FROM K U N IA VEZIR TO S A R Y K AM ISH . 389
recently hinted. We had but one of these useful
articles, and fearing to put it into the crate, lest it
should be broken, I committed it to Rosy, to carry,
as he suggested, in his bosom. Later, however, he
transferred it to the interior of his sheepskin hat, and
he was enjoying his slumbers when the crash came,
and he was pitched out on his head, not to the breaking
of his skull, indeed, but to the utter destruction of
my china basin!
It took Rosy a few minutes to realize in all its
bearings this sudden termination of his dreams, and
then I saw that he was disposed to take a serious view
of matters. This was the second time his perpendicularity
had been inverted, and he now solemnly informed
us that if he were thrown upon his head again he
would die ! This, of course, we deprecated, as we had
not yet made sufficient progress in the vernacular, and
we accordingly roped up the broken cradle, once more
to turn in.
The men suggested, however, that, in deference to
the frailty o f the broken panier, we should not get in
whilst the camel was kneeling, but after it had risen.
This was a feat less difficult of accomplishment, no
doubt, than climbing an elephant’s trunk, but by no means
easy. First, Murad was made to tuck his head in the
camel s shoulder, whilst I climbed up his back on to
the camel’s neck, my first landing-stage, after which it
remained to struggle over the front of the pack-saddle,
and let one’s self dow:n into the cradle, the opposite
panier being held down till my fellow-rider arrived by
the same route, and established the equilibrium.
During the night, after marching three miles, we
approached again the bed of the Oxus at Ak-bugut, or
white dam, 12 miles from Egen-Klych by the road, but