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diff --git a/76610-0.txt b/76610-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..691a72f --- /dev/null +++ b/76610-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6215 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76610 *** + + + + + + [Illustration: MONGOLIA] + + + + + A TOUR IN MONGOLIA + + + + + [Illustration: THE AUTHOR] + + + + + A TOUR + IN MONGOLIA + + BY + BEATRIX BULSTRODE + (Mrs. EDWARD MANICO GULL) + + WITH AN INTRODUCTION BEARING ON THE POLITICAL ASPECT + OF THAT COUNTRY BY + + DAVID FRASER + (“TIMES” CORRESPONDENT IN PEKING) + + ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR’S PHOTOGRAPHS AND A MAP + + METHUEN & CO. LTD. + 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. + LONDON + + + + + _First Published in 1920_ + + + + + DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO + + THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN NEWELL JORDAN + + G.C.I.E., K.C.B., K.C.M.G. + + H.B.M. MINISTER IN CHINA + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Mrs. Gull (Mrs. Bulstrode as she then was) had the fortune, not to +mention the pluck, to be in Urga at a time when history was being made +for Mongolia. I well remember the perturbation in British official +circles in Peking when this adventurous lady, at a time when the +Chinese were fighting the Mongols, sought a passport to take her +through the opposing lines, and so to the desired destination. Needless +to say the passport was not forthcoming, whereupon Mrs. Gull, without +papers, went off by herself, and succeeded in making a considerable +journey which brought her perilously close to the unsettled region in +which guerilla warfare was proceeding. + +Her experiences in Inner Mongolia made it plain that getting through to +Urga meant a detour so long, expensive, and risky as not to be worth +while. Accordingly, she and her sporting companion, Mr. E. M. Gull, a +fire-eater in the pursuit of political developments, went round the +back way by train and reached Urga from Siberia, no small adventure, +considering the state of Mongolia at the time. What they saw Mrs. Gull +describes in her own taking manner, and I need not say more about her +book than that it is full of enlightenment as regards the character of +both people and country. Mongolia is one of the few remaining great +backwaters of the world, neglected because so remote from the sea and +the civilisation arising out of marine communication. Nevertheless, +through Mongolia, at no distant date, must be constructed that line +which will link China with the Siberia Railway, and constitute part of +the great trunk route joining Europe with the Far East. + +If those of us who dwell in the Far East are not very far out in our +calculations, the Pacific is to be one of the great spheres of economic +development in the future. In China there is illimitable scope for such +development, and it is obvious that the question of the control of the +quickest route between China and the West is one of much importance +to all interested. Mongolia, moreover, is not all Gobi desert, nor is +the Gobi a desert except in an unimportant degree. It is, in fact, a +monster plateau, huge areas of which are capable of cultivation. At +present, its pastoral inhabitants are like the Arabs of Mesopotamia, +roaming the land with flocks and herds, but the land is a land of much +promise. Its mineral wealth has hardly been examined at all, though +gold and coal are known to exist. But, when we recollect the known +mineral wealth of the whole of the mountainous region of the southern +confines of Siberia, we realise that there is a corresponding region +over the Mongolian border which is, in fact, part of the same mountain +system. If the one is minerally wealthy, there is every reason to +suppose that the other is similarly so. In thinking of the Mongolia +of the future, then, it is only reasonable to suppose that, when +penetrated by communications, it will develop out of all recognition, +as compared with its present state. + +Mrs. Gull is particularly instructive in her analysis of Mongol +character. The Mongol is simple, happy, good-natured, intensely lazy, +and apparently entirely lacking in practical qualities. His very +disposition is the cause of his past and present troubles. He is, in +short, not fitted to compete with the outside world. Therefore, he +has become the sport of other peoples, and the destiny of his land +is being decided for him by foreigners. To begin at the beginning of +recent developments, it is necessary to go back only to 1911. The +Japanese defeat of the Russians had set the Chinese thinking, and, +suffering much from foreign pressure at home, they thought to assert +themselves in distant lands. They initiated a forward policy on the +Burmah frontier that gave us trouble for some years, culminating +in the Pienma incident. They invaded Thibet and occupied Llassa, +establishing a degree of control over their vassal which they had never +claimed before. They next turned their attention to Mongolia, where, as +suzerain, they maintained only a few residents with trifling escorts. +They planned to occupy Urga with a large force, and actually built +huge barracks there. Meanwhile, Chinese colonists had been pressing +into Inner Mongolia, buying land from the nomads and establishing +great cultivated areas. Chinese bankers had been lending money at +usurious rates to the simple Princes. All trade was in the hands of the +Chinese. The Mongols became alive to the fact that China was acquiring +a strangle-hold over them. They saw what had happened to their cousins +of Thibet, and they became alarmed for their freedom, the overwhelming +passion of the nomad. Russia, sore at the Japanese defeat, also, at +this time, began to think of a future in which an arisen China might +prove a danger, as Japan had proved dangerous. Chinese designs upon +Mongolia might presage a threat against her at some far-off time. +Accordingly it became Russian policy to block China in Mongolia, and, +if possible, to set up Mongolia as a buffer State. To that end, Russian +agents commenced a propaganda against the Chinese, emphasising the +danger of absorption by China. Then arose a pro-Russian party in Urga, +urging alliance with Russia as a protection against China. + +Then occurred the Revolution in China. The Manchus were dethroned. Then +followed the expulsion of the Chinese from Thibet, and the declaration +of independence by the Thibetans. Egged on by the Russians, the Mongols +did likewise, justifying the breaking of the ancient connection by +declaring that their allegiance had been to the Manchus, and that, +as there was no more a Manchu dynasty in China, they no longer owed +anything to China. Russia promptly recognised the new State, and signed +political and commercial treaties with it. The Chinese refused to +accept the _fait accompli_, and immediately made war upon Mongolia. +Fighting was proceeding when Mrs. Gull was in Inner Mongolia, and +later on at Urga. To make a long story short, the Chinese troops +utterly failed to make any impression upon their opponents. Internal +difficulties forced the Chinese to relinquish the struggle, and in 1919 +was signed the tri-partite Kiachta Convention. This document recognised +and confirmed the treaties made with Russia, gave Mongolia autonomy and +a guarantee against the intrusion of Chinese troops and colonists into +Mongolia. The effect of the Convention was to give Russia exactly what +she wanted--a buffer State. + +It is necessary now to jump to the date when Japanese troops, in +agreement with the Allies, entered Siberia. The Japanese found it +convenient to maintain at Chita, in Transbaikalia, the Cossack +adventurer Semenov, a man with Buriat (or Mongol) blood in him. Admiral +Kolchak dismissed Semenov from the command of the Trans-Baikal Division +for malpractices, but the Japanese refused to allow his removal by +force. Semenov, some months ago, inaugurated a pan-Mongol movement for +the creation of a Mongol State, which should include the Mongols of +Barga (a region of North Manchuria), the Buriats of Transbaikalia and +Mongolia. The Hut’ukt’u, the Living Buddha of Mongolia, was invited +to join, and, after consultation with the Princes, refused. Semenov +next threatened invasion. It is difficult to know how much reality +there is in Semenov’s movement, but it is still to the fore, and we +are warned that developments from it may yet be expected. At any rate, +it is established that the Japanese have been, and still are, closely +associated with Semenov, and the assumption is that they are perfectly +cognisant of the activities of their protégé. + +Returning to Urga, we find the Mongolians dissatisfied with the +Russians, for a variety of reasons. They had done nothing for +the economic development of the country, nor had they helped to +organise an effective military force. Russia, as a protector, having +vanished, the Mongols were helpless, and they were genuinely alarmed +by the threats of Semenov. They appealed to the Chinese for military +assistance, and in the twinkling of an eye, as it were, 4000 Chinese +troops were in Urga, commanded by a General Hsu Shu-cheng, the most +aggressive of those