Men, women, and children were p'a-hsia (squatting, as a camel squats), to use the Gobi caravan phrase, without a tent among them, but sheltered by big rocks. A little fire was being jealously fed from the small store of fuel they had brought on their pack animals, and they gave us tea. They were gravely merry and pressed on us the courtesy of the good folk of Turkestan. Old men stroked their beards and youths waited on us and women fluttered about the rim of the circle to get a glimpse of the khanum, my wife.