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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0153 |
The heart of a continent : vol.1 |
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Zungaria we passed a track which he said was that of a
wild camel. It was smaller than the tame camel's footprint,
and, as it was a single track and leading straight across our
line of march right up the desert of Zungaria—from nowhere
to nowhere—and miles from any camping-spot, it was not likely
to have been anything else but that of a wild camel.
During this march my Chinese rather came to grief. I had
been walking, and wanted to ride, so I said to the guide, "Yau
chi" ("Want to ride"). The guide was eating some bread, and
laughed at me, shaking his head. I got rather angry at this,
and repeated, "Yau chi," at which he shook his head again and
pointed to my camel. My boy now shouted out to him, and
he then at once dismounted and seated my camel for me.
It then struck me that "chi" also means "to eat," and he
had thought I meant I wanted some of his bread, and had
pointed to my saddle-bags, where I had my own. I ought to
have said "Yau chi" in a surprised tone, whereas (not being in
my usual amiable state of mind) I had said it in an angry tone,
and the meaning was immediately altered from "I want to
ride" to "I want to eat." Such are some of the intricacies of
the Chinese language.
After this long and trying march we (or I, at any rate)
scarcely got a wink of sleep, for the heat was stifling, without a
breath of air, and I was lying on the ground in a Kabul tent,
pestered by a plague of sandflies, which got into my eyes, nose,
and everywhere. That was the most despairing time of my
whole journey, and many times that night I accused myself of
being the greatest fool yet created, and swore by all the gods
I would never go wandering about the wild places of the earth
again. These periods of depression must occur to every
traveller. He cannot help asking himself now and then,
"What's the good of it all?" But 'tis always darkest before
the dawn, and I could just see the first glimmering of awaken-
ing day—the snowy summits of the "Heavenly Mountains"
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