Ruins of Desert Cathay 147 - My Chinese pony-men safely restored to the plains. On extreme right our aged 'Ya-i' pointing with stick to the chief mutineer. And here we have the reluctant locals. They were hired (practically forced by local Chinese officials) only as 'pony-men' to care for the transport. No excavation work was involved. Yet they mutinied several times while in the very high mountains and were only controled by the detachment of Chinese military assigned to Stein.