when I had to receive as my guest the host of a few minutes ago. But it was easy enough to continue a conversation so recently broken off, and volumes from my little travelling book-case, among them Stanislas Julien's edition of Hiuen-Tsiang, helped to entertain. I showed Huang-Daloi some of the manuscripts found at Dandan-Uiliq and let him read the legends of the Chinese coins of by-gone dynasties in my collection. He was too polite to show whether they interested him as much as my camp table, chair, and bed, which he also closely examined.
I had originally planned a halt of three days at Keriya, but
the non-arrival of the ponies expected from Khotan caused an extension of two more days. To tell the truth, all of us were not particularly sorry for the delay. My men, Ram Singh included, were glad to have a little respite after the roughing and exposure in the desert. I myself, the interviews with the Amban once over, found so much to do in the way of notes to be written up, accounts to be prepared, &c., that I could scarcely spare an hour for a daily walk in the dusk. Dandan-Uiliq was no place for clerical work, and it was only now that I was able to write a short account of my work there for the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal. The last four days at Keriya were cold and gloomy. On the 14th and 15th of January there were light falls of snow, scarcely more than an inch deep each day, yet sufficient to give a thoroughly wintry aspect to the bare fields along the river. It was cheerful to have a fire by which to spend the days of busy work. But I missed in my little den the light and ` plein air ' of my camp life. As usual in all houses of Khotan and the regions around, light is admitted to the inner rooms inhabited during the winter only by a small square opening in the roof. It is naturally scanty and ill-distributed.
My inquiries for antiquities made through Abdullah Khan and
others brought me little that was of interest. Keriya is not itself an old place and the " treasure-seeking " profession does not flourish as in Khotan. But on the first day after my arrival I received information about ancient remains in the desert north of Niya
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