122 IN TIBET AND CHINESE TURKESTAN.
addition to 100 rupees in small change, a number of tins of matches. The matches were ignited by the concussion, but the tins containing them were so strong and so firmly soldered- that none of them burst, though they were bulged out like balloons.
From Sarok Kamish I had sent forward a messenger to Bazar Dara on a baggage pony, to announce my visit to the commandant of the garrison, and when approaching the fort along with Raju, the caravan bashi, we went on ahead on foot to look for the best course for the caravan to follow. As we advanced we overtook the pony of the messenger which had been left to graze by the side of the track, and I was about to mount when Raju seriously remonstrated with me against such an unseemly proceeding. As the pony had only some rags for a saddle, and a piece of rope for a bridle, it seemed to Raju beneath my dignity and the dignity of the occasion, that I should enter a Chinese stronghold with no more sumptuous equipment. The earnest manner in which he protested and urged me to wait for my proper pony was very amusing, and, to his keen satisfaction, I acquiesced, so that when, soon afterwards, some of the garrison of the small walled enclosure, which the Chinese call a fort, rounded the corner and salaamed to me, I was able to respond to their greeting with becoming state. The love of outward show seems supplied in excess by Nature to the Oriental mind.
The garrison at this place nominally consists of twenty Kirghiz : and the Beg of Zad, in whose district it stands, receives pay and food for the support of that number ; but, in accordance with the usual methods of Chinese officials, this functionary pockets most of the pay and maintains only a few unarmed men. In most countries flags are not regarded as part of the soldier's armament, but here there appeared to be no military equipment
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