of silver was taken out of the country. They declared that in a year's time they would start without permission.
The Tungling Djan, a man of 5o, who had served for 33 years in the »lu in» troops September 29th. of the Sinkiang province, granted me an opportunity of taking some photographs during Turfan.
their training. On his arrival the battalion, consisting of too men (including N.C.O.$) was drawn up in two lines facing each other at a distance of about 20 paces. Each platoon has its own flag, carried by an N.C.O. For each of the 4 of the shao battalion there is another red flag with an inscription in white, carried behind the shao guan by one of his hupings. Besides there were 2 lilac flags with the commander's name and one blue one. At the commander's blue and red tent there were 5-6 signalling flags with long, light staffs stuck into a rack. After a very long signal given by the commander with a yellow flag the men began to move, both lines advancing in goose-step with an officer at their head, retreating or approaching an imaginary line between the two rows in regular curves. It was the same snakelike movement that you see in round-about riding. When the flags approached each other, they were lowered slowly. The commander in the meantime stood next to the drum which he beat at intervals. The men faithfully followed the path taken by the officers. The commander again waved a flag for a long time and the men formed small groups facing each other at the double, each platoon separately. The space between them was very well calculated. After the next signal the lines were formed anew. The rifle exercises that followed were led by a drummer with a drum on a stand between the lines. The numerous exercises with breechloaders were performed with a certain amount of precision, but lazily and at long intervals. When one line fired a volley, the other lowered its flags and raised them again with a cry of victory to show that it had suffered no losses. After the volleys running fire from one flank to the other was carried out with wonderful precision.
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