence in the village are 
 made an occasion for amusements in the evening. The women 
 put on their smartest things, in most cases a watered silk dress, 
 reminding one of the Bokhara stuft's, with red in front, while the 
 wives f of the chief have a caftan trimmed with black sheep, 
 while one of them wears her rings passed, through one end of the 
 
 * Note of the Translator .—It seems a pity that we have not in English a comprehensive 
 vford like "chasseur "to desiifnate those who go shooting, hunting, or fishing, as the 
 case may be. Even "the chase " is only used in English now to designate hunting. 
 
 f It must be remembered that we are among Mussulmans, each of whom has at least 
 two wives — they are fairly cheap. 
 
102 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 ficliu which she has on her head, having taken them off her 
 fingers for fear of injuiing them while cutting reeds for the tire. 
 One of the women is rather pretty : a Khotanese, with regulai- . 
 features and a pale complexion, which brings into relief her big 
 black eyes, surmounted by a finely-arched pair of eyebrows. 
 Like her companions, she is short in stature, but, being better 
 looking, she excites their Jealousy. Madame Tocasch, to give her 
 her name, very much regrets her native land, finding Abdullah 
 too savage, and to mark her disapprobation she ran away a few 
 days ago to her parents, who reside at Tcharkalik, but they, 
 instead of taking her in, informed her husband, and helped him 
 to get her back. An honest man, when he has sold his daughter 
 and been paid for her, would consider that he had committed a 
 theft if he took her back to the prejudice of his son-in-law, and 
 as to the girl herself, she is not consulted in the matter. 
 
 Madame Tocasch shows her superiority over her companions 
 by the grace with which she dances. She is accompanied in her 
 dance by some of the men, who nod their heads as they move 
 round, and stretch out their arms, which are hidden in the long 
 sleeves of their kalat (large cloak). Although they are agile 
 and light-footed, the dance — to which our Russian plays a tune 
 upon his harmonium, two or three of the old women chanting in 
 a nasal tone — soon becomes monotonous. 
 
 Novemhei' 9. — The minimum of temperature is about one 
 degree below zero, but although the morning is cold there is no 
 wind, and it is, therefore, good weather for going up the Tarim. 
 Before leaving Abdullah we make a few final purchases (of 
 snares, dried fish, sandals made of donkey skin), payment be- 
 ing effected in Chinese money, which has to be weighed, a 
 slow and troublesome operation to which we shall have to get ac- 
 customed. Kunchi Khan Bey and his family allow themselves 
 to be photographed again, and he gives us a supply of small 
 loaves of bread made by his wife and wishes us a safe Journey. 
 We promise him to retui'n " some day," but in the meanwhile we 
 have to make a start, and, choosing between vaiious modes of 
 
THE TARIM FROZEN. 103 
 
 locomotion, I go on foot as far as the first Abdullah, where I 
 take a cup of tea (with a piece of butter in it) with the old 
 centenarian, whose sons are sharpening their spears and getting 
 their guns ready for the pursuit of the wild camels. They 
 accompany us as far as our canoes, which have arrived from 
 the other village of Abdullah, and, with the weather not so 
 cold as it was yesterday, we remount the stream, om" boatmen 
 finding it veiy hard work to row against the strong current. 
 Floating pieces of ice come into collision with our canoes, and 
 we are at times almost hemmed in between them, the oars 
 having no hold upon their surface. In the bends the river is 
 completely frozen over, and we have to break the ice and clear a 
 passage, reminding one of polar navigation. The two natives 
 who are in charge of our big canoe sing all the time, one having 
 a strong harsh voice and the other a shrill one. A¥e imitate 
 their singing in order to raise the drooping spirits of our own 
 men; but in s^^ite of all their efforts they cannot make much 
 headway, and we have barely advanced ten miles in a straight 
 line when we have to stop for the night. Our donkeys and 
 horses have overtaken us, and having picketed them, we roll our- 
 selves up in our rugs and pass a very pleasant night in the open, 
 despite there being twenty-seven degrees of frost. 
 
 Novemher 10. — Navigation, difiicult as it was yesterday, now 
 becomes impossible, and we have to be content to follow the 
 Tarim by going along its banks. We meet boatmen whose canoes 
 are firmly fixed in the ice, and they say they have been in this 
 plight for three days, unable either to go back or to advance. 
 They ask us to give them some food, which we do as far as our 
 scanty means permit, and then resume our journey, coming, a 
 "few miles higher up, on a pile of bags, and of reeds ,vhich have 
 been cut and laid out on the banks. This is opposite a small 
 village called Tchai, the inhabitants of which are about to mi- 
 grate to Tcharkalik, and have already taken their baggage across. 
 When they see us making for their bags they take us for thieves, 
 r nd begin to run away ; but when we assure them that we d(? 
 
104 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 not mean them any harm, they gradually gain confidence, and 
 on our offering them a cup of tea they become quite convinced 
 that we are friends, and give us all the information we ask for. 
 They tell us that the sheet of water fi'om which we see the Tarim 
 issue, a hundred yards or so above Tchai, is the Karabourau, 
 though it is little more than a series of inundations representing 
 the largest stretch of water to be found in the Lob Nor. It 
 begins at the village of Lob, and ends here, being interspersed 
 at many points by lagoons or islets. It is no^vhere more than 
 three feet deep, in most places only a foot, while the lake which 
 we skirted above Lob is the Kemezetiantche, which does not 
 communicate with the Karabourau, for since Prjevalsky came 
 into the district the coiu^se of the Tarim has been changed, and 
 the level of the waters has dropped. 
 
 These indications save us the trouble of following the bank of 
 the Karabourau, so that we deteruiine to make a short cut across 
 the country opposite Tchai, 
 
 AVhile the light still lasts I try for a little shooting on the 
 Karabourau ; but we have great difficulty in getting the canoe 
 there, as the cui'rent of the Taiim is very strong at the entrance 
 to the lake, and when Ave get there it is a sheet of ice, so we have 
 to give up the idea of»going any further. My excursion, though 
 a brief one, is not altogether fruitless, for I succeed in bringing 
 down, with No. 4 shot, a very fine white swan of the species which 
 is domesticated with us, as he flies over my head, while A^ith a 
 bullet I kill a goose flyiug in the midst of a flock, these being 
 two shots which I should be sorry to back myself to rej)eat. In 
 the evening the natives attempt to surprise us by their learning, 
 and they repeat the word " Padisouda," Avhich they have retained 
 in their memory since the visit of Prjevalsky. 
 
 Novemher 11. — Commencing our march 1)}' moonlight, we 
 observe for the first time the phenomenon which will strike us 
 so often upon the highlands, viz., a sudden drop of the temper- 
 ature as the moon appears above the horizon. We are at present 
 very insufficiently protected against the cold, and although we. 
 
