Ruins of Desert Cathay 39 - Chang-ssu-yeh, Chinese secretary and helpmate during second expedition - The Chinese secretary - interpreter whom Stein hired at Kashgar for the first expedition was entirely unsatisfactory. Stein became good friends with the gentleman pictured here who was assigned at Kashgar for the second expedition. He was not only the secretary and interpreter but also a highly educated Chinese scholar whose familiarity with ancient orthography greatly assisted in understanding the ancient Han dynasty texts they uncovered. He was also an astute diplomat who was instrumental in the purchase of the thousands of manuscripts from the T'aost monk at Tun-huang.