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.