militarists who have done so much to involve China +in political and financial trouble. It is instructive to note that +the forces commanded by Hsu were equipped with Japanese money, and +that Hsu himself is regarded throughout China as being entirely in +the hands of the Japanese. It will, therefore, be perceived that the +Mongols were frightened into calling in Chinese troops by the actions +of one protégé of Japan, and that the assistance, when it came, proved +to be an army under another Japanese protégé! The unfortunate Mongols +were soon to be enlightened as to the meaning of these manœuvres. A +pro-Chinese party, since the collapse of Russia, had been urging a +return to the Chinese fold, and proposed a petition to China cancelling +autonomy and asking for re-instatement. The Hut’ukt’u and a majority +of Princes and Lamas were opposed to this step. General Hsu Shu-cheng, +on arrival at Urga, immediately pressed for signature of the petition, +and, on refusal, delivered an ultimatum, threatening deportation to +China of the Hut’ukt’u and the Premier if his demands were not complied +with. He further threatened the Mongols with Japanese troops from +Transbaikalia, which threat the Japanese officially denied in Peking +had been made with authority. The Mongols, however, were browbeaten +into submission; the Government signed the petition, and the President +of China has since issued a Mandate denouncing the Kiachta Convention +and other relative treaties, and granting the prayer of the Mongols to +become again subject to China. Autonomous Mongolia, therefore, is no +more. The Chinese plan military occupation on a large scale, and will +shortly send three more brigades into Mongolia. If the Chinese were +more successful in the administration of their own country, it might be +said that the Mongols would be better off under Chinese rule than their +own; for, as Mrs. Gull says, there can be no doubt that the Mongols are +closely akin to their southern neighbours. But the question seems to be +rather whether Japan is not to be the predominant power in Mongolia in +the future. She openly claims predominance in China, and, for the time +being, is predominant. Through China she may yet acquire control over +Mongolia, or may arrive at the same result by basing action in Siberia. +She has plainly told the powers seeking to form the banking Consortium +for China that she wishes Manchuria and Mongolia to be excluded from +its operations, thereby indicating her desire for an exclusive position +in Mongolia. Most significant is the announcement just published in +the local press, and confirmed by other indications, that the Chinese +Government propose the immediate extension of the Peking-Suiyuan +Railway to Urga. The Chinese Government has no money for such an +enterprise, and no possibility of getting it except by a foreign loan. +This, above all, is a scheme that should be financed by the Consortium, +yet it seems far more than likely that the railway will be built with +Japanese money. And whoso builds the railway will assuredly be the +master. + +DAVID FRASER + +PEKING, _January, 1920_ + + A word of explanation as to the tardy appearance of this book in + relation to the date of its completion seems necessary. It will + suffice to say that the manuscript reached the publishers within a + day or two of the declaration of war. The Introduction by Mr. David + Fraser, “Times” correspondent in Peking, is designed to give a + bird’s-eye yet comprehensive impression from the date of the visit + to Urga up to the present time of the political relations existing + between Mongolia and China. + + B. M. G. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + MAP OF MONGOLIA _Inside front cover_ + + THE AUTHOR _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + THE AUTHOR ON A PEKING CART AT THE STARTING-POINT 14 + + THE GREAT NORTH GATE AT KALGAN LEADING STRAIGHT INTO + MONGOLIA 14 + + A BIRD FANCIER, KALGAN 28 + + SERVANTS IN THE COURTYARD 28 + + WITH DOBDUN, READY TO START 34 + + CROSSING THE HAN-O-PA PASS 34 + + A CAMEL CARAVAN 58 + + THE LAMA IN EMBRYO AND HIS LITTLE SISTER GATHERING ARGOL 58 + + CARRYING MAILS 60 + + A WELL BY THE WAYSIDE 60 + + HE DREW REINS TO TAKE STOCK OF THE FOREIGNER 60 + + METHUSELAH AND HIS DAUGHTER-IN-LAW 70 + + ONE OF THE LARGEST CAMEL CARAVANS I HAD EVER SEEN 70 + + A MONGOL BRIDE 72 + + A TYPICAL CHAKHAR 74 + + TWO OR THREE HUNDRED LAMAS SQUATTING ON THE GROUND IN + THE SUNNY FORECOURT OF A TEMPLE 78 + + HANKARAWA 78 + + A PASTORAL SCENE 98 + + TROITZE-CASAVSK 114 + + OUR BURIAT HOSTESS 114 + + THE JAMSCHIK AND HIS TARANTASS 114 + + A RUSSIAN SAMSON SEPARATED THE COMBATANTS 128 + + THE LAMA AND HIS MAIDEN 128 + + A MONGOL AND HIS FAMILY ON THE PLAINS NEAR URGA POSED + FOR MY BENEFIT 142 + + HE INVITED US TO INSPECT HIS CARAVAN 144 + + THE SUMMIT OF THE ALTAI BERG 144 + + THE GREAT WHITE TEMPLE, URGA 152 + + THE HORSE AND CAMEL MARKET, URGA 152 + + A BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE AT MAI-MAI-CH’ENG 158 + + A MONGOL PRINCESS IN HER OFFICIAL ROBES, ACCOMPANIED BY + HER TWO LADIES 158 + + BOGDO’S BODYGUARD 176 + + LITTLE LAMA BOYS PLAY “TAG” ROUND THE BARRIERS 176 + + CHURCH AND STATE: MONGOL PRINCE AND HIGH LAMA 180 + + THE GREAT STATE UMBRELLA OF SILKEN EMBROIDERY 182 + + IN AN ECSTASY OF WORSHIP THE MONKS PROSTRATE THEMSELVES + NEAR THE THRESHOLD OF THE SANCTUARY 182 + + THE MEETING OF THE ARCHERS: THEY RANGED THEMSELVES IN + COUPLES AT THE STANCES 184 + + SCORING THE HITS AT THE BUTTS 184 + + A MASK AT THE DANCE OF THE GODS 186 + + A MONGOL PRINCESS WEARING A HEADDRESS OF GOLD 186 + + A MONGOL GLADIATOR 190 + + A WRESTLING BOUT 192 + + YOUNG LAMAS 192 + + PRISONERS AT URGA, SHUT UP FOR THE REMAINDER OF THEIR + LIVES IN IRON-BOUND COFFINS 196 + + (_Reproduced by permission of the Illustrated London News_) + + A TOMB IN URGA: DAGOBAS ERECTED OVER PRIESTS’ GRAVES 206 + + SOUTHERN SOLDIERS 206 + + A MONGOL ORTON 226 + + CONTINUING THE JOURNEY ON OX-CARTS, DRAWN BY PONIES 226 + + A REMARKABLE ONE-YEAR-OLD BOY 228 + + + + +THE TALE OF A TOUR IN MONGOLIA + +CHAPTER I + + “What is outside the world, daddy?” + “Space, my child.” + “But what is outside space then?” + + +The fascination of the unknown, a deep love of the picturesque, and +inherent desire to revert awhile to the primitive--these were probably +some of the factors that made a little tour in Mongolia so essentially +desirable to me at a period when, instead of turning my face homewards, +I merely felt the compelling desire for more. The remark, “Such a pity +you did not come here before the old order of things passed away,” had +assailed my ears like minute-guns throughout my eighteen months in +China, and here in Mongolia was at last an opportunity of meeting with +mediævalism untouched. + +The most delightful, and by far the most interesting, expedition that +lures the traveller for a couple of days from the gaiety of life in +Peking, is that which leads him out to the Ming tombs and a little +farther on to meditate upon change and decay from the summit of the +Great Wall. The Great Wall may well have been the ultimate goal of all +his wanderings in China, a goal indeed at which to pause and reflect +upon all he has learned and seen through the months spent in journeying +up from the turbulent south to the heart of China in the north. But +even so it is a little disappointing upon arriving at the Nank’ou +Pass to be informed that this, impressive though it be, is merely +a relatively modern branch of the Great Wall itself, added no less +than 1700 years later to the original construction. To see the _real_ +Great Wall then, the wall that has withstood the ravages both of Huns +and Tartars, the wall that played a not unimportant part in warfare +two centuries before the Christian era--this furnished me at least +with an excuse to get away to Kalgan; and in a visit to Kalgan, the +starting-point for the historic caravans which penetrate the desert, +across which prior to the existence of the Trans-Siberian railway all +merchandise passed to the north, I foresaw the germ which might, with a +little luck, blossom out into a little expedition across the frontier. + +At Dr. Morrison’s hospitable board, to which drift inevitably those +travellers who want something more than the social round and the +sights provided for the globe trotter in Peking, I was fortunate in +meeting a couple of Norwegian missionaries who were good enough to +make arrangements for me to stay in their compound at Kalgan. The +husband, after many years’ work, had abandoned the hope of converting +the Mongols to Christianity, and had placed his unique knowledge of the +people and of their country--doubtless in return for a handsome salary +(on paper)--at the disposal of the new Chinese Government. In common +with every one else to whom I mentioned my project of travelling in +Mongolia, these good people did their best to put me off, but finally, +seeing that I intended to carry out my idea willy-nilly, they helped me +in making my plans, engaged the Chinese who accompanied me, and lent me +the various accessories of camp life, etc., in the most generous manner +possible. + +For some weeks past threatenings and rumours of war had been dribbling +in from various points on the