Fig. 12. The remains of an old house found on May 5th
In one corner there was a fireplace, with traces of charcoal in it; and in one of the rooms, which may have been an outhouse, there was a quantity of sheep's dung. We found in the house fragments of clay utensils, horns of cattle, fish-bones, a wooden implement, a knife-blade, the bottom of an iron cauldron, scraps of close-woven cloth, the bottom of a wicker basket, and other things. Southwest of the house there had been a walled-in yard; the greater part of the wall had disappeared. In the yard we found fragments of large wooden drinkingtroughs.1
We wondered what purpose this house had served in its time. It did not contain a trace of anything valuable; only the very simplest utensils. Had it been merely a poor farm, or a small post on the old Silk Road? Or perhaps an inn for travellers to and from Lou-lan?
We stayed here for just an hour, and then continued our journey in a fairly strong north-east wind.
At about five we took another observation from a hillock, finding that we had the choice of two arms, one running E. N. E. and the other southward. We took the former, and soon found ourselves holding a north-easterly course. By a small reed-bed we discovered that what little current there was was against us, and turned back. But it was growing dark, so we landed on the right bank and pitched camp in a place with fuel. Our camp was at the south-eastern foot of a yardang,
1 All the archaeological finds mentioned here have been examined and published in BERGMAIseS Archaeological Researches in Sinkiang, Stockholm 1939, Vol. VII: 1 of this series.
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