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Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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Gumbaz, where I pitched my camp by the side of the river
now grey and swollen with the water of glacier streams, it was
distinctly warm until the wind began to blow up the valley.
Next morning we were ready for an early start, for the
neighbourhood of Tashkurghan and such comforts as it could
offer was an attraction for my people no less than myself.
Muztagh-Ata, still so distant, showed itself in fascinating
clearness during the early hours of the morning. Its grand
dome of ice filled the vista behind the north end of the valley.
After a few miles' ride over a stony level 'Dasht,' my guide,
Rashid Beg, the Ming-bashi ("head of a thousand men") of
Tashkurghan, broke his usual silence, and indicated a white
spot in the far distance as the goal of our march. It was
the Fort of Tashkurghan, rising over the western bank of the
river. Then I reached a strip of delightfully green sward
stretching along the irrigation channel which carries the
water of the river to the fields of Tughlanshahr, the collection
of hamlets opposite Tashkurghan. For miles the path winds
along it, and ultimately reaches the fertile tract where the
water spreads itself over carefully-terraced fields.
Whether it was the bright surroundings or the historical
interests associated with the place, the sight of the walls of
Tashkurghan rising higher and higher above the flat filled me
with emotion. I knew that they did not hide imposing
structures or special comforts. Yet they marked the com-
pletion of a considerable part of my journey and my entry
upon the ground which was to occupy my researches. The
swollen state of the river prevented the use of the nearest
route, and I had to descend almost to the foot of the spur
which projects into the valley below Tashkurghan from the
eastern range, before a practicable ford was reached. Even
here, where the river spreads in about half a dozen branches
over the flat meadow land, the crossing was no easy matter.
For the water reached almost up to the saddles, and flowed
with great rapidity. At last, however, though wet to the
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