Mongolian frontier. Mongol soldiers +(converted robber bands) in ridiculously small numbers, but effectual, +as having been armed and trained by “the Urga government,” which to all +intents and purposes is another name for Russian officers, were said +to be marching south, “plundering everywhere and killing Chinese and +Mongols without distinction”. + +The Chinese in Peking were doubtless growing uneasy, and the following +paragraph which appeared about this time in the “Peking Daily News,” +a Chinese-owned newspaper with an European circulation, suggests that +the authorities were somewhat late in the field with their honours and +encouragements for those Mongols who even now were perhaps flirting +with presents of roubles from a more northern source. Already the storm +was brewing past control:-- + +“The Bureau of Mongolian and Tibetan affairs (in Peking) reports that a +petition from the Shang Chia Hut’ukt’u has been received, stating that +the Shang Chodba has supported the Republican cause and requesting that +he be rewarded. + +“As Pa-yen-chi-erh-ko-la, the Shang Chodba and Dassak Da Lama, has been +loyal to the Republic and is highly commendable, he is hereby permitted +to sit on a Green Cart and to use Yellow Reins, as an encouragement.” + +No very highly imaginative mind is surely necessary to conjure up a +scene of wonderful picturesqueness from the foregoing. To see a beaming +“Da (or great) Lama” seated upon the shafts of his new Green Cart and +driving a hefty white mule with his lately acquired Yellow Reins, +feeling tremendously encouraged thereby in his loyalty to China, the +recently established republic of Mongolia’s suzerain--it was worth +while, _coûte que coûte_! + +Peking, so far as I was concerned, had more than come up to its +reputation for kindness and hospitality. I had certainly put the former +to the test during a short but sharp bout of illness I had encountered +there, when I can only say that my room presented the appearance of +a conservatory and that rarely an hour passed without some friendly +“chit” of enquiry and sympathy. All the same, it had been much borne +in upon me that any deviation from the narrow path to the golf links, +or from the delightful picnics held in one or other of the recognised +show places within hail of the Legation quarter, was looked upon with +cold disfavour. Few things seem to cause a certain type of mind more +annoyance than that one should care to travel on lines other than those +parallel with their own. + +The less, I felt, that I discussed my projected plans the better. +Therefore, informing merely a couple of friends who happened to be +dining with me the previous evening--and who, by the way, did not in +the least believe me--that I was off in the morning to Kalgan for a few +days, I set forth for the Shih Chi Men station (the terminus of the +Peking-Kalgan railway) at the break of one glorious day of April in +1913. + +Two ’ricshas were necessary for myself and a very modest amount of +luggage, and to each ’ricsha two coolies, for the Shih Chi Men is at +the extreme north-west of Peking, to gain which one has to travel +diagonally across the Tartar city, skirting the rose-coloured walls +of the Forbidden City through which at that time the traffic was not +allowed to penetrate. The road is bad and exceedingly dusty, and being +the sole European upon arriving at the station, I had the inevitable +uproar with my coolies as regards payment. One of the untoward +influences that we Westerns seem to have exerted upon the Chinese +coolie class is that they will always try to bully anyone who is at +a disadvantage--a condition of affairs I never once experienced up +country, off the beaten track, where I met with nothing but chivalry. +The quartet followed me, shouting and yelling, on to the platform--I +having taken good care not to pay them until my belongings were safely +out of their hands--only to be buffeted and finally kicked out by the +station officials. + +The journey from Peking to Kalgan has many points of interest, and I +decided to break it half-way in order to pay a second visit to the +tombs of the Emperors of the Ming dynasty, stopping overnight at the +quaint little half-westernised hotel kept by a Chinaman at the foot of +the Nank’ou Pass. There was not much choice as to the means of covering +the eleven or twelve miles between Nank’ou and the tombs, and I decided +in favour of the solitary pony instead of the unattractive looking +mules, or the chair of the indolent which is carried on poles by four +coolies. I had confidently expected to make the expedition in peaceful +solitude; but not a bit of it. A pock-marked mafu, or groom, insisted +upon accompanying me on foot, and it was soon evident that he set the +pace not I. It was some little time too before I discovered the reason +of the pony’s reluctance to trot except when we came to a strip of +grass--he had four very tender feet, and my way lay across extremely +rough country, along the boulder--strewn beds of mountain streams and +rocky little paths bordering the planted fields. + +The beautiful pail’ou of five arches was the first indication that we +were nearing our destination, but even then there were two or three +miles along the uneven and loosely flagged avenue of huge symbolical +stone men and beasts, camels, horses, and lions standing in silent +attendance on the spirits of the departed rulers. The tombs, temples +in effect, whose golden roofs rise out from among deep green cypresses +and masses of white blossom, are enclosed in many courtyards by high +rose-coloured walls pierced by magnificent gateways. + +To the chief of these gateways I rode, followed by my mafu, and +offering the customary fee of twenty cents, I proposed to enter. +Seeing that I was alone, the doorkeeper, an unusually tall man even +for Chihli, began a bullying argument for more money. Not wanting to +waste time, I compounded finally upon something like three times the +proper sum, and he opened the great doors and admitted me into the +courtyard. Here amidst the most dreamily beautiful surroundings of pure +white marble terraces, weathered memorial archways, steps carved in low +relief and the mellowed rose-coloured walls always for background, I +felt very much at peace with the world as I sat and rested in the crook +of a blossom-covered tree after my hot and wearisome ride. + +Greatly refreshed by the beauty and stately solitude of the scene (to +say nothing of a delicate little lunch which had been so thoughtfully +provided for me by my excellent host of the Ching Erh hotel), I now +felt inspired to explore further, and walked over the grass to the +entrance of the chief temple. Dropping from the clouds (or, what seemed +more likely, appearing from the nether regions) I was again confronted +by the same burly janitor who rather threateningly barred my way and +demanded more money. I had now not even the support of my pony boy. I +had no intention of being baulked of the whole object of my long ride, +neither did I mean to be bullied into paying the rascal all over again. +Seeing that I was not inclined to give in, the man began to lock up +the great doors, which usually stood open, when, turning as though I +were going away, I made a sudden move, pushed past him, and was inside +the temple. He was very angry and for the moment nonplussed, swore +at me volubly, casting aspersions doubtless upon my ancestry in true +Celestial style. Quite unexpectedly, however, he stopped, and before I +had time to realise his intention, he slammed to the door and turned +the key in the lock. + +I made a desperate effort to escape, but I was too late. I was now in +pitch darkness and as to when or whether he, my gaoler, intended to let +me out, I did not know. I could hear him walking off and clanking his +great keys triumphantly as he went down the flagged path. I was far +too angry to be in the least frightened, and of all things, I had no +intention of letting the ruffian think that he had scored. Recovering +a little from my surprise, I groped my way about among the dusty gods +and devils, thinking that probably there would be some other exit, +and finally came upon a low door at the back of the high altar. This +gave way to my pushing, and opened on to a narrow staircase up which I +stumbled, eventually finding my way out on to the top of the open flat +roof of the first story of the temple. Here at least I could see where +I was. Moreover, I was in the open air, and I could solace myself with +the truly lovely view of the surrounding temples and the thickly wooded +country side. + +Not a soul was to be seen. The wretch evidently meant me to stay there +until I thought better of my sins. For an hour or two I wandered about +my prison, spending part of the time in speculating as to whether my +gymnastic ability would enable me, with the help of friendly branches, +to scale forty feet or so of rough wall and thus to escape. I decided, +however, that to risk a broken limb was not worth while, and that to +spend a night in a temple after all would not kill me. There would +probably be other visitors turning up next day. + +By this time the afternoon was drawing in, and the wonderful colouring +around me was rendered even more beautiful by the