The boatmen wanted to take four horses across at a time; a veto was put upon this proposal on account of the guide's horse; it was determined that he should go alone. Taking the saddle off my own animal, I led him into the water; on reaching the boat I climbed into it, and tried to make the horse follow. This was by no means an easy task, he had sunk at least a foot into the mud, and evidently did not fancy the leap into the bark. Three of the boatmen now got into the river. One of them, seizing my horse's tail, twisted it violently, the others poked him from behind with their oars. Osman all this time was expostulating with the animal from the bank. "Dear horse, jump in! You shall have as much barley as you can eat this evening." This argument not having any effect upon the horse, Osman's language waxed stronger, and he heaped numerous curses upon the animal's ancestry. "Drat you!" said Radford at last; "you are always a-talking when there is something to do. Go and help, can't you?" Suiting the action to the word, he gave a push to the noisy Turk, which nearly upset him into the water. At length, and by the exertions of all our party, my horse was persuaded to make an effort. Rearing himself up, he placed his two fore-feet in the boat. A chorus of oaths and ejaculations—the hind-legs followed. Once safely in, I bandaged his eyes. The other horses, seeing that one of their number was embarked, followed without much difficulty. We floated down the stream for some distance, and at a great speed, before the boatmen could get any command over their craft, which whirled round as if in a whirlpool. Fortunately the horses were all blindfolded, and could not see the water. At last we reached the opposite bank, having descended the stream for more than a mile from our starting-point. So much time was lost in getting the other horses over, that night was upon us before we reached our destination, Yakshagan, a large village with two hundred houses. It was only fourteen miles from Asra Yuzgat, though, owing to the river, we had employed from sunrise to sunset in the journey. At Yakshagan it was necessary to hire fresh post-horses. The official at the station was very uncivil, and declared that he would not supply me with any unless I paid for three horses from Angora. I had only engaged two, however, the man with them had chosen to bring a third animal, instead of riding on one of the baggage horses. At last the difficulty was settled by the guide, who was known to the postmaster, saying that he would be responsible for the amount; whilst I agreed to refer the matter to the authorities at Yuzgat, and abide by their decision.