A MARCH BY MOONLIGHT. 105 
 
 are walking we shiver from head to foot, while, for my own part, 
 I do not know what to do with my hands, which are so numbed 
 that I cannot get them warm. We have no choice but to wait 
 till the sun has got up, when a fresh trouble arises. We are 
 in a desert the sand of which is in many places covered with 
 a layer of salt, and the refraction is so great that we are con- 
 stantly being led astray by the mirages, while we are dazzled, 
 blinded, and half -roasted by the sun into the bargain. It seems 
 as if all the sun's rays were converging upon us, and as if there 
 were no choice but to let ourselves be thoroughly baked. 
 
 Our horses do not seem to be so much affected by it as we 
 are, and I really believe that they can smell their stable, though 
 still more than thirty miles oft'. There is no road, and we have 
 to guide ourselves by the compass ; but the instinct of our horses 
 is the best guide, and we speed along at such a rate that a courier 
 sent forward by Bonvalot has scarcely time to hand us a letter. 
 It arrives rather late, for we are already in the oasis, and before 
 long we see a rivulet, some gorse, then some tamarisks, several 
 small poplars,* and last of all, Rachmed, going off at a great pace 
 after " those wretched hares." In a few minutes we are in the 
 camp, which has the aspect of a small town, with people coming 
 and going in all directions, buying and selling, gossiping, and 
 nailing down boxes, while in the center of the camp is our little 
 tent, beneath which Bonvalot, with his legs crossed Turkish 
 fashion, is enjoying a meal of sparrows, cooked on a skewer with 
 slices of sheep's liver in between them. 
 
 All is well at Tcharkalik, our Russians are preparing for their 
 return, and two men of the country have been engaged to accom- 
 pany us. The provisions are gradually accumulating ; bread is 
 being baked with plenty of salt in it, sheep's paunches are being 
 filled with fat, the salt is being purified, and the preparations are 
 well advanced. Our men, however, were very much obstructed 
 in their work by a tempest which lasted two days, blew down 
 the tent, and covered everything with sand. M. Bonvalot has. 
 effected a regular massacre of hares, and we, in return, give him 
 
 * Populus di'cersifolico. 
 
106 
 
 ACROSS TUIBET. 
 
 an account of our excursion, wliicli lias lasted a week, and in the 
 course of wliicli we have traced the course of the Tarim in the 
 Lob Nor, and have ascertained that this latter name does not 
 apply to a lake, but to all the marshy portion of the country 
 
 watered by the Tarim, from 
 the village of Lob to the 
 end of the river. 
 
 The lai'D-est stretch of 
 water in this region is the 
 Karabouran, a tract under 
 water between Lob and 
 Tchai. The waters of the 
 Tarim are not salt, while 
 there are springs of fresh 
 water (Eutin) in the Lob 
 Nor, but the water of the 
 pools formed by the Tarim 
 upon a saltpeter surface 
 is brackish. Each year the quantity of water which the 
 Tarim brings into the country decreases, the pools diy up, 
 and the reeds are more and more covered by the sand which 
 is gradually driving the inhabitants toward Tcharkalik, so 
 the time is not far distant when the region called the Lob 
 Nor will no longer be distinguishable from the desert into 
 the midst of which it now advances like a narrow ribbon of 
 Terdure unwinding itself from west to east for a distance of about 
 seventy-five miles. 
 
 SPINNING WOMAN AT ABDULLAH. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 FEOM TCHARKALIK TO BOULAK BACHL 
 
 " The Southern Koad " — Taking- Stock — New Recruits : Timour and Isa— Festivities at 
 Tcharkalik — A Nomad Moralist and Poet — Tramps — Prince Henry's Return — 
 Taking a Chief into Custody — The Doungane and his Master — The Start— Yan- 
 dachkak— The Altyn-Tagh — Valley of the Djahan-Sai — Tchoukour-Sai — Through a 
 Canon — Prince Henry Lost. 
 
 Noveriiber 1. — We^ are so far fi'om liaving completed our work 
 that what we have hithei'to done has been little more than a 
 simple excursion, attended by drawbacks so trifling that they 
 merely gave an interest to the journej^ I have said that the 
 first stage was Kourla, the second is Tcharkalik, and the third 
 would be Ba-Tang, if all continues to go as well as at present. 
 Ba-Tang is a long way off, separated from us by dicserts and the 
 unknown. After Ba-Tang we hope to reach Tonquin, at the 
 other end of Asia, but when traveling one has not, fortunately, 
 much time to reflect upon the difficulties before one. In the 
 meantime we have constantly in our minds the ]3assage in the 
 narrative of the English traveler Carey, published in the Pro- 
 ceedings of the Geographical Society of England, in which he 
 speaks of a route going to Lhassa by the Kizil-Sou, a river sup- 
 posed to be beyond the mountain chain which Prjevalsky saw, 
 and which he named Columbo. Carey had heard the natives 
 talk of this route, but they had never shown it to him. Accord- 
 ing to rumor it is more direct than that of the Tsaidame which 
 joins the route of the Koukou-Nor, first traveled by Fathers Hue 
 and Gabet, and afterward by Prjevalsky. 
 
 We must, therefore, at all costs discover this route which, in 
 talking of it, we call " the southern road." We send our men to 
 make inquiries, and each of them endeavors to light upon the 
 
 * The narrative is here resumed by M. Bonvalot.^TRANSLATOB. 
 
 107 
 
108 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 invaluable individual wlio knows it and is willing to guide us. 
 But tlie mere fact of one of them having asked in a stupid sort 
 of way is sufficient to prevent us getting any definite information. 
 Moreover, very few of our men care to pursue the journey. Our 
 three Siberians are going to leave us. They had agreed to come 
 as far as the Lob Nor, but I cannot persuade them to come on 
 farther, and the Doungane camel-driver is also anxious to come 
 back, being only kept with us by the promise ot high pay. So 
 we look out for volunteers in the district, and two offer their 
 services, one of them knowing the Bogalik road which Carey 
 took. We promise them good wages, and their arrival helps to 
 raise the spirits of the Dounganes. 
 
 The chief of our camel-drivers, the aged Imatch, though he 
 w^alks with great difficulty, will hold on to the last, and will go 
 wherever the Khotanlis go, Parpa has already been over the 
 road, and he does not appear to bleed from the nose, but he has 
 a mysterious way I don't much like when I speak to him of the 
 southern route. If he is to be believed, he is acquainted with a 
 very good guide, but does not know his name. He says, ho'\\'- 
 ever, that he can find him, and begs permission to go and ask for 
 information in the village and in the farms scattered about in 
 the bush. He returns without bringing any important tidings, 
 and I soon ascertain that he has been after something veiy 
 different from the southern route. 
 