golden haze from the +setting sun, when I observed three figures walking among the trees +in the garden below. They were evidently in angry altercation. These +were my mafu, the burly ruffian (who was gesticulating wildly), and a +well-dressed and dignified Chinese gentleman. Without losing a moment, +I scrambled hastily down the dark staircase again, and arrived in the +temple just as a flood of light was admitted by the door being flung +open. + +To my astonishment, my unknown friend in need addressed me in pidgin +English, “Mississee mafu talkee my one bad man shutee up Mississee. +Chlist! (I am afraid that he believed this to be quite a polite +expression of amazement) Chlist! What bad man!” The “bad man” was +grinning nervously while all this was going on, and in order to show +him unmistakably what my opinion was of his behaviour, I gave him a +resounding smack on the head as he released me. Even then he had the +impudence to ask me for a “cumshaw” (tip), and in order that he might +not lose face among the little crowd which had collected at the outer +gateway, he only laughed as he rubbed his head and listened to a +tremendous dressing-down delivered by the three of us. I decided as I +rode back to Nank’ou in the twilight that I would report the matter to +my Legation in Peking, but later on I thought better of it. They might +have said, “I told you so!” + +Starting early next morning, I continued my journey to Kalgan, the +line--the only one in China constructed, financed, and managed by the +Chinese--following the course of the Nank’ou Pass, tunnelling below +the Great Wall a few miles farther on. Travelling second class, from +the viewpoint of mixing with the people rather than from economical +motives, the difference in the price of tickets being a mere couple +of dollars, I had for my sole European companion an old Swedish +missionary who told me that our fellow-travellers were consumed with +curiosity about me. They assumed, to begin with, that my husband must +be luxuriating in the first-class portion of the train, and that among +the English it was the custom to treat the wives as inferiors. Then, +seeing the missionary and myself in conversation, they jumped to the +conclusion that I was wife of the latter, and that I very properly only +spoke to him when he addressed me. Finally, on this being denied, they +settled down to the idea, on seeing me take a large volume from my bag +and read it (J. O. P. Bland’s absorbingly interesting “Events in China” +by the way) that I was a great scholar, and that as such, I of course +preferred the simple life. That an ordinary Englishwoman should travel +second class needed an explanation in their eyes. + +A wealthy young man, he who had asked most of the questions, +entertained me greatly during the journey. His clothes were very +beautiful, a long silk-damask lavender coat, fur-lined, surmounted by +a handsome riding coat in plum-coloured broché. His great treasure +seemed, however, to be a large silver watch, which he kept pulling +out in the hope that I might be looking at him. Its going capacity +must have been precarious for he always listened to it, and after +looking carefully all round it, he generally smelt it as well. It was +here that I really learned to appreciate the practical use of the +two-inch thumb-nail which one frequently sees adorning the hands of +the upper-class Chinese. My friend of the lavender coat had purchased +a roast duck from an itinerant vendor at a wayside station, and +commanded my admiration by the dexterity with which he cut up and ate +it, his thumb-nail alone serving him as a carver. He was hungry, and he +finished that bird at a sitting. + +The scenery on the way up was unexciting until a tempestuous sunset +lighted up the rugged mountains, making their snow-covered peaks appear +like flaming watch-towers until the sun went down, and with a snap it +all suddenly changed. Even in this cold weather we met hundreds of +coolies travelling down in open trucks, many of them equipped with +motor goggles, which the dust storms of this part of the world render +an absolute necessity. + +We were two hours late at Kalgan, having taken nine hours on the way +(one can hardly expect a sudden transformation as regards punctuality +to result from a change of government in China), and I spent a somewhat +weary time in the dimly lighted carriage wondering what on earth I +should do if the missionaries failed to meet me at the station. Knowing +that he would be of no use should I manage to get away to Mongolia, I +had taken no “boy” with me, and I doubted very seriously that my few +words of Chinese would carry me far in this frontier town, which, I had +heard, would be a babel of tongues, and where among 75,000 inhabitants +the European population, Russian and German traders all told, did not +number more than about forty or fifty. + +However, no sooner had I landed on the platform at Kalgan than a cheery +voice, unmistakably American, hailed me in a friendly manner. + +After giving the required information concerning myself and my business +to the courteous Chinese policeman, who, notebook in hand, awaited the +train for such purpose, the pleasant young missionary, guessing that I +was both tired and hungry, and not in the least put out on account of +waiting over two hours on the platform for my train to come in, bundled +me and my belongings into a Peking cart. The latter taking up most of +the room inside, I sat cross-legged on the shaft, the Chinese driver +sitting hard against my back on the opposite side; my host walked +alongside of us. + +There had been the one rain of the season on the previous day and +what under normal conditions had been a foot or so of dust, was now +morass, and we passed through slush that reached to the axles of our +wheels. “Tuck up your feet,” sang out the missionary as he took an +unanticipated plunge into deep water from the pseudo-sidewalk; but I +was prepared. This, strange to say, was my first experience of riding +in a Peking cart, society in the capital having long ago voted them +out-of-date and even in cold weather preferring the ’ricsha. True, I +found their appearance of comfort somewhat of a delusion but their +picturesque trimness I had always greatly admired. These strong, +springless carts of light wood have solid axles, the ends being inlaid +with a device in metal, and upon these the wheels revolve directly. +The pale blue linen covers, with little windows made of black gauze on +either side, all outlined with black velvet, present an attractive and +cleanly appearance, as does also the heavy white leather harness with +bright brass or silver buckles and ornaments, which embellishes the +handsome black mule, who, at first sight, looks almost too powerful for +his job. + +Our road lay across the river Yang through the heart of the city now, +at nearly 10 o’clock, dark and silent as the grave--silent that is, +save for the creaks and excruciating grindings of the wheels as the +great boulders sent the cart high up on one side only to slither down +into the slush on the other, the mule coming to a standstill from time +to time in order to let things right themselves. The main street of +Kalgan is scarcely a credit to the community. After half an hour or so +of strenuous effort to keep my seat, we turned abruptly out of a +narrow alley into the compound of the mission at which I was to board, +and were welcomed by my hostess, a pretty girl in her early twenties, +at the door of one of the two bungalows. + +[Illustration: THE AUTHOR ON A PEKING CART AT THE STARTING POINT] + +[Illustration: THE GREAT NORTH GATE AT KALGAN LEADING STRAIGHT OUT INTO +MONGOLIA] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +“A great army may be robbed of its leader, but nothing can rob one poor +man of his will” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +I shall always associate Kalgan with waiting for things to happen. +Rumours of war were constantly coming to one’s ears, news of +camel caravans on the point of starting for Mongolia reached one +periodically. Nothing ever seemed to culminate. The missionaries, of +whom there were some half a dozen, were very much opposed to my making +an expedition alone into Mongolia, and with my limited knowledge of +Chinese it was impossible without their help to make any plans for +doing so. My hostess, a delicate little thing, very much younger than +her colleagues, stood my friend throughout and did what she could +to make enjoyable my stay within the somewhat circumscribed area of +the compound. Deeply interested in English manners and customs her +conversation had an almost childish _naïveté_, and circled around our +royalties and other great English names that had come to her ears. She +was, she told me “tickled to death” at the idea of entertaining an +English lady, but was frankly disappointed that I bore no title. As a +small girl, she said, she had longed to be English, and loved reading +about lords and ladies (we now know the market for a certain class of +light fiction), and persuaded her mother to call her “Lady Ermyntrude”. +“Is it true,” she would ask me, “that if English girls don’t marry the +first man that asks them, they never get another chance?” + +Life in a mission compound can