| CH. XXII IMAM JA'FAR SADIK'S SHRINE 267 think of going into the forest after the game which seemed plentiful. But my little terrier was ever on the alert, chasing hares, foxes, and deer with the same unremitting energy. ` Kardash Beg's ' activity seemed to puzzle greatly the young shepherd dog whom the Surveyor had brought down from the Karanghu-tagh mountains as a travelling companion of his own. Though the route to Imam Ja'far Sadik's shrine had not varied since I last followed it, there were conspicuous changes in the dying course of the Niya River. Already on the first march we suddenly came upon the river, and had to cross it at a point near Yoghan-toghrak, where our former survey showed it several miles away to the east. On enquiry I learned that during the summer floods of 1904 the stream had greatly altered its course. From the first I suspected that this deflection westwards would carry the river back into the clearly marked old bed which in 1901 we found completely dry. This assumption proved true by what we saw next day. The reversion of the stream had assured a fresh lease of life to the splendid forest which grows along this old bed, and which six years before seemed doomed to wither slowly away. On the third day I sighted once more the picturesque group of Sheikhs' houses, pilgrims' shelters, and ` Ziarats,' marked by rag-decked bundles of staves, which make up the holy place of ` Padshahim,' or ` My Lord ' Imam Ja'far Sadik. Being ahead of the men and the baggage, I could find time for a visit to the bare gravel hillock which bears on its summit the supposed resting-place of that holy warrior, and on its slope the innumerable little earth-heaps intended to mark the graves of his host of fellow-martyrs. In one of the shady poplar groves at the foot, where roughly-set-up staves, meant to symbolize gates, are profusely hung with quaint collections of rags, yak-tails, and other votive offerings (Fig. 69), I came upon a queer-looking Diwana from Kashgar who had settled down to live upon the Sheikhs' charity. Along with his little son he acted as my cicerone on this pious perambulation. Like most of these devotees he showed only too plainly the effects of the Charas habit. | | | | | | |
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