Observed from the side towards Khiva, the elevated ground of the Kaflankir has the appearance of a regular wall; its margin is parallel with the horizon, and as level as if it were only yesterday that the water had retired. From this point a day's march brought us, on the morning of May 28, to a lake named Shor Göl (salt sea), which forms a rectangle, and is twelve English miles in circumference. It was resolved that we should here make a halt of six hours to complete the Gusl [Footnote 25] prescribed to Mahommedans, especially as this day was the festival of Eidi Kurban, one of the most famous holidays of Islam. My companions loosed their knapsacks: each had his fresh shirt to put on; I alone was unprovided. Hadji Bilal wanted to lend me one, but I declined the proffered kindness, being firmly convinced that the greater my apparent poverty the less risk I should run. I could not refrain from laughing when for the first time I gazed upon myself in a glass, and contemplated my face covered with a thick crust of dirt and sand. True, I might have washed in many places in the desert, but I had purposely forborne in order that the coating might defend me from the burning sun; but the expedient had not altogether produced the desired effect, and many marks I shall retain all my life long to remind me of my sufferings. Not I alone, but all {117} my comrades were disfigured by the Teyemmün, [Footnote 26] for believers are required to wash themselves with dust and sand, and so render themselves dirtier. After I had completed my toilette, I observed that my friends in comparison with me looked really like gentlemen. They compassionated me, and insisted upon lending me some articles of attire; thanking them I declined with the remark, that I should wait until the Khan of Khiva himself should dress me. [Footnote 25: Gusl is the ablution of the whole body, only in exceptional cases necessary. The ordinary washings before each of the five prayers of the day are called Abdest in Turkish, Vudhu in Arabic, and Teharet in Central Asia.] [Footnote 26: A substitute Abdest prescribed by the Prophet for use in the dry desert when no water can be obtained.]