storm, the rain and the constant climbing up and down had tired out the men and horses, and it was with a sigh of relief that we dismounted at a large farm in the village. Immediately after me came the horse with my cases of instruments and the body of a Qarakesh man. He had probably died of exhaustion in coming down from the Sa dawan and the body had simply been left by the roadside by his companions. I found his wife, son and daughter weeping round it. They had made the journey to Ili on foot across the mountains and had found the man's body. Fortunately, I had a pack-horse and was able to bring him into the village. The family looked decent. They had spent their last penny on the long journey and were now absolutely destitute. I was glad that I could help the old woman with a few roubles.
April rrth. Kan, a village of 6o houses, is inhabited by the Tarantchi. It has the same appearance
Khoghuntche as the villages in Chinese Turkestan. There is some difference, however, in the manner of village. building, though the materials are the same, viz., clay and unbaked bricks. From one or more fair-sized courtyards you enter a large room with a raised part of the floor or a platform on the right which occupies the whole room, only leaving a passage along the wall on the left. A couple of wooden pillars are usually put up to support the roof. In the wall on the left there are two doors leading to a couple of rooms, of which the back room is slightly higher, so that the windows under the roof look out on to the yard over the roof of the first room. The light enters the first room through an opening in the roof, as is usual with the Sarts in Chinese Turkestan. The population is of the same type and wears the
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