Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 142 (Color Image)

0142	Among the Celestials : vol.1

114 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. VI.

journey before us, and so I was left to get on

as best I could, in half-English, half-Chinese,

with the " boy," Liu-san. The guide was a

doubled-up little man, whose eyes were not

generally visible, though they sometimes

beamed out from behind his wrinkles and

pierced one like a gimlet. He possessed a

memory worthy of a student of Stokes, and the

way in which he remembered the position of

the wells at each march in the desert, was

simply marvellous. He would be fast asleep

on the back of a camel, leaning right over with

his head either resting on the camel's hump,

or dangling about beside it, when he would

suddenly wake up, look first at the stars, by

which he could tell the time to a quarter of an

hour, and then at as much of the country as he

could see in the dark. Having thus satisfied

himself as to our position, he would, after a

time, turn the camel a little off the track, dis-

mount, and there, sure enough, we would find

a well. The extraordinary manner in which

he kept the way surpasses anything .I know of.

As a rule no track at all could be seen, especi-

ally in the sandy districts ; but he used to lead

us somehow or other, generally by the tracks

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books