wall of the central room. From this position, and from the dowels still clearly marked on the back of two of them, it is evident that these pictures had once been fixed high up on the wall, from which they dropped only when the little monastic building was gradually being filled with sand. This accounts for the remarkable preservation of the colours and the wood underlying them. No verbal description can take the place of adequate reproductions in colour which it has been impossible to provide for the present publication. But until such will be made accessible in my Detailed Report, now under preparation, I may at least draw attention to one of these pictures which by its subject presents unusual interest, and which can already be seen on a reduced scale in one of the coloured collotype plates illustrating my " Preliminary Report."
This panel, which has a rectangular shape, with pointed arched top, is 15 inches high and 7 inches broad. It. shows two figures, both mounted and manifestly of high rank, one above the other. The upper figure is seen riding on a high-stepping horse, the colour of which, white with large spots of black, curiously recalls the appearance of the piebald ` Yarkandi ' horse, which, until very recent times, was so much fancied by natives of Northern India. The rider, whose handsome, youthful face shows an interesting combination of Indian and Chinese features, wears his long black hair tied in a loose knot at the crown, while a yellow band passes round the head holding in front a large elliptical jewel. The long pink tunic, and the narrow light scarf that descends from the back of the head, with its two ends floating behind the arms to indicate rapid movement, are drawn with the same care and freedom of outline as the rest of the details. The feet are cased in high black boots, with felt soles, very much like those still worn by men of means in Chinese Turkestan, and are placed in stirrups. While the left hand holds the rein, the right raises a patera, towards which a bird is shown swooping down in full flight. From the girdle hangs a long sword, nearly straight, and of a pattern that appears early in Persia and other Muhammadan countries of the East.
The horse, which is remarkably well drawn even to its legs and
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