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0521 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 / Page 521 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000234
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CHAPTER XXXI

ISLAM AKHUN AND HIS FORGERIES

The eight days' halt that followed my return to Khotan passed
with surprising rapidity. A severe cold, brought on by the ex-
posure of the last weeks in the desert, developed into an attack of
what looked like bronchitis. This obliged me to remain within
doors for most of the time, and partly in bed. But the arrange-
ment of my collections, their partial repacking, and the endless
little agenda which accumulate after a long season of camp work,
kept me so busy that this involuntary confinement was scarcely
realised by myself. I could not have wished for a more pleasant
shelter than that afforded by Nar-Bagh, the old country residence
of Niaz Hakim Beg. The many-windowed lofty pavilion in the
centre of the garden where I had taken up my quarters, as five
years before me Dr. Hedin had done, secured quiet as well as
fresh air. The trees along the four little avenues which radiate
from this pavilion were still partly in bloom when I arrived, and
even when the last blossoms had withered there was the fresh green
of the leaves to please the eyes which had so long beheld only the
yellow and grey of the sand dunes. Judged by the old Moghul
gardens about Lahore, my cherished haunts in years gone by, Nar-
Bagh would be thought a very plain villeggiatura of the Eastern
type. But here in Chinese Turkestan, where even the cultivation
of a field involves a serious struggle against sterile nature, real
gardens are so few and far between that Niaz Hakim Beg's creation
deserves grateful acknowledgment.
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