 As to our interpreter Abdullah, surnamed the "little man," 
 he is still a terrible talker, and a busybody who sees that things 
 are not progi'essing as he would like. He did not think we were 
 in eai'nest when we talked at Kuldja of going to Ba-Tang, his 
 idea being that we should perhaps go as far as Kourla, and then 
 follow the main imperial road to Pekin, or that, at the outside, 
 we should go as far as the Lob Nor and then return. Now he is 
 beginning to get anxious, and would like to dissuade us from 
 going further, so we are convinced that we shall not get informa- 
 tion of any value from him, though he professes to be more or 
 less enthusiastic. 
 
NEW RE CE HITS. 
 
 109 
 
 To judge by what we have seen of the two fresh recruits, we 
 shall have reason to be satisfied with them later on. The elder 
 is called Timour and has been a shepherd, while he goes in for 
 ^old-mining and the chase when he has leisure. He is a married 
 man, and cultivates a small plot of ground, and as he has often 
 explored the Altyn-Tagh and the Tchimen-Tagh he does not feel 
 any hesitation about accompanying us over the high table-lands. 
 He executes orders without any trouble, is a quick worker and 
 
 f ^ ^ ^"^ ^ 
 
 € ^ii\ 
 
 
 
 ^Ac^sg^^gQ^s;^^. vg^^^>gafe^^^'i^-^^^£<^^^^*^ids^y-ag 
 
 "3* - ■--? " j,^--*' 
 
 DONKEYS AND SHEEP ON THE ROAD. 
 
 has the credit of being indefatigable on the march, while he 
 takes good care of the horses and camels. He is always in good 
 spirits, and, this being a very important point, is content with 
 his lot at Tcharkalik. A very small piece of sugar suffices to 
 make him happy, and he seems to take an interest in all we do, 
 for he looks at our arms with manifest pleasure and tells us the 
 names of the birds we have prepared for our collection. In the 
 evening we can hear him singing and telling stories, and when 
 
110 ACBOSS THIBET. 
 
 Rachmed or one of the others is relating an anecdote, lie follows 
 all the details of it with close attention. In short, he is a poet 
 and an adventurer. When asked if it will be cold in the 
 southern mountains, he says yes, and thrusts his hands under his 
 sleeves and warms them under his armpits. ''But," he adds 
 with a lauo;h, " that will be nothino;." Withal he is not too tall 
 nor too stout, is very alert, dances well, knows so many prayers 
 by heart that he is taken for a mollah, and possesses remedies for 
 various complaints. 
 
 The other man, who is only about twenty, is called Isa. He is 
 full of vigor, and can skin a sheep very dexterously, and cook 
 rice well. He is equally good at eating both, and he takes an 
 interest in all that relates to cooking, Avhile he is ready to split 
 wood, light the fire and attend to it, fetch water, and clean out 
 the saucepans. He has a very loud laugh, but so natural that 
 one likes to hear it, especially as he is generally rather stern. 
 He has a good memory, though he is said to be given to smok- 
 ing hasheesh in small quantities, but those whom he has pre- 
 viously served give him a good character. I saw him one night 
 sleeping on a mat before the fire with no covering except a khalat, 
 torn in several places. He was sleeping very soundly, though 
 the fire had gone out ^nd the minimum temperature of the night 
 was two degrees below zero. As he was very well the next day, 
 and had not caught the slightest cold, I did not want to know 
 more. 
 
 We renew our provisions, the important thing being to insure 
 plenty for the subsistence of men and beasts, as from all we 
 have read, and from all we can learn on the spot, those who have 
 preceded us were obliged to turn back from want of provisions. 
 It is as important to feed the beasts of burden well as the men, 
 for when the means of transport fail all exploring is impossible. 
 
 As we can procure flour and barley here and get it made into 
 bread, we employ all the women in the place, one procuring us 
 one hundred pounds, and another fifty pounds, and we make them 
 bake a small quantity at a time, and taste it to see that it is what 
 
FESTIVITIES AT TGHARKALIK. Ill 
 
 we want. We buy all the dried fruits we can get, as well as rope, 
 liorse-shoes, and nails, while we have winter clothing made for 
 the horses and camels. 
 
 The men's pelisses are sewn and made larger, trousers and leg- 
 gings are made out of sheepskins, and plenty of leather leggings 
 are provided, as well as leather stockings, into which the foot is 
 inserted after it has been well wrapped up in felt. One of our 
 Kussians is a shoemaker, and we employ him to make our felt 
 boots, while the men prepare their own according to the fashion 
 of their respective tribes. 
 
 There is a regular market every day upon the outskirts of our 
 little camp, and what with the chaffering, the disputing, and the 
 laughing, the scene is very animated. We gradually get on 
 friendly terms with the natives, and at the end of a week have 
 acquired a certain degree of authority at Tcharkalik. We have 
 created a " French party " in the place, and it is among the mem- 
 bers of this party that we shall find men to transport our provi- 
 sions for a month or more. 
 
 On the birthday festival of Mohammed the authorities came 
 in a body to pay a visit and offer us presents. They were 
 anxious that Ave should participate in their rejoicings, for we were 
 far from home and hearth, and it would be unbecoming if they 
 were not to invite us. I thanked them and repeated the assur- 
 ance that we had no bad intentions in our hearts, affirming that our 
 acts would always be in keeping with our words. They said they 
 believed what we told them, and asked permission to entertain 
 our men. This, of course, I readily granted, and all day long the 
 festival of Mohammed Avas celebrated by feasts, songs, dances, 
 and sports, in which Rachmed, who is very agile, obtained marked 
 success. Two sheep which we had given them were cooked in 
 the immense pot belonging to the mosque. This pot came to a 
 bad end, as we burst it while using it to refine crystallized salt — a 
 mishap of evil omen which was atoned for by a present. 
 
 Noveinber 8. — A terrible tempest from the northeast howled all 
 night, and compels us to construct a shelter for our kitchen. The 
 
112 
 
 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 temperature drops very suddenly, and tliis morning tlie natives 
 appear in the guise of Northerners, all of them wearing sheep- 
 skins and the furs of wild animals, such as foxes aiid evolves. 
 
 Our people avail themselves of the op- 
 portunity to try on their winter costumes, 
 and very odd some of them look. 
 
 A man ariived in the course of the 
 morning from Abdullah village Avith 
 donkeys and horses, bringing at the same 
 time some wild duck, and a letter from 
 Prince Hemy. Another piece of news 
 announces the arrival at Abdullah of 
 four Kalmucks, who are believed to form 
 the advance guard of the Khan of the 
 Kalmucks, this personage being on his 
 way back from a pilgrimage to Lhassa. 
 He is expected to arrive in a very deplor- 
 able condition, as his caravan has been 
 decimated, and he has lost two hundi'ed 
 camels and twenty men. He has made 
 the return journey chieil}^ with koutasses 
 ■ (yaks), and has come by way of the Tsai- 
 dame, for the messenger says that when the Khan of the Kal- 
 mucks attempted to reach the " City of the Spirits," some twenty 
 years ago, by way of the Kizil-Sou, he had to turn back because 
 the mountains were impassable. 
 
