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0105 Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1
Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 / Page 105 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000231
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deep night of sand-clouds, we found stakes driven
where the trail ought to be—a sort of raised-letter-
print for the blind and groping caravan.
At intervals of about fifteen miles the Chinese
Government has had langars built, houses of stone,
without furniture, but offering welcome shelter from
sun or snow or sand. If near a farm, one could buy
horse provender, perhaps chickens or a sheep. We
paid the attendant fifteen cents per night for this
shelter — covering ten men and as many horses.
Generally the same sum was paid as rent to a private
owner for our rooms and a court where our men and
horses were lodged. Chickens usually cost five cents
each; wood for cooking dinner and breakfast, an-
other five cents—a little more if in the blank desert.
Forage for horses cost about ten cents per day per
head. The scale of expense is pleasing, is it not?
Trading generally seems all retail—straight from
producer to consumer without intervention of the
wholesaler. The turn-over is quick, I fancy. The
stock may be incredibly small. While developing
Achbar's English I one day painfully conversed
thus:
"What did you do before you came with us?"
"Merchant."
"In the bazaar?"
"Yes."
"Who bought your goods when you left?"
"My brother."
"How much?"
"Nineteen tenga."
Now a tenga in Chinese Turkestan is worth about
five cents, so it appears that Achbar's daily bread