never fail to interest the speculative +mind, and although waiting about for plans to resolve themselves is +a severe tax on one’s patience, my days at Kalgan are recalled with +considerable pleasure notwithstanding. What I wanted was an excuse +for taking a camel cart (which appealed to me as being exceedingly +comfortable as well as a great novelty), and I watched a couple in +course of preparation for the ill-fated expedition of Messrs. Grant and +Henningsen who were to journey across the Gobi to Urga on telegraph +service, which for the former was to end so disastrously. Camel carts +bear a certain amount of similarity to the Peking cart, with the +following differences: they are higher from the ground, having larger +wheels; they are covered in entirely, having a window and door on the +near side; they are of such ample dimensions that one may stretch +oneself at full length and live in them in considerable comfort. In +fact, I have in North Mongolia seen a man, woman, and two children +camping very comfortably in one cart. + +One might well be asked what there was to prevent me from hiring a +camel cart--a very natural question when one lives in Europe and +where money will compass most of one’s desires. Not so in the East. +A solitary camel cart was held to be unsuitable for my purpose, for +a solitary camel cart wandering about Mongolia without escort would +undoubtedly attract an undue amount of attention. Camel carts usually +form part of a caravan. + +Kalgan, with its population of some seventy or eighty thousand souls, +grown out of all proportion to the picturesque little walled-in city +in its midst, the unusual temples, among which a couple of Mohammedan +mosques came as a surprise to me, its many theatres, and little +shops containing much that was interesting and novel, would under +ordinary conditions have satisfied me for weeks; but the nearness to +the goal of my desire to some extent spoiled it for me, rendering it +tantalising and me restless. Not once, but many times, did I find +my way on foot through the thick dust of the narrow streets to the +wide road leading out to the north gate, the Mongol quarter of the +city. There one met hundreds of camels padding softly along in the +thick dust laden with immense bales of wool from Urga, picking their +way over boulders polished by the traffic of 1200 years. The camels +are in their most disreputable condition in April; their wool, being +in process of shedding, left big bare patches, and made them look +singularly naked in places. I loved to see their stately walk, and the +stolid Mongols sitting, pipe in mouth, on their backs. Fine beasts. +Fine men. To see, too, the Mongols themselves at their journey’s end, +galloping recklessly along this terrific road, raising clouds of dust +in their wake, stirrupless as often as not, their ponies slithering and +stumbling over the concealed stones, recovering themselves in a manner +perfectly marvellous. They are wonderful horsemen. A Russian post plies +between Kalgan and Urga, suspended now, however, on account of the +unrest in the country, and the Mongols cover the 800 miles in eight +days, relays of ponies waiting for them every twenty miles or so. They +ride at full speed during the entire journey, which averages ordinarily +from thirty to thirty-two days. + +Small wonder that the wares in the innumerable little stalls which +line this great north road should be dirty and unattractive at first +glance. One must quickly consume one’s proverbial peck of dust here; +everything in this Mongol market is thick with it; hair, clothes, +food, and all. But what is the use of troubling about what cannot be +helped? A medicine stall was one of the many at which I lingered, +and from curiosity asked the prices of things that were displayed as +“cures”--snakes, lizards, and similar small fry were kept in bulk. A +rhinoceros tusk I gathered to be a charm of prophylactic nature, but +a furry foot altogether baffled my intelligence. The vendor was by +no means anxious to sell, but being pressed for a price said that I +might have the object for fifteen dollars, i.e. thirty shillings. I +discovered later that it was the pad of a bear, and esteemed of great +value from a medicinal point of view. I refrained from purchasing +it. Two charming souvenirs, however, I did pick up in Kalgan--a tiny +green jade wine cup, and, as a mascot, a jade thumb ring guaranteed to +bring me great good luck on all my wanderings. They were of the colour +of rivers bringing down the snow from mountains, and moreover were +bargains at a dollar and half a dollar respectively. + +Everything that one could conceivably want for the great journey +across the desert is to be bought from this market, the last link +with civilisation, and few caravans push straight through this busy +quarter without a halt for a hank of rope, or another string of dried +persimmons, or such like. To the gregarious Celestial it must indeed be +a mighty effort to break away from Kalgan and start upon that lonely +trek so fraught with dangers and possibilities unknown. + +The principal theatre in Kalgan is in this neighbourhood, and more than +once I got drawn into a crowd of five or six hundred people in the +triangular piece of waste ground near the north gate. The theatre was a +pretty little temple, the stage open to the heavens on three sides and +raised eight or ten feet from the ground. The play is as a rule, I am +told, composed of scenes and episodes from the Chinese classics. Be +that as it may, the actors, with handsome flowing beards, are as unlike +the modern Chinese as well could be. + +Every one whose business was not too pressing strolled within seeing +and hearing distance--there were no barriers or enclosures. At the +back of the crowd, which, with less than half a dozen exceptions, was +composed of men and boys, numbers of ponies and mules waited patiently, +and among them from their Peking carts a few women obtained a good +view while not being too much in evidence. Kalgan is conservative +in preserving her traditions concerning the deportment of women. +Vendors of all sorts of things, from dusting brushes to cigarettes +and pea-nuts, took life easily on the outskirts of the laziest, +pleasantest, smelliest crowd I have ever been in. In the background +too were several barbers plying their trade, their victims gazing at +the play while their heads were shaved or their _queues_ combed and +plaited. The quaint mediæval play, with great clashing of cymbals, and +lunging about with swords and scimitars, was lively enough to please +the audience tremendously. The whole scene was picturesque to a degree, +what with bright clothes and action on the stage, with a background of +the mountains surrounding Kalgan, and nearer still the sombre old wall +of many, many centuries, and again, in front of it, the flat and gabled +roofs of Chinese houses and shops with their ornate fronts and gaudy +signs and symbols, the gilded lettering in two languages as befits the +meeting-place of China and Mongolia. Nearer still the handsome mules +with their richly decorated saddle-cloths, passed and re-passed, and +now and again a string of dromedaries pursued the even tenor of their +way, undisturbed and unattracted by the babel of the multitude. The +colour scheme was blue, blue, blue, in every conceivable tone, and for +variation, soft maizy yellow, prune, and mauve--the distant mountains +deeply purple. + +The old men of China are not the least pleasing of its inhabitants. +They are so kindly, so dignified, so placid, and so really venerable. +They stood around, dozens of them, with their pet birds in pretty +wooden cages singing away all the time, often held on the flat of +their hands high up and out of danger from the crowd. The cages are +frequently finely carved and beautifully made, the little seed and +water-pots of good porcelain, and the fittings of wrought silver +or brass. In Kalgan a foreign woman is indeed a _rara avis_, but +Chinese manners can be beyond reproach. The people crowd round one, +and certainly in the city one never moved without a small following. +But here, weird object that one must have seemed, they seldom made +themselves objectionable or jeered. One cannot help reflecting upon the +difference there would be in the case of a Chinese visiting a northern +English town in his Oriental dress and with his stumbling speech. How, +one wonders, would the crowds treat him? + +In pleasant contrast with the dust of the city were certain riding +expeditions which took me, accompanied by my host, to the foot hills +surrounding Kalgan, to inspect at close quarters the ruins of the Great +Wall and the watch-towers which punctuate it every 200 yards. Whether +he did it to test my riding capabilities or my courage before starting +me off on my lonely tour, I never quite discovered, but vivid in my +recollection is the climbing my host and I did on one occasion. By no +means an accomplished rider, the second day out on a new pony is always +more agreeable to me than the first, but when I saw how the little +black beast that had been lent to me and which I was subsequently to +take up-country, could scale precipitous banks, keep its feet among +loose shale lying on hard slippery surfaces, creep