they evidently spread my fame as a " Hakim " throughout the district. From what I saw and heard Khotan seems to be a hotbed of diseases of all kinds. Numerous " cases " of a sickening type were daily brought to me, though rarely was I able to administer remedies from which I could expect any real good. A medical man would find here a splendid field of work, but I doubt whether his fees would suffice even to balance the charities expected by a large portion of those seeking relief. Chinese mendicants and loafers were frequent among my patients, and their condition fully justified the requests for a present which were invariably made after I had attended to their ailments. I wondered whether the Chinese officials realized how detrimental to their régime must be the presence of large numbers of these destitute compatriots, living on charity and, no doubt, occasional loot.
It was manifest that my desert campaign would necessitate a prolonged absence from the oasis. Accordingly I decided to make, previous to my start, a thorough examination of old localities within the oasis itself, with a view to settling its ancient topography. At the same time I decided to send out Ram Singh independently for a survey of the high range east of the Kuen-luen Peak No. 5, by which the gap could be filled that was left between our recent survey and the tract explored by Capt. Deasy about Polu. On completing this task within about a month Ram Singh was to march to Keriya and then join me eventually at Dandan-Uiliq.
On the 23rd of November we both left Khotan. Our way was in common as far as Jamada, the village on the Yurluig-kash which I had passed before when marching to Karangliu-tagh. I halted here for the night and received a cheerful welcome from Wang-Daloi, a Chinese acquaintance of my previous visit. For the last ten years the little Chinaman had lived there, trading in jade, which is washed from the Yurung-kash bed in the neighbourhood. He seemed to have ventured occasionally on speculative jade mining too, but fortune had never shown
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