IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Across Asia : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY
which they again made for my room. The travellers who visited the sarai during these two days were not interesting. There were a couple of minor officials in their arbahs, converted into waggons by means of straw matting, in which they sat with their wives and servants. Their method of washing in the morning consisted of rubbing their faces and hands with the towel they used at meals, rung out in hot water. — Some of the Torguts who had accompanied the Khan to Peiping, passed our station in two groups of 8 arbahs each. Life in the great world had apparently not affected their habits of cleanliness in the slightest. It would have required a shovel to remove the top layer of dirt alone from them. It was a pleasant surprise for these children of nature to meet a European who had not only come almost straight from Bain Bulaq, but could show them photographs of the Khan's mother, their lamas and other friends. A good many of them were travelling free of charge with horses taken from the local population. It proved so difficult to secure the necessary
horses for th into the unk
Some of them were still waiting for horses when we left at 6 a.m. The road led E again and ran between tilled fields and isolated houses along a strip of land strewn with trees, bushes and woods. The soil was clay or löss and we crossed a number of streams and watercourses. Close to them in hollows and other places we saw patches of standing water, through which ran deep tracks of wheels. During the thaw they interfere considerably with wheeled traffic.
A mile and a half from the station we reached the main part of the village of Pa khu ko, the 3o houses of which are scattered over an area of about 5 miles in an E direction. r Chinese, the rest Dungan. Wheat, gaolyan, tchumiza (tchau mi), oil plants and millet are grown. The average yield is 5 fold. In the spring there are 2 or 3 heavy westerly storms. The produce is consumed on the spot and there is little for sale. In a couple of places the ruins of deserted houses are visible. At the spot where the village area is crossed by the road, there is an uncultivated patch, about 2 miles wide, with a few trees here and there, after which the ground resumes its former character.
We were now in the area of the village of Eh'rdakhoza that continued for I z /3 to i 2/3
mile, when the wooded zone, which had already grown very thin, was replaced by
ap ain like the one we had ridden across between the last stations. The houses of the will age, about io in number, are scattered among many deserted houses, destroyed during th last Dungan rising. Some wheat, mostly tchumiza, millet and oil plants are grown. T he yield is 6-7 fold. On the edge of the wood we crossed a couple of overgrown river b
eds and noticed signs of fields that were formerly under cultivation. The soil on the
lain consists of sandy clay or löss, with a considerable admixture of gravel in places, especially further on. In the S, as before, some isolated trees ran parallel to the road halfway to the mountains. The latter were clearly visible and Bogdo Olo stood out in imposing beauty in the sunshine. It no longer had the same concentrated form as when seen from the Urumchi neighbourhood, but formed a snowy ridge of several miles, from which its three peaks protruded. In the N, at a great distance, a line of mountains appeared again, seeming to melt into the horizon in a NE direction. Their yellow colour gave them the
) 329 (
em, however, that the »suje» abandoned his mapoza station and disappeared
nown.
of a
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