along narrow, +sloping tracks round mountain sides--places along which one would never +have dared to lead, much less ride, a horse at home--my confidence +developed considerably. In parts it was too dangerous to remain in the +saddle at all, and I shall never forget one thrilling moment when my +pony insisted upon turning right round upon our sole support, which was +a bit of a tuft overhanging a chasm some forty to sixty feet deep. His +heels sent the stones flying down, and I momentarily expected the whole +thing to give way, and that we should roll down hopelessly mixed-up, +sheer on to the rocks below. + +In connection with the extensive railway works at Kalgan and the +projected extension of them, is quite an important little community +of well-educated Cantonese, with some of whom I became acquainted by +means of an introduction given to me in Peking by my friend, Dr. Wu +Lien Teh, whose research work, especially in connection with plague, is +well known throughout the scientific world. Several of these Cantonese +are Christians and are keen supporters of the work carried on by the +missionaries amongst their employees. My introduction was presented +at a fortunate moment, for a feast to celebrate the arrival of a +first-born son was just then in course of preparation, and the presence +of a foreign lady apparently lent to it a welcome novelty. + +The proud father of the baby, Dr. Shi, knew a certain amount of +English, and, in consequence, I launched out alone, on to that sea of +unknown etiquette and custom, feeling a certain degree of security. +What was my horror on arriving at the house to find my host anxiously +awaiting my somewhat tardy arrival in order to introduce me to the +sixteen ladies already present so that he might hasten off to preside +at a similar banquet to his men friends at a restaurant near by. Not +one word of anything but the Cantonese dialect did the ladies speak, +and my carefully prepared sentences of felicitation in the Mandarin +tongue were in consequence discounted. The company, among whom was +the baby’s mother, greeted me with much ceremony and cordiality. +The precise form of salutation varies in different parts of China, +and here the correct bow resembles nothing so much as the action of +surreptitiously pulling up one’s stocking. Dr. Shi was careful to +explain to me that I was the guest of honour, and, after showing me +where to sit, he departed and left me to the tender mercies of the +little ladies. A little later on, however (and this suggests the innate +kindness and consideration of the Chinese) his heart must have smote +him, and thinking that chopsticks might be a source of embarrassment +to me, he flew round from the restaurant with a borrowed plate, spoon, +and fork. As a matter of fact these latter embarrassed me far more than +the chopsticks had done, for my big plate afforded my two generous +hostesses opportunity to overwhelm me with food which the ordinary +little bowl would never have contained. + +Upon the round table were set no fewer than sixteen dishes, and these +I gathered were only accessories to the huge bowls which were brought +in from the kitchen, whence there appeared at least a dozen distinct +courses. Eggs served in cochineal-stained shells were, it was explained +to me, in special honour of the new baby, as also was the ginger of the +same glad hue. The feast was heralded in by the customary joy sounds of +China; crackers innumerable and deafening being fired off immediately +outside the room in which we were assembled. Little leaden kettles +of “the dew of the rose leaf” (samshui) were first of all brought in, +and each of us was assisted to at least a thimbleful. Then began the +“Ch’ing chih fan” (“invite you to eat”). Everybody “ch’inged” everybody +else, and we proceeded at the same time to help one another to dainty +morsels with our own chopsticks. Instead of drinking to each other in +occidental fashion, the Chinese “eat to each other,” and when one’s +neighbour planks a toothsome morsel of bird or fish into one’s bowl, it +is etiquette to rise slightly in one’s chair and say “thank you”. + +Chopsticks, by the way, are like golf--it is largely a game of chance +and temperament. Sometimes one is on one’s game, and one manages to put +away a substantial meal; at other times one “can’t hit a ball,” and one +leaves the table feeling rather empty. The meal had not progressed far +before we were on terms of great conviviality, not to say familiarity. +They all laughed at the way in which I mismanaged my chopsticks (I +declined to give in and use a spoon and fork) and tried to teach me. +It was of no use, I was not “on my game” that evening. Next to me was +a dear old soul in a handsome black velvet coat; I think she must +have been a near relation on account of the way in which she took me +under her wing, from time to time popping a choice morsel, a chunk of +pine-apple, or a gigantic prawn, straight into my mouth. At intervals +dishes that I really enjoyed came on, buried eggs, bearing striking +resemblance, by the way, to plover’s eggs, crisply baked apricot +kernels, roast duck (horribly underdone), and the seeds of the lotus in +syrup, being among the most palatable. Half-way through the feast my +large plate was a horrible sight and full of things I felt I could not +possibly swallow. + +A charming girl opposite me leaned forward and gave me a generous +helping of some nice-looking whitish stew which nearly made me sick +when I tried it. It was like eating a very slimy sponge. To cover +my confusion, and with, I thought, great aplomb, I managed with +some difficulty to perch a beautiful morsel of very raw duck on my +chopsticks, which, instead of eating myself, I unselfishly plunged into +the mouth of my old friend on my left. The attention nearly choked her. +She did not expect it of me. But pleasant relations were established +for the evening, and I received several invitations to other dinner +parties as a result. There was a good deal of giggling at my foreign +ways, but these, I imagine, were less productive of sheer glee than my +attempt to adapt myself to their customs. + +At half-time or thereabouts, a woman servant of the coolie class, +very slatternly, and with her own baby upon her back, distributed +cigarettes, some cheap American brand in a tin, picking them out with +her dirty fingers and pressing them upon us in a most hospitable way. +All the servants, in fact, urged us on behalf of their master and +mistress to eat and drink. From time to time they would quietly sneak +a cigarette for themselves, and go to stand in the doorway to smoke +it. One of them was quite an old woman, and it amused me to watch her +casually take one from the table and light it between her withered old +hands with her back turned to the company. Our hostess, for whom with +two or three other guests there was not room at our table, came in +periodically to see how we were progressing, and would hand us one or +other of the delicacies persuasively. She peeled a Mandarin orange for +the old T’ai-t’ai next to me. The latter took it, but at once passed +it on to one of the urchins who were hanging around for tit-bits. It +seemed ungracious, but I suppose it was quite polite. A great tip to +be remembered at a Chinese feast is this; entice one of the many small +children always present to your side. You have then, conveniently +situated, a willing receptacle for the superfluous dainties that have +been heaped into your bowl, besides which you gain merit for your +“warm-heartedness” towards the dear little souls. + +[Illustration: A BIRD FANCIER, KALGAN] + +[Illustration: SERVANTS IN THE COURTYARD] + +Between ten and half-past--we had sat down soon after 6 p.m.--I +felt that the time had arrived when I might reasonably, though +reluctantly, take my departure; but the attempt to do so was met by +much protestation and conversation, and it was borne in upon me that +my old friend the T’ai-t’ai was inviting me to go back with her to her +house there to “sit-a-sit”. I agreed with pleasure, and hand-in-hand we +sallied forth in the moonlight, together with her daughter-in-law +and her little daughter, a pretty little soul, this latter, who was +the proud possessor of an English watch bracelet as well as several +distinctly western rings and bangles. Their house was not very far +off, and when we arrived the old lady ushered me into a bedroom where +her husband and son were reading in somewhat _négligé_ costume. They +quickly invited me into the guest room and, hastily donning their long +coats of ceremony, joined us. The father spoke a little English--he +had once stayed for three weeks in England, coming over, I understood, +in the train of Li Hung Ch’ang; the son, with whom I had a most +illuminating conversation on Chinese topics, had been educated in +England, and another son was at that time an undergraduate at Caius +College, Cambridge. