KELAT.] A conversation now commenced, carried on through the medium of the Wazir and my interpreter.

The Khan has a fidgety, uneasy manner that must be intensely exasperating to his court.

More than once during the audience, having asked a question with much apparent earnestness, he would suddenly break in, in the middle of a reply, and hum a tune, or start off on a totally different subject from the one under discussion.

At other times he would repeat a question twice or thrice, and, his eyes fixed on vacancy, utterly ignore the answers of the Wazir, who evidently stood in great awe of his eccentric sovereign.

Though the following colloquy may appear brief to the reader, it took nearly an hour to get through.
"Where do you come from, and what are you ?" was the Khan's first question.
"From Russia, your Highness." "From Russia!" returned the Khan, quickly.