ABSTRACT
I HAVE spent many Christmas nights in the wild regions of Central Asia, but never two in the same place. It is as though the high mountain passes and the uninhabited deserts continually urged one on to new wanderings into the unknown, towards new dwellings and new men. And yet life in its main outlines is always the same in those parts, for man cannot live in the wild without being charmed and marked by its quiet and grandeur.