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +Although I never found Kalgan lacking in interest and amusement, +I began to feel at the end of a week there that my prospects for +setting out for Mongolia did not seem to improve. The place teemed +with soldiers, and reports came in of impending battles between +Russo-supported Mongols and troops from the south which were daily +being poured over the frontiers. What to believe, and how much +reliance to place upon such information no one seemed to know, but +the persistency of one report, of a battle that had lasted six hours +at Dolo N’or, when the Chinese had to retire in the face of superior +numbers, found justification later on in obvious fact. + +My long-looked-for opportunity came at last, however, in the shape of +a Finnish missionary who wished to journey westward into Mongolia, +and who expressed himself as not only willing but pleased to allow my +little caravan to join his for our mutual protection. My preparations +at once sprang into activity. A Peking cart drawn by a strong mule, +and a most unpromising pony were hired for me, together with a +ruffianly looking Chinese, said to be trusty, at any rate brave enough +to face the terrors of Mongolia, at the rate of four dollars a day. +Hearing that we were to make an early start, I finished every detail of +my packing overnight, and was up betimes next day, lingering, however, +long in the last bath that I was likely to get for many a long day. I +ought by that time to have known that such plans as those for leaving +early seldom materialise, but I felt anyhow that I would not be the one +to cause delay. Instead of 8 a.m. we were under weigh soon after noon. + +I had employed the meantime greatly to my own advantage. When I went +out to inspect my cart, the driver had already more than half filled +the interior with his own and his companion’s belongings, sheep-skin +coats of doubtful cleanliness, sacks of fodder, and what not. It is +quite as typical of Chinese as of menials in other countries, to find +out by such experiments just how far they dare to go, or how much their +employer will stand--which comes to the same thing. My own theory is +that if you do not at the very outset assume the whip-hand, you will +get more or less bullied by those who should be obeying your orders. I +used my own discretion here, therefore, and ordered everything to be +turned out of the cart, including a sort of mattress-cushion which +lined it. They did as they were told without a murmur, and laughed at +my persistence and their own discomfiture in the clouds of dust they +raised. + +I then had my own things carefully packed in, bedding in a hold-all, +cushions, water-bottles, as well as such articles as my camera, +books, and a certain amount of food. My box of provisions, including +tinned meat, Bovril, tea, butter, cheese, rice, oatmeal, as well as a +plentiful supply of walnuts and raisins, and a small box containing +a change of clothes, were roped securely on to the tail of the cart; +fodder for the animals being placed on the top of them. Eggs and +potatoes I could rely upon buying from the Chinese for at least three +days out from Kalgan. The Southern Mongols themselves have nothing at +all to sell, living as they do on koumiss (soured milk), tsamba (a sort +of crushed barley), and mutton when they can get it. + +A tiresome lad of eighteen or so made his appearance during the +morning, and I foresaw that if he came too that I should be bothered +with him as well as the driver sitting on the shafts of my cart and +thus obscuring my view when I was inside. The missionaries spoke +sternly to both boy and driver to this effect and told them plainly +that I refused to allow the former to accompany me. They acquiesced; +but before we were clear of the city the lad turned up again smiling, +and later on I discovered that he was the owner of the little red +demon of a pony, and also that he was a very necessary adjunct to my +party. + +The caravan consisted of the Finnish missionary, his two open carts +drawn by two horses in each, myself in my Peking cart drawn by mule +and pony, a saddle pony, three Mongols, two of whom were mounted--who, +wishing to return to their homes on the borders of the Gobi, attached +themselves to us for safety, and four Chinese to attend to the +animals--nine of us in all. We were accompanied to the city gates +by some of the missionaries. The government offices, the Tartar +general’s yamen, the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, as also the offices +in which business connected with Southern Mongolia is transacted, are +all situated in this part of the city. There was some question as to +whether I might not have difficulty in passing the Chinese guard at the +gates of the city, since I possessed no passport even for travelling in +Chihli, much less for leaving that province and penetrating into the +wilds of Mongolia. Knowing quite well that had I applied for a passport +it would have been refused, I decided--upon the advice, I may say, of +an official high up in the Chinese government service--to dispense +with that formality. The missionaries, good sportsmen that they were, +intended to acquaint the Chinese Foreign Office with the fact that I +was in Mongolia _after my departure_. The Chinese, however, take but +little account of women, and I passed through the north gate on the +high road to the goal of my ambition. + +Riding, I soon found, was not much fun over this rocky way. I had yet +to grow used to trusting entirely to luck, and to letting the pony +have his head under such conditions. Moreover, knowing nothing of the +country one was obliged at first to keep within sight of the caravan, +which hereabouts went forward at a snail’s pace. I therefore spared my +pony for a spell, and giving it to the boy to lead, I retired to my +cart to lie down, and with my feet sticking out over the mule’s back, +meditate on what was before me. + +The road for ten miles or so follows the mud-coloured valley where +the clusters of houses so tone in with their surroundings that one +might think that they did so upon the theory of protective adaptation +to their environment. From the rocks and boulders with which the road +is strewn it might well have been a river-bed until the steep ascent +of some 2400 feet from the level to the Chang Chia K’ou, the Kalgam, +or Han-o-pa (meaning handle) Pass begins. The carts here began to +progress in brief spasms, and the gradient, together with the general +conditions, made this a somewhat painful experience. Leading our +ponies, we were able by devious paths to discover rather smoother +going, and the number one Mongol, a charming old man of some position, +who, having no mount, now seated himself (without invitation) on the +shaft of my cart, remarked that “The great one must be possessed +of extraordinary strength to be able to walk like that”. I learned +subsequently that a horseless Mongol is just about as much use as a +seagull with its wings clipped. + +[Illustration: WITH DOBDUN, READY TO START] + +[Illustration: CROSSING THE HAN-O-PA PASS] + +The missionaries had arranged that this same old Mongol, Dobdun, by +name, should act “boy” for me on the way up, i.e. boil water, peel +potatoes, and spread my bedding at night. I liked him very much, but +mainly for the sake of his picturesque appearance, for besides being +very stupid, extremely lazy, and knowing not one word of Chinese, he +had not the foggiest notion as to how to do anything for my comfort +beyond getting me hot water, and smiling in a paternal way, when, to +relieve my beasts, I got out and walked up the steep places. + +By the time we were at the top of the pass, between five and six +thousand feet above sea level, it was dusk. We had taken our time +over the ascent, an icy wind was blowing, and the scene before us was +desolate indeed. Earlier in the day and under normal conditions the +traffic here is very considerable. Not so at the time of my visit, for +beyond being overtaken by a couple of Mongols trotting swiftly along +on camels, who drew rein for a few seconds just in order to pass the +time of day, or, more literally perhaps, to put the inevitable question +as to our destination, before they flew on again, we encountered never +a soul. I had never seen camels trotting before and they reminded me +of leggy schoolgirls fielding at cricket, for they scatter their limbs +about in just such an ungainly way. + +The explanation of the solitude of the pass was forthcoming and obvious +enough later on, when, wheeling into the compound of a Chinese inn, we +were told that the whole place had been commandeered by the Chinese +troops. It was all very ghostly and mysterious, not to say formidable. +Under a bright starlit sky, the wind was blowing a gale, and the +prospect of sleeping in the open under such conditions by no means +appealed to me. Han-o-pa is a fair-sized village, but it was only after +our fourth attempt that we could gain admission to an inn. + +The inns, which are to be found only for thirty or forty miles north +of the frontier, are similar to all inns in North China. Built of mud, +the one-storied sheds line three sides of the compound wall. There are +stone posts in the compound to which horses and mules are tied up; in +the centre is a collection of carts and bales of hides and wool all +carefully covered up, while occupying a corner to themselves a trio of +camels was tethered. We entered the main room, the kitchen, two-thirds +of which was taken up by the k’ang, a low platform some two feet from +the ground, covered with a