God alone gave me my tongue, let me speak further.
On the mountains we saw huntsmen, marksmen, and drivers, but with one only was there good fortune.
As the top of the highest mountain towers above all others, so did he excel all, for he sent two well-aimed balls into the body of the archar and brought it to the yurt.
Every huntsman wished to bring in booty, but only one had his wish fulfilled: to us was joy, and to thee, noble lady, whom I now address.
All the people are delighted, not the men only, to see thee, to greet thee; all of us wish thee joy, and a thousand years of life and health.
And of thy good pleasure receive our homage. Thou mayest well have seen a better people, but no truer has ever offered greeting and welcome.
May God bless thee, thee and thy house and thy children. I cannot find words enough to praise thee, but God has given me my tongue, and it has spoken, the red tongue, what sprang from the heart.”
We left the Arkat mountains, and soon thereafter the district governed by our kind host, whom we left at the hunting-ground; and very shortly afterwards we were welcomed in Sergiopol, the first town in Turkestan, by Colonel Friedrichs, who greeted us in the name of the governor of this great province, and gave us escort on our way. Kirghiz chiefs became our guard of honour, and supplied us with draught-horses which could never before have done duty as such, so madly did they at first try to run off with the heavy wagon. Kirghiz sultans showed us hospitality, looked after our food and shelter, and erected yurts at every place where we wished to rest, or were expected to do so. Kirghiz also caught snakes and other creeping things for our collections, threw their nets on our behalf into the steppe-lakes, and followed us like faithful dogs on our hunting expeditions. Thus we journeyed through the steppe-land, now gorgeous in the full beauty of spring, delaying for a time to hunt and collect at Alakul (“the shining lake”), crossing valleys full of blossom and smiling hills, to Lepsa, the Cossack settlement on the Alatau, one of the grandest of the steppe mountains. We traversed the settled region, a little paradise, flowing with milk and honey; ascended the high mountains, rejoicing in the rushing torrents, the green Alpine lakes, and the lovely vistas, and finally directed our course to the north-east towards the Chinese frontier, for the shortest and most convenient route to the Altai led us through a portion of the Celestial Empire.
In Bakti, the last Russian outpost, news was brought to us that His Ineffability the Jandsun Dyun, the Governor of the province Tarabagatai, sent to greet us in the name of China, and invited us to a banquet. To meet the hospitable wishes of the noble mandarin, we rode on the 21st May to Tchukutchak or Tchautchak, the capital of the said province.
The company which rode through the summer glory of the steppe was larger and more splendid than ever. Partly in order to have a quite necessary security in a country disquieted by insurrection, partly in order to appear with dignity, not to say with pomp, before his Highness, we had added to our ranks. For, besides the thirty Cossacks from Sachan, under the leadership of our new escort, Major Tichanoff, and besides our old Kirghiz friends, we had with us a half sotnia of Cossacks from Bakti. The beating hoofs of our small army sounded strangely in the otherwise desolate steppe. All our Kirghiz were arrayed in holiday dress, and their black, blue, yellow, and red kaftans, covered with gold and silver braid, vied in sheen and splendour with the uniforms of the Russian officers. At the boundary, which had recently been agreed upon, a Chinese warrior of high rank waited to greet us. Thereupon he wheeled round and galloped off as fast as his horse would bear him to inform his commander of our approach. Stumbling over rubbish heaps, between half-ruined and half-built houses, but also between blossoming gardens, our horses bore us towards the town. There apish Mongolian faces grinned at us, and appallingly ugly women outraged my sense of beauty. Our cavalcade drew up in front of the Governor’s house, and we craved admission at the broad portal. Opposite it rose a wall of beautiful workmanship, with some strange animal figure in the centre; while to right and left on the ground lay some Chinese instruments of torture. An official of the house bade us enter, but indicated at the same time that the Cossacks and Kirghiz were to remain outside. The governor received us with the greatest solemnity in what seemed at once his sitting-room, office, and court of justice. Preserving all the dignity of a high mandarin, sparse of speech, in fact, uttering but a few disjointed words, always accompanied, however, with a cheerful, grinning smile, he gave us his hand, and bade us sit down at the breakfast-table. This gave promise of tea, and bore innumerable small dishes with strange delicacies, and “we raised our hands to the daintily prepared meal”. The food consisted of rice, various fruits dried and preserved in oil, slices of ham as thin as parchment, dried shrimp-tails, and a multitude of unknown, or, at any rate, unrecognizable tit-bits and sweets; the drinks consisted of excellent tea and sickeningly sweet rice-brandy of the strength of spirits of wine. After the meal, which I, at least, managed to get through with impunity, having fortified myself beforehand with a substantial snack of a less doubtful kind, the hookahs were produced, and we were shown various intelligible and unintelligible objects of interest in that room and the one adjoining. Among these were landscapes and pictures of animals, commendatory letters from the government, the great seal of state wrapped up with comical carefulness in brightly coloured silk, extraordinary arrows of an import which only a Chinese mind can fathom, samples of European industry, and so forth. The conversation was extremely limited, and unspeakably dignified. Our addresses had to be translated from French to Russian, from Russian to Kirghiz, and from Kirghiz into Chinese; and the answers had to pass through the reverse process. Little wonder, then, that the speeches acquired a tone of great solemnity! After breakfast some Chinese archers came in to display their warlike valour and skill; thereafter the Jandsun himself in all his glory led us to his kitchen-garden to let us taste its produce. At length he bade us farewell, and we rode again through the streets and markets of the town, and found hospitality in the house of a Tartar, where we enjoyed an excellent meal, especially graced by the presence of a young wife, as pretty as a picture, who was summoned to the men’s apartments to do us honour. It was towards sunset that we left the town, which is not without historic interest.