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| 0358 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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feeding value of his ancient straw, or rather, as I ought perhaps to
put it from consideration for my honest "treasure-seeking" guide,
that he was less of an authority on the keeping of live animals than
on most matters dead and buried beneath the desert sands. So
when, a day later, Ram Singh arrived with some of my camels that
carried his baggage from the Keriya Darya, I had as much as
possible of the little store of dry Kumush they had brought along
given to the poor famished pony.
Turdi, still finding no purchasers, was now anxious to have it
returned to Tawakkel, and, as the return of Kasim's small party
made it easier now to spare men from the work, I arranged at once
to have it sent back there in charge of two labourers, who were also
to take my mail-bag for transmission to Khotan. I had, of course,
great doubts as to whether the victim of Turdi's ill-fated experiment
would be able to cover the sixty miles or so of desert marching to
the river bank. Hence it was no surprise to me when the first
arrivals from that side—two men who brought me news from the
kindly Amban of Khotan—reported that the pony had succumbed
to its sufferings two marches from Dandan-Uiliq.
The last I heard of the ill-fated animal was a request which
Turdi addressed to me before I finally left the ruined site, and
which showed how curiously the rules of the local administration
would affect the quondam owner even far away in the desert.
Turdi wanted to have at least the pony's skin carried back to
Tawakkel by his companion and sold there. In order to save the
tax which would otherwise have to be paid to the local Beg on
account of this sale, I was obliged to endorse in due form the
quaintly-worded and still more queerly penned Turki application
setting forth all the sad circumstances of the case which Turdi
got written out by the hand of Niaz, our 'Mullah.' I thought at
the time how puzzling a document it would be for an archæologist
who might have the good fortune to light upon it in the desert
sand some two thousand years hence!
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