 The Aksakal of Khotanli having brought me some marmot 
 fat as a cure for an attack of rheumatism from which I am suf- 
 fering, I questioned him about the route of the Kizil-Sou, and, 
 without giving a definite opinion, he let me understand that Ht- 
 tle importance was to be attached to what the Lobi say. As re- 
 gards the difficulties of the route, he says there can be no doubt 
 as to that, and that upon one occasion, when he went in tlie direc- 
 tion of Bogalik with one hundred and fifty asses to bring back 
 gold and skins, he lost a number of his beasts and some of his 
 
A NOMAD MORALIST AND POET. 113 
 
 companions. Their death was due to the cold, and above all to 
 the pestilential odors emitted from the soil, which were even 
 more fatal to the asses than to the men. It is impossible to learn 
 anything definite as to this route, the existence of which we re- 
 gard as more than probable. The natives of Lob and Tcharka- 
 lik have never followed it, and the Kalmuck pilgrims have no 
 information on the subject. Parpa asserts that a guide whom he 
 knows is returning with the band of the Khan of the Torgoutes, 
 and he asks leave to go and meet him at Abdullah. This leave 
 I refuse, as he has two months' wages in his pocket, and with the 
 cold weather setting in he might be tempted to return home . 
 
 After the tempest, the atmosphere is more free from dust, and 
 the sky becomes clear. It freezes, however, harder than the 
 natives care about, the minimum under the tent being 10°. This 
 sudden fall of temperature has alarmed the population, all of 
 whom have quitted their houses, and they make off into the 
 bush, those who are strong enough to do so carrying a fagot on 
 their backs. The Aryk is frozen over, and the fields in fallow 
 are white with frost. 
 
 We, too, are impatient to follow the example of the swallows, 
 the last of which have been driven by the tempest to warmer 
 climes. After this storm had raged for two days, the sun re- 
 appeared, and, with the sparrows chirruping and the natives 
 returning to our camp, business begins to look up again. For 
 the purchase of the smallest bit of cloth or a pound of grapes 
 interminable speeches are made, and the names of Allah and of 
 Mohammed his prophet are incessantly invoked. 
 
 November 9. — The minimum is two degrees below zero, with 
 a refreshing breeze from the northwest, while it is 60° in the sun. 
 The natives have turned the waters of the Aryk into the wells, 
 so as to secure a full supply for the winter ; and for the last 
 week the mills have been going in anticipation of this drought, 
 each householder being anxious to have plenty of flour in store. 
 
 A singer, who seems to me very proficient, accompanies him- 
 self upon a guitar, and gives us a song as we sit in front of the 
 
114 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 fire ; while the dancers, male and female, are going througli their 
 performances in more or less graceful attitudes. The burden of 
 his song is that the world is all delusion, and that man is ah\-ays 
 looking for the realization of desires which it would be as diffi- 
 cult for him to obtain as it would be to seize the moon, though 
 he sees her every month. 
 
 He is said to be the author of the couplets he sings, and we 
 ask him to accompany us and bring with him his guitar, which 
 is made of two pieces of poplar wood ; for a moralist like him 
 would be a desirable acquisition to our party. He has traveled 
 about a good deal, having been to Yarkand, and prospected for 
 gold in all sorts of places, but he does not appear to have made 
 his fortune, and it is his disappointments that have inspired him 
 with this doleful song. He has the reputation of being an 
 honest fellow, and at the festival of Mohammed he won the wrest- 
 ling prize in the " Olympic " games. Although a native of 
 Khotanli, he is the intimate friend of a certain Abdullah-Ousta. 
 who is very proficient in the art of iron-working, and who be- 
 longs to Lob. Some years ago Tokta, as the singer is called, 
 did a considerable service to the ao;ed Abdullah. The latter 
 had got lost while pursuing mid camels, and would not have 
 been able to rejoin his companions had not Tokta come upon 
 him when he was almost dead with hunger and fatigue. From 
 this time the two men have been very much attached to each other. 
 
 We have ordered some iron, nails, and pegs from Abdullah- 
 Ousta, and we hope to enroll him in our party ; for Tokta assm-es 
 us that there is no one better acquainted with the mountain than 
 the old man, who is still very vigorous, though his beard is -white. 
 If he consents to accompany us his example will be followed by 
 many othei's. 
 
 Tokta, before leaving us, says that we shall get plenty of help 
 if the white-beards of the Lobis do not interfere, and that the 
 Khotanlis are all in our favor. 
 
 Rachmed says that Tokta may be trusted, because he is- 
 
TRAMPS. 115 
 
 "What is 'saia'?" 
 
 " A man like ourselves, who cannot stay long in one place 
 owing to his mother's fault." 
 
 "Explain yourself." 
 
 " That is what happened in my case, and must have done in 
 that of Tokta. Our mothers, when pregnant with us, traveled 
 through the desert on camels ; and as the}' strained their eyes to 
 see beyond the horizon they made of us '■ saia,' or tramps. And 
 that is why we are again about to march southward, and Allah 
 alone knows when and where we shall stop. And we shall do 
 well to start, for the route seems to me a long one, while those 
 cursed camels do not go fast." 
 
 Thereupon Rachmed reproaches me for having taken him into 
 my service when he scarcely had any beard, of having made him 
 grow more white hairs than black, and of having made him miss 
 several desirable marriages. Then, being very volatile, he flies 
 off at a tangent and plays some joke upon the man next him, 
 loading him with the insults which the Uzbegs proffer in all 
 good humor. 
 
 Rachmed is right ; it is urgent that we should start, but all is 
 not ready. The Doungane must make up his mind to go, and 
 then we can apportion the loads according to the strength of the 
 different animals. At least forty donkeys and ten men are re- 
 quired to relieve our own beasts a little, and feed them, as well 
 as the men, for a month. The Khotanlis have as good as prom- 
 ised us half, but the question is whether the Lobis will supply 
 the other half. It is always difficult to get prepared for every 
 contingency when setting out for a long march. We find this 
 out once more, and Rachmed confidently mentions that he has 
 doubts with regard to the Doungane and the Lobi. 
 
 As soon as Prince Henry and Dedeken return from the Lob 
 ^ve shall settle these questions ; in the meantime the best course 
 will be to display great amiability, to pay liberally, and never to 
 refuse a request for medicine or drags. 
 
 November 11. — While busy eating some roast sparrows cooked 
 
116 
 
 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 by Parpa, I heard tlie voice of Prince Henry, wlio ariived in higli 
 spirits after a journey of over forty miles since daybreak. He 
 appears to be in excellent liealth and condition, and liis first 
 question, after inquiring liow we all are, was as to when we were 
 to start. While I was telling him how we are situated Father 
 Dedeken arrived, and to celebrate »)ur reunion we had tea got 
 ready and a repast cooked. AVhile it was in preparation we 
 
 ^-%fv:. 
 