thick layer of hardened mud or boards, and +heated from underneath by means of a small furnace. It is one man’s +work to keep the fire going. With one hand he pulls a sort of bellows +in and out, with the other he feeds the fire continuously by means of a +ladle filled with dried horse-droppings. From this time onward, argol, +the Mongolian word for this dried manure, was the only description of +fuel I saw until my return to civilisation. There is neither wood nor +coal (unless, maybe, the latter is hid from sight in the bowels of +the mountain) in Inner or South Mongolia. The k’ang was crowded with +Mongols and Chinese as well as a number of soldiers, and I learned that +the tiresome boy who had insisted upon accompanying me was regaling the +company with a personal description of the foreigner whom he had in +tow, more especially how that she had had four shots on one occasion +before her pony would let her mount; a feat which seemed to give rise +to great hilarity when they saw me--the relation of eleven stone to the +size of the pony, I imagine. + +In the room adjoining were several Chinese traders, and I had to make +my choice between, sharing a k’ang with these gentlemen and the Finn, +or sleeping under the stars in the courtyard in my cart. Throwing +convention to the winds (one really could not trouble about Mrs. +Grundy in Mongolia some five or six thousand feet above sea level +with a thermometer well below zero and an icy blast blowing from the +snow-covered mountains), I decided upon the former without a moment’s +consideration, and arranged a sheet of oilcloth with my cork mattress +on the top on the opposite side to that on which the Chinese had +already stretched themselves. It was late, and we lost no time in +preparing and eating our chief meal of the day. We sat cross-legged +on our beds, a low Chinese table between us, while we ate. We were +tired, and very hungry, and to save unpacking, I shared my provisions +with the missionary. Having travelled a good deal about Mongolia, he +knew the people and the language well, and I found him an interesting +companion in consequence, delightfully ready to pour information out to +so keen a listener as I was. I am afraid that he thought me quite mad +to wish to make such a journey from motives other than evangelisation +or business, and he told me later that he was greatly surprised at my +powers of endurance, and that I could take things as they came with +such equanimity. Moreover, at the end of the journey he expressed his +willingness to allow me to join his caravan some time in the future +on an extensive tour over several months in the western region of the +country--which was, I felt, the greatest compliment he could have paid +me. + +“You won’t be able to undress, you know,” the Finn informed me, as he +nervously watched me divesting myself of my heavy riding boots; for +which superfluous information I politely thanked him. I had had no +intention of doing so in this motley company. One’s toilet on such +an occasion was both brief and simple. I travelled in the only garb +possible in that country, a cross-seat riding habit, and at night +merely divested myself of my outer garment in order to put on a long +sheepskin coat, took off my stock, crammed a fur cap down over my ears, +and tried to sleep. I found this last somewhat difficult on those hard, +hard k’angs, with a regular orchestra of snores bellowing forth from my +neighbours on all sides. The boards do not accommodate themselves to +one’s pampered body, and I used to wish there were less of me to ache. + +It was not much after 4 a.m. when the Mongols woke us next day, and +we drank our tea and ate some bread and butter to an accompaniment of +much shouting as they persuaded the animals into their harness. There +was little inducement to wash, for the top of the Han-o-pa Pass was +intensely cold in April, and what tried me more than anything else was +the difficulty of keeping the skin on my hands and face in that harsh, +alkali-laden atmosphere. Our Chinese companions, who had put us through +a perfect catechism before we all settled down for the night, we left +still snoring on the k’ang. Our joint hotel bill for the accommodation, +and including the tip to the man who sat up all night at the bellows, +was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3½d., but being foreigners, we +doubtless paid more heavily than did the Chinese. + +Our early start was somewhat discounted by the breaking down of one +of the wagons half an hour afterwards on the most exposed part of +the mountain. The wind cut us through and through, and the sight of +the snow and ice on all sides did not tend to make us feel any more +comfortable. (One learns patience and philosophy in this country, if +one learns nothing else.) My beautiful old Mongol presented his advice +to the carters as to repairing the wagon, and then proceeded to climb +up into the other one, thrust himself deep down amongst the cargo, and +drawing all the available covering over his head became, for the time +being, lost to view. I quickly adapted myself to my environment and +followed his example, thus beginning the day by endeavouring to finish +the night, and sleeping in my cart until nearly nine o’clock, when, +calling up my pony, I had a delightful ride until our next halt, at +tiffin time. + +The day had by this time resolved itself into a condition of springlike +perfection, and we had passed from the rugged barrier of the Han-o-pa +region to a grassy plateau, finding a good deal of the land as well +under Chinese cultivation, crops of wheat and oats just beginning +to show themselves above the ground. By their assiduity, their +perseverance, thrift, and industry, the Chinese here are persistently +pressing onward and forward into Inner Mongolia, year by year a little +more and a little more, colonising, and putting land under cultivation, +ploughing up great tracts which perhaps the previous year had furnished +grazing ground for Mongol live stock, their clusters of little mud +houses forming landmarks in the bare landscape. + +Long strings of ox-carts were here winding their way up towards the +mountains--unhappy-looking oxen with a vast amount of endurance, +wretched little carts carrying a load of three sacks apiece, weighing +from six to seven cwt. They travel very slowly, and on this narrow +rocky road they are compelled to stop and make way for everything that +either passes or meets them. The creaking of a string of ox-carts, +sometimes as many as a 100 to 150 tied to one another, once heard +will never be forgotten. The wheels are fixed on to solid axles which +revolve with them and the rest of the structure is the personification +of simplicity. Held together by wedges, the one thing needful to its +well-being is water. Allowed to become too dry, the ox-cart falls to +pieces. Kept properly damp, it forms the most serviceable of all means +of transport across the desert. The camel for celerity, but slow and +sure is decidedly the characteristic of the ox-cart. + +The first camel caravan we saw bearing hides and wool down to Kalgan +met us hereabouts. The Mongols at the rate of one to every fifteen +beasts, stared and stared at me and my pony, while I returned the gaze +with interest. The staying power of camels is proverbial. The caravans +in Mongolia march from twenty-five to twenty-eight miles a day, +averaging a little over two miles an hour, for a month, after which +the animals require a two weeks’ rest when they will be ready to begin +work again. Their carrying powers all the same do not bear comparison +with the ox-cart. The ordinary load for the Bactrian, or two-humped +Mongolian, camel is about 2 cwt. For riding purposes, though despised +by the horsey Mongol, a good camel may be used with an ordinary saddle +for seventy miles a day for a week in spring or autumn without food or +water. The points of this particular species are a well-ribbed body, +wide feet, and strong, rigid humps. The female camel is pleasanter to +ride and generally more easy-going than the skittish young bull camel, +who in the months of January and February is likely to be fierce and +refractory. I have heard it said that if a camel “goes for you” with an +open mouth, you should spring at his neck and hang on with both legs +and arms until some one renders you timely assistance and ties him up. +Generally speaking, however, they are not savage. They make as though +to bite, but seldom actually do. The female might, in fact would, try +to protect her young; and the cry of a cow camel when separated from +her calf is as pathetic as that of a hare being run down by the hounds. + +It was at a somewhat superior inn we drew rein at midday with the +double object of resting our animals and refreshing ourselves. The +pleasant Chinese who owned it invited us into his private apartment, +a relatively clean room, and it was here that I made my first cooking +experiment on the journey. In a biscuit box, which when we set out +contained a dozen eggs, was discovered the early development of an +omelette. Weeding the eggshells carefully away from the same, I +replaced them by chips of cold ham, thus in course of time producing +what I considered to be a dish worthy of the excellent _chef_ to