say, a minor officer of the Mahometan
ecclesiastical administration, and at the same time a small trader in
silken and woollen stuffs. With him came the mullah, or priest, a portly
old gentleman with an open, honest face of the European type, and a
fine grey beard. The other important members of the little community
followed. They were all swarthy in colour, and had the small eyes and
prominent cheek-bones which are characteristic of the Tartar races, but
they had little of that flatness of countenance and peculiar ugliness
which distinguish the pure Mongol. All of them, with the exception of
the mullah, spoke a little Russian, and used it to assure us that we
were welcome. The children remained respectfully in the background, and
the women, with laces veiled, eyed us furtively from the doors of the
tents.

* I presume this is the same word as akhund, well known on
the Northwest frontier of India, where it was applied
specially to the late ruler of Svat.

The aoul consisted of about twenty tents, all constructed on the same
model, and scattered about in sporadic fashion, without the least regard
to symmetry. Close by was a watercourse, which appears on some maps as
a river, under the name of Karalyk, but which was at that time merely a
succession of pools containing a dark-coloured liquid. As we more than
suspected that these pools supplied the inhabitants with water for
culinary purposes, the sight was not calculated to whet our appetites.
We turned away therefore hurriedly, and for want of something better
to do we watched the preparations for dinner. These were decidedly
primitive. A sheep was brought near the door of our tent, and there
killed, skinned, cut up into pieces, and put into an immense pot, under
which a fire had been kindled.

The dinner itself was not less primitive than the manner of preparing
it. The table consisted of a large napkin spread in the middle of the
tent, and the chairs were represented by cushions, on which we
sat cross-legged. There were no plates, knives, forks, spoons, or
chopsticks. Guests were expected all to eat out of a common wooden bowl,
and to use the instruments with which Nature had provided them. The
service was performed by the host and his son. The fare was copious, but
not varied--consisting entirely of boiled mutton, without bread or other
substitute, and a little salted horse-flesh thrown in as an entree.

To eat out of the same dish with half-a-dozen