 
 AT THK FOOT OF THE ALTYN-TAGH. 
 
 talked of the Lob Nor, and their conclusion is that it is but a 
 vast marsh interspersed Avith jungles, amid which are hidden the 
 dwellings of fishermen. 
 
 Before starting we have to arrange for the i*eturn of oiu' thi'ee 
 Siberians, as they are to go back to Kuldja with our collections 
 and letters, which the Russian consul will send on for us to 
 Paris. We give them camels for conveying the packages to 
 Kourla, where they will purchase an arba (sort of wagon), foi' it 
 is their intention to return by the imperial highway of Om'omtsi, 
 
TAKING A CHIEF INTO CUSTODY. IVi 
 
 maMng the circuit of the Celestial Mountains. We give them 
 plenty of food and ammunition, and should have much liked to 
 retain at least one of the three, but Barodjdine was married, and 
 Maltzofi* had undertaken the Journey so as to make a small sum 
 for his wedding, while the third, Kousnetzoff, whom we had 
 engaged at Tioumen, would not have been as useful to us as 
 either of the others, for he is no longer young, and is unfitted for 
 very severe labor ; but as an assistant in our naturalist work he has 
 always been most conscientious and willing, using care, order, and 
 patience. We cannot be too thankful to him or say too much in 
 his favor. 
 
 November 12. — We ask the municipality to supply us, at a 
 price to be mutually agreed upon, with horses and with donkeys 
 to carry a portion of our provisions as far as the vicinity of the 
 Kizil-Sou, by way of the Bogalik route. We are promised an 
 answer for to-morrow, after a council has been held. 
 
 November 13. — -This morning we see a large body of men 
 approaching our camp ; the chiefs and nearly all the people of the 
 village, Khotanlis and Lobis alike, being present. They halt at 
 the threshold of our temporary domain, and a tall fellow with a 
 scanty goatee, whom we have not seen before, opens the conversa- 
 tion and explains himself to Rachmed, who interprets what he 
 says. We learn that the speaker is the principal chief of the 
 Lobis, and he says in so many words that they will give us neither 
 men nor asses, because it is too cold for mountaineering, and that 
 to travel over the mountains at this season is certain death, etc. 
 
 Rachmed, in very gentle terms, insists. He reminds his hear- 
 ers " of the good we have done in the country, of the money we 
 have spent in it, of the high prices we have paid for everything 
 with the object of being of service to the poor vendors," then he 
 asks how it is that the promises made to us but yesterday are 
 not kept, and inquires whether we have given reason for suppos- 
 ing that we shall not pay as we have promised to do. 
 
 In the meanwhile we learn that secret orders have arrived 
 from Kourla. The Lobi chiefs are said to have been prohibited 
 
118 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 from rendering us any assistance, and as they have asked for the 
 aid of the Chinese against the Khotanlis they are determined to 
 obey orders and to put obstacles in our way. 
 
 The Lobi chief gets arrogant, and exclaims " By Jupiter ! If 
 you want donkeys you shall pay twice their value, and I won't 
 sell you any. As to men for your service, not one shall leave 
 the country. We are not under any bond to you, we do not 
 pay you a tax, we pay it to the Chinese. No, we are under no 
 bond to you, and we are not afraid of you ! We have numbers 
 on our side, we are brave, you cannot frighten us ! " 
 
 As he spoke, Rachmed, who felt the necessity of immediate 
 action, used the argumentuin ad liominem, and began to belabor 
 this great orator. His own people were inclined to defend him, 
 but we drove them back by threatening them with our weapons, 
 and kept the leader in custody, stating that we would only release 
 him in exchange for the eighteen donkeys and five horses which 
 constituted the contingent the Lobis were to supply. The Kho- 
 tanlis then intervened and acted as mediators between the two 
 parties, interceding for the chief, ^v^ho was very downcast, and 
 promising that they would make things all right. 
 
 We hear the exclamations of the women upon the roofs and 
 in the brushwood ; tEe dogs bark, the donkeys bray, and there is 
 a general uproar. 
 
 However, the chief, whom we had in our clutches, was con- 
 soled with a cup of well-sugared tea. Timour advised him to 
 think better of his decision, as he had everything to gain by 
 obeying us, and as we were certain not to give him his liberty 
 again until we had made sure of his co-operation. 
 
 The chief then asked for one of his men, and ordered him to 
 '' give them what they ask for." This messenger returned to the 
 assembly which Avas being held some distance off, in front of the 
 palace of a chief who has a ^vife belonging to Lob, though he is 
 a native of Khotan. Some emissaries were at once sent back to 
 us to ask that the king may be set at liberty. But we refused 
 this unless certain guarantees were given us. The messengers 
 
COMING TO TERMS. 119 
 
 returned and a fresh council was lield, with the result that they 
 €ame back in a body, accompanied by the graybeards, who swore 
 that we should have as many donkeys, guides, and gunners as we 
 desii'ed, but they were not to go further than the land of the 
 Kalmucks of the Tsaidame. 
 
 They add: "We cannot show you the donkeys, because 
 there has not been time to collect them, but here are the Lobis 
 who will accompany you." The men are then made to step 
 forward, and we are asked to examine them. Then follow 
 declarations " by the beard " and " by Jupiter," and all the 
 divinities are invoked, the crowd approves, gesticulates, and lifts 
 up its voice, ^vhile all around us are people smiling, waving their 
 arms with suppliant gestures, grinning amicably, and murmuring 
 assent to whatever any of the others -may say. 
 
 It is only at the last extremity that we agree to let the chief 
 have his libei'ty, when the crowd and the chiefs who inhabit 
 Tcharkalik have authorized us, by their beards, to indulge in 
 reprisals if they fail in their pi'omise to supply us with what we 
 require. They instruct one of their men, who offered us hospi- 
 tality on our arrival, and with whom we have always been on 
 friendly terms, to organize the contingent. Our host assents 
 with a nod, while the other chiefs inform us that they are going 
 to be absent for several days, their duty being to go and meet 
 the Khan of the Kalmucks on his way back from Lhassa. 
 
 The principal chief, having been set at liberty, soon comes 
 to take leave of us, and, with his nose slightly swollen, repeats 
 the promises already made, and swears that he has given orders 
 for them to be executed. After a profuse display of politeness, 
 he mounts his horse and rides off. Our camp relapses into com- 
 parative silence, the crowd having dispersed, but we hear on all 
 sides fresh exclamations and positive lamentations. What can 
 have happened ? Upon inquiry we find that all the noise is 
 being made by the women whose beasts have been requisitioned, 
 and who are moaning and groaning to each other on the I'oofs 
 "Over the sad fate of their jackasses ! 
 
