Paul Nazaroff (1880–1942)

This is the sequel to hunted through central asia. After trying to hide in Russian Turkestan, in the house of a sart and in a wood in the mountains, nazaroff was smuggled over into chinese turkestan, on a horse. On arriving there he tried to find work, as he had run out of money. Maybe he fixed shoes for people or something for a while. I forget what he did most of the time he was there, maybe he was looked after by the people at the British embassy, with whom he became friends. He describes the history of Chinese turkestan, and the rule by the cruel chinese ruler. This man has people cruelly killed or mutilated. A woman foolishly went to the ruler to ask for his help as her son was not managing to grow up very well, and the ruler decided to kill him as that would teach him. This sent the mother mad, who spent the rest of her life wondering about the place. There is a revolt and the ruler is killed, there is a photo of him tied up on a post. He describes how it is an easy matter for a native to grow a few melons and sell them. He describes how even the beggars have horses, and might be seen with a rose over the ear. He describes animals, such as a type of hedgehog, and easily tamed snow leopards. Eventually he arranged an expedition to cross over to Kashmir, via the nubra valley. They have horses and I think camels, and a herd of sheep or goats. He describes the high altitude route as littered with the bodies of animal and describes tamarisk, rhubard and aconite, which the horses are apt to eat because they are the only green thing - leading to death. He desribes some tibetans taking the sinews off a dead horses, and the high altitude antelopes, which think nothing of the thin air. They suffer from Tutek, altitude problems. Tilman years later took this same route and wrote that it was more like reconoitering a mountain than a trade path. Eventually they came to leh and Kashmir.… (mere)