Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 216 (Color Image)

0216	Among the Celestials : vol.1

178. AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. VII.

owner of the one we applied to was very surly,

but eventually agreed to give us accommodation

for the night.

It was, therefore, with no very grateful

feelings towards him that we left his camp on

the following morning. We travelled hard all

day, and, at the end of a march of forty-six

miles, over a country mostly composed of bare

hills and gravel plains, but with occasional

clumps of trees in the hollows, we reached a

wide plain of light clay, in the middle of which

we found a large encampment of fully a hun-

dred tents, and the people, besides keeping

large flocks and herds, also cultivated a con-

siderable amount of land. I noticed, too, some

houses scattered here and there over the culti-

vated part of the plain, but was told that these

were merely storehouses. The Kirghiz said

that houses were good enough to put stores of

grain in, but they would never run the risk of

living in any erection which might fall down

like a house ! The inhabitants of this encamp-

ment were far from friendly, and it was only

after considerable difficulty that a man was

found who was willing to put us up. Rahmat-

ula-Khan was most tactful and persuasive, but

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