130 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 We ai'e not dissatisfied with the day's ^vork ; the submission 
 of the Lobis has led to that of the Douugane camel-driver, who 
 obstinately declined to go any further, despite the engagement 
 he had entered into, and a treaty signed with his thumb, or 
 rather to which he had applied his thumb smeared in ink. But 
 although the Douugane I'esigns himself to his fate, it is not 
 without heaping maledictions upon those ^vho have acted as 
 interpreters. He keeps on exclaiming, "I have been put into a 
 bag," and vents his ill-humor upon his servitor Niaz, Avho is a 
 native of Tourfan. And as Niaz has not been paid his ^vages, 
 he I'etorts by asking for Avhat is owing to him, and even for a 
 little on account, as he is not clad warmly enough to encounter 
 severe cold. But his master is sordidly mean, and, as ISFiaz says, 
 is the worst-tempered person in China. We have to interfere on 
 his behalf, whereupon the Douugane takes the opportunity of 
 asking for an advance from us, for he says that he has to settle 
 his accounts and send money to Kourla, ISFiaz tells us not to 
 believe a word of this, and says that his master will not pay his 
 debts, but will hoard up his money. 
 
 Novemhei' 15. — All these petty things indicate that it is high 
 time to be off, so we finish off our preparations, writing letters, 
 and paying the men ^lo are going back, as Avell as those who are 
 coming with us, and others who have supplied us with provisions. 
 We have added to our caravan three dogs of the country, t'wo of 
 which are enormous hounds of the kind here called " pista," forty 
 donkeys, and a dozen men in two detachments, one under the 
 orders of Abdullah- Ousta, the other commanded by Tokta, the 
 Khotanli. We have, I think, taken every conceivable precaution 
 against the imknown, for \\q have with us two canoes and paddles 
 in case of oar being brought to a standstill by a river, and if Ave 
 do not want them for the ^vater we may be glad of them as fuel. 
 
 November 16. — All is ready. We take with us 700 small 
 bundles of hay to feed our horses, Avhich are bound to die off 
 the first. We have taken into account the probabilities, not to 
 say the certainty, of deaths, in order to fix the quantity of rations- 
 
LEAVING TGHARKALIE. 121 
 
 we need to take with, us, and it is in proportion to tlie number of 
 beasts of burden that we have ; so that the load may decrease as 
 the animals die, and that the survivors may not be overburdened 
 just when their strength has declined. Experience tells us about 
 how mu(;h is wanted to feed the fourteen men of our regular 
 army for live or, at the outside, six months. 
 
 The sight of these bags and chests imparts courage to Kach- 
 med, who exclaims : '' With the help of Allah, all will be well." 
 Yet, if we are to believe the natives, we shall not go far, for they 
 say that the camels will not be able to cross 'the Altyn-Tagh if 
 they follow the route taken by the Englishman Carey, while the 
 " little man " will have it that Prjevalsky was of the same opinion. 
 However, we are impatient to put the matter to the test, and the 
 start is fixed for the l7th. 
 
 Noveiiiher 17. — In the morning the animals Avere loaded, amid 
 a scene of great excitement, the whole population being present 
 — women, children, friends, and relatives of those who are going 
 with us. It was not merely the sight of our departure which 
 attracted them, for they had come for the same reason as the 
 sparrows, which, perched on the willows near the camp, were only 
 waiting for oui' departure to swoop down upon the grains of 
 barley on the ground, just as the crowd of onlookers was eager to 
 seize the empty boxes and bits of cloth which we were leaving 
 behind. 
 
 At last the caravan is ready, and we start, amid bright sun- 
 shine, accompanied by the chiefs on horseback, who will go ^vith 
 us to the camp, a few miles from Tcharkalik, the first stage being 
 always a very short one. It terminates at the entrance to the 
 desert, upon the other bank of the small stream which forms 
 the oasis, and from which we shall once again get good water. 
 This, to us, who have drunk so much brackish water, is the most 
 delicious of liquids. 
 
 Forty minutes on horseback suffice to take us out of the oasis 
 into the desert, and as we get out of the saddle to sit upon the 
 felt where the chiefs ofi:'er us " the stirrup cup," we cast a glance 
 
122 ACROSS THIBET. 
 
 toward tlie Gobi, witli its deceptive mirage of beautiful lakes, 
 the mountains to the southeast just emerging out of the mist. 
 
 Before sunset the elders bid us farewell, the Soni chief, who 
 is not the least cordial among them, being of the number. To 
 him, as to the others, we offer a present, and they say, as they 
 wish us a successful journey, " May Allah grant you good health, 
 and take you back safe and sound to your families who are so 
 far off. We are poor, and we have not been able to do as much 
 for you as we could have wished. You will excuse us. May 
 Allah protect you ! " 
 
 We shook hands with them and thanked them, regretting 
 there should have been a little misunderstanding, but they had 
 never seen any men of our race, and were suspicious. We ex- 
 pressed a hope that they would henceforth receive any of our 
 countrymen with open arms, and would not retain an unpleasant 
 recollection of us, but regard us as friends. Then they exchanged 
 confidences with the goldseekers and trappers who have deter- 
 mined to go with us, and who say, " Look after my father ; urge 
 my wife to be patient in my absence. Give her corn on credit ; I 
 will pay when I come back. Take care of yourself. May Allah 
 keep you," etc. Then they embraced one another, those of the 
 same family kissing lip to lip, while others squeezed the hand of 
 their seniors, who impiinted a kiss upon their foreheads. Next 
 a graybeard recited a prayer, and when he had done, they all 
 raised their hands to the beard and exclaimed, " Allah is great." 
 
 The wife of Timour, a small and very active brunette, has 
 remained with her husband. She is very quick at semng bags, 
 while her son, a little boy of four, clad in sheepskin, with a diiiy 
 face, snub nose, and the small and piercing black eyes of his father, 
 amuses himself by tapping the boxes and singing, "There is 
 •only one Allah," until, at simset, our three Russians make up 
 their minds to part from their companions. After an exchange 
 of embraces and good wishes, they I'eturn to our camp of the 
 morning, where they have left theii* baggage. We hope that the 
 letters they have taken will get to Europe in about three months. 
 
TANDAGHKAK. 123 
 
 and we go to sleep after having gossipped about the future, being 
 ^11 of us agreed that so far we have succeeded wonderfully well. 
 
 November 18. — The minimum temperature of the night was 
 only 16 degrees of frost, but this was sufficient to freeze the 
 river, and we take some ice out of it. We shall not get any 
 drinkable water at the place where we encamp to-night, and in 
 future these lumps of ice will be our only drink. 
 
 We are in the bare and stony desert, to our right being a dark 
 and indistinct mass loomina; out of the mist, which the ao-ed 
 Abdullah says is the Altyn-Tagh, the gold mountains, which have 
 not before been visible in our approach to them. They appear 
 to be lofty, but none of their details can be distinguished, and no 
 peak is visible. On the other side, he tells us, begins the land 
 of ice, and we shall find it very cold. 
 
 Our troop is rather silent, and the men, instead of chatting 
 <3heerfull3^, as is their wont, flick their horses in a mechanical 
 sort of way, with a fixed look on their faces. The morrow of 
 separation is always melancholy, especially when one is bound for 
 the unknown, and neither physically nor normally is one up to the 
 mark. 
 
 We approach some sandhills on our left, the outposts of 
 the Gobi. It is here that we are to encamp, our donkeys and 
 the flock of sheep we take with us for food on the road following 
 us very closely, and making a pretty picture as they are driven 
 along by men wearing white frieze. From the sand we get on to 
 takirs fonned of clay, and then again on to the sand, going up 
 and down hillocks formed by the crumbling away of the moun- 
 tain and the sweepings of the plain. 
 
 AbduUah-Ousta, getting off his horse, begins to search for 
 traces of water, which he is not long in discovering by the 
 p)roximity to the salt on the surface, and when the donkeys have 
 been unloaded, the men take their pickaxes and dig a hole, which 
 is soon filled with salt water. 
 
 We make some tea, which we drink pending the arrival of the 
 -camels with the ice, and though it is not very nice we must 
 
124 ACB0S8 THIBET. 
 
 apprentice ourselves to tlie desert. I have often noticed that 
 whenever one starts on a long expedition there are some cases of 
 illness in the caravan, and to-day four or five men declare that 
 they are quite done up, though the stage was a very short one 
 and we had been favored ^vitli beautiful weather. This is what 
 one may call desert sickness, similar to the discomfort experienced 
 by some sailoi's for the first few days they are at sea. 
 
 This place, called Yandachkak, abounds mth ioulgoun (tam- 
 arisks), and our biilliantly illuminated encampment reminds me 
 of one in the Oustcourt, Avhere there was an abundance of the 
 saksaoul. Id the evening ^ve have no fewer than four fires going 
 at once, and our men might perhaps be more economical of their 
 fuel, but the thought that, further on, they will not be able to 
 get any, makes them anxious to make the most of the oppor- 
 tunity, and there is nothing more cheei'ful than the flames of a 
 bright fire lighting up the gloom of the desert. 
 
 After supper AbduUah-Ousta, accompanied by some of the 
 men, comes to talk to us and to ask if we are still determined 
 to follow the " old road," as that taken by Carey is called. He 
 points out that we shall be brought to a stop by t^vo passes, and 
 he I'epeats that Carey, with donkeys, had the greatest difiiculty 
 in passing them, as Patpa would tell us. The first is called the 
 " sand pass," and one reaches the foot of it by so narrow a gorge 
 that very probably the camels would not be able to traverse it. 
 Moreover, there is no sort of track over the sand pass. The 
 second is called the " pass of stones," and its name indicates that 
 it is very dangerous to camels' feet. His conclusion is that we 
 should follow the " road of the Kalmucks " — that is to say, the 
 Tsaidame route — which is the best, while by the old road we 
 should be five days without water. 
 
 While thanking him for his observations, we repeat that we 
 intend to follow the '' old road," our conviction being that this is 
 the branch of the southern route ^vhich w^e are intent on finding, and 
 we add that nothing ^vill induce us to change our minds till we 
 get pi'oof to the contrary. The men withdi'a^v after promising 
 

 '^^^;tI'\ ^ '« 
 
 
 TCHOUKOUK-SAI. 
 
VALLEY OF THE DJAIIAJ^-SAI. 127 
 
 to serve us faithfully and obey us implicitly, and we send them 
 a little tea and sugar, wMcli they drink while seated around the 
 cheerful hres. The air is filled with melody, which proceeds from 
 Tokta, our poet, w^ho is scraping his " dambourak," and, with a 
 pure voice, is singing a very plaintive song, which strikes one as 
 charming in this environment. The song seems to be inspired 
 by the sand, by the cavity out of which the brackish water is 
 draAvn, and by the sterility of the soil. It is the song of one 
 who confesses to being overcome by nature — the plaint of a 
 captive asking if he can ever escape from the forbidding soli- 
 tude in which he is enveloped. 
 
 November 19. — At break of day, we hear that the camels are 
 missing. Men start off in search of them in all directions, and it 
 is not long before they are led back through the desert. 
 
 The route is monotonous and stony, and the higher we get the 
 larger become the stones, which trappers have piled up at short 
 intervals so as to mark off the road. 
 
 At last, the Altyn-Tagh is visible to our right, its slopes ap- 
 pearing devoid of all vegetation, eaten into as they have been by 
 the waters ; and the eye can follow the burrows in which the 
 shadows wind along, deeper or shallower according as whether 
 they denote the course of the streams, the torrents, or the riv- 
 ulets, by ^vhich the water drains off the mountain. 
 
 Having marched for six hours nearly due east, we halt in a 
 valley watered by the Djahan-Sai, which also bears the name of 
 Kountchi Kan, a great Lob chief. He is said to have come from 
 the Tsaidaine with his flocks, and having discovered this river 
 while on a hunting expedition, it took his fancy, and he brought 
 his family to settle there. This river is said always to have 
 plenty of water, which we can quite believe, as its whitish, milky 
 color indicates that it proceeds from a glacier. The natives say, 
 indeed, that there is a small glacier at its source. The volume 
 of water in this river is considerable, but the sands suck it all up 
 before it reaches the Lob. About ten miles to the north of our 
 camp, half-way to Abdullah, the land is irrigated and cultivated, 
 
128 AOROSS THIBET. 
 
 and after the harvest is gathered the tillers of the soil go to live 
 in various villages near Lake Lob. 
 
 These indications as to a discovery made by a chief coming 
 from the Tsaidame render it probable that the natives of Thibet 
 must have become intermixed with the Lobis, though not to any 
 great extent, a supposition to a certain extent confirmed by the 
 fact that, when we had penetrated into the centner of Thibet, we 
 heard the natives singing the same melodies as the people of the 
 Lob Nor. 
 
 The valley of the Djahan-Sai is characterized by blocks of 
 granite which have been scored, perforated, and fashioned by 
 nature, and which affect the shape of boughs, bones, shoulder- 
 blades, and shafts of columns, the aspect being that of a cemetery, 
 the tombs of which have been profaned, and the corpses hacked 
 to pieces and scattered to the winds. 
 
 We come upon traces of gazelles and also of donkeys, and we 
 are told that some cliasseurs from the Lob have recently returned 
 with the remains of koulanes, a species of horse which roam in 
 large troops over the highlands. 
 
 November 20. — In the morning the level of the river had 
 risen a little. Its water is still white in color, and Abdullah- 
 Ousta is confident tkat at a week's march southeast there is a 
 glacier. 
 
 We encamp at Tchoukour-Sai, and on the way come across 
 some "saxaouls," from which our men at once make some fag- 
 ots, being well aware that there is no wood in this district 
 which emits more heat. These shrubs still bear their berries, 
 but unfortunately they are unfit for food. 
 
 Our camp is in the desert, beyond the Tchoukour-Sai — a deep 
 gorge without one drop of water. AVe shall halt a day here, 
 and send our animals to feed on the mountain, near to some 
 water, as it is indispensable to undertake the passage of the 
 Koum-Davane and the Tach-Davane with beasts which are fresh. 
 
 November 21. — To-day is accordingly devoted to rest, after a 
 night during which the temperature was only about five degrees 
 
THROUGH A CANON. 129 
 
 below freezing, with a liglit breeze from tbe northwest, while in 
 the daytime the thermometer rose to fifty degrees. We spend 
 the day in eifecting various repairs and cleaning, everybody 
 being in good-humor except the Doungane camel-driver, who has 
 set up his bivouac a little way from ours, and is sulking. His 
 attendant Niaz says that he is in a viler humor than ever, and 
 keeps on grumbling and declaring that he has been humbugged. 
 Maz adds that he is like a dog being led along with a string 
 round his neck, showing his teeth all the time, and he is, there- 
 fore, glad to come to the fire with our men, being always sure 
 they will give him a drink of tea. 
 
 Novemhev 22. — Three-quarters of an hour from the camp, 
 after the first, but not the last, pass of this Journey, we descend 
 more than 100 yards into a canon, which shapes its way south- 
 ward, and comes out at the foot of the Koum-Davane. This 
 canon is very picturesque seen from above ; it narrows as one 
 gets higher, while immediately below us it is a narrow gorge, in 
 which the water has left numerous deposits. From all sides the 
 high and steep banks have caused the sand to silt down, and 
 there are frequent lodgments of the alluvium, in the mass of 
 which large cavities have been eaten out. 
 
 Advancing in this defile, we reached a narrow gallery paved 
 with ice, and crept under the mountain which the water has 
 eaten into. It would not require a great effort of the imagina- 
 tion fancy one's self in an enchanted palace. But if the entrance 
 to this gallery was easy^ it was more difiicult to get out of it. 
 We had to climb up steps formed by enormous stones which 
 had rolled down from above, and which the camels would not 
 get over. But after having examined the route further on, and 
 concluded that it was practicable for these awkward animals, we 
 determined to clear a passage for them at any cost. With their 
 iron pickaxes our men succeeded in two hours' time in making 
 the passage feasible; and, having got the camels through, we 
 bent a little to the southeast, and encamped beside a stream 
 which is not yet frozen over. The ^vater, though a trifle salt, is 
 
130 
 
 AGB088 THIBET. 
 
 quite drinkable, and we should he veiy tliankful never to taste 
 worse. 
 
 In this region there are plenty of traces of wild animals, such 
 as wolves, foxes, and gazelles. A troop of fine animals witli 
 curved horns looks down upon us from the crest of the hill as we 
 
 get off our horses, and it is evi- 
 dent, from the footprints on the 
 banks of the stream, that they are 
 coming down to drink. Our ap- 
 pearance has brought them to 
 a standstill, and when Prince 
 Henry fires a shot at them, the 
 whole troop scuttles off at a tre- 
 mendous pace to the opposite side 
 of the gorge. Prince Henry 
 goes in pursuit and when night 
 sets in he is still absent ; so we go 
 off in search of him, for fear of 
 some accident having occurred, 
 \ and discover him, not far from the 
 camp, upon a rock}^ ledge, from 
 which he can neithei' come down 
 nor go back. At last, by means 
 of ropes, we get him down, and he 
 returns to the camp very well satisfied at having made the ac- 
 quaintance of the Koukou Yama {Pseudo Ovis, Burhell), but 
 disappointed not to have found the one he had wounded. 
 
 Thus it is that we form acquaintance with the fauna peculiai- 
 to Thibet. The incident shows how quickly travel binds people 
 togethei', for our men, though they had had a hard day, did not 
 need any telling to go in search of Piince Henry, being sincerely 
 anxious about him, and ready to start in a moment. 
 
 I thank them, as they sit round the lu'e, f(^i' their energy, and 
 it is a good sign that they do not indulge in too many protesta- 
 tions, their silence indicating that they have not got any thoughts 
 
 hf- 
 
 THE DOUNGANE. 
 

 GORGE AT THE FOOT 01^ THE KOUM-DA\ ANE. 
 
WHERE 18 THE KIZIL-80U? 133 
 
 to conceal. Seeing, close to our camp, traces of men and donkeys, 
 we question AbduUah-Ousta on the subject, and lie tells us that 
 a month ago a party of fourteen men, including two of his sons, 
 went on a shooting expedition in the direction of Bogalik. 
 When we ask him if the Kizil-Sou is in that direction, he says 
 it is, but that he has never been there. 
 
 It is clear that whenever one speaks of the Kizil-Sou, it is 
 impossible to get any information, and I notice that Abdullah- 
 Ousta appears to be ill at ease, while the others, who say noth- 
 ing, could give us some information, if I am not mistaken. So 
 I say : 
 
 " Has no one been to the Kizil-Sou ? Yet it is said that there 
 is a great deal of gold to be found there ? Don't you know any- 
 one, Abdullah, who has lived in those parts ? " 
 
 " There is not one of us who has been to the Kizil-Sou. But 
 I may say that a man of Lob is there at the present moment. 
 He left the Lob last year, and we have no news of him." 
 
 " What was his object in going ? " 
 
 " To seek for gold, though he took arms with him for shooting, 
 so that he might be able to supply himself with food, the coun- 
 try being uninhabited." 
 
 " Is he alone ? " 
 
 " Yes, he has not even a donkey with him. He is a poor man, 
 beset by creditors, to whom, not having the means to pay them, 
 he gave his only son in pledge, and. as his son works for his 
 principal creditor, the father, having resolved to procure his son's 
 freedom, asked permission to go oif on this expedition. He 
 made his own powder, got some shot given him, took his pelisse 
 and his tools, and set out for the region where gold is found. 
 He begged his neighbors to give themselves no further con- 
 cern about him, as he did not intend to return until he had 
 secured a sum sufficient to pay his debts and make him free 
 of creditors for the rest of his life. He went oif at the 
 beginning of last year, and we have heard nothing of him 
 since." 
 
134 AGBOSS THIBET. 
 
 It is difficult to say wlietlier this stoiy, whicli has quite a 
 Biblical flavor, is true, or whether it has been invented by 
 Abdullah- Ousta, in order to shov\^ us that he is anxious to keep 
 us well informed, for there is no reading the hearts of these 
 Orientals. However, we must keep our weather eye open. 
 
ACROSS THIBET 
 
 BEING A TRANSLATION OF 
 
 "DE PARIS AU TONKING- A TRAVERS 
 LE TJBE^T INCONNU" 
 
 GABlilEL BONVALOT 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY 
 PRINCE HENRY OF ORLEANS 
 
 TRANSLATED BY C. B. PITMAN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 104 & 106 Fourth Avenue 
 
■^■^.% 
 

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