s, which in some places were drifting over
the ramparts. Through its abandoned gateway we almost staggered with
weakness, and directed our course to the miserable bazaar. The only meat
we could find was pork, that shibboleth between Mohammedanism and
Confucianism. The Dungan restaurant-keeper would not cook it, and only
after much persuasion consented to have it prepared outside and brought
back to be eaten beneath his roof. With better water and more substantial
food we began, from this time on, to recuperate. But before us still a
strong head wind was sweeping over the many desert stretches that lay
between the oases along the Su-la-ho, and with the constant walking our
sandals and socks were almost worn away. For this reason we were delayed
one evening in reaching the town of Dyou-min-shan. In the lonely stillness
of its twilight a horseman was approaching across the barren plain,
bearing a huge Chinese lantern in his hand, and singing aloud, as is a
Chinaman's custom, to drive off the evil spirits of the night. He started
back, as we suddenly appeared, and then dismounted, hurriedly, to throw
his lantern's glare upon us. "Are you the two Americans?" he asked in an
agitated manner. His question was surprising. Out in this desert country
we were not aware that our identity was known, or our visit expected. He
then explained that he had been instructed by the magistrate of
Dyou-min-shan to go out and look for us, and escort us into the town. He
also mentioned in this connection the name of Ling Darin--a name that we
had heard spoken of almost with veneration ever since leaving Urumtsi. Who
this personage was we were unable to find out beyond that he was an
influential mandarin in the city of Su-chou, now only a day's journey
away.

[Illustration: WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL.]

Near that same fortieth parallel of latitude on which our Asiatic journey
was begun and ended, we now struck, at its extreme western limit, the
Great Wall of China. The Kiayu-kuan, or "Jade Gate," by which it is here
intersected, was originally so called from the fact that it led into the
Khotan country, whence the Chinese traders brought back the precious
mineral. This, with the Shanghai-kuan near the sea, and the Yuamin-kuan,
on the Nankow pass, are the principal gateways in this "wall of ten
thousand _li_," which, until forced by Yengiz Khan, protected the empire
from the Mongolian nomads for a period of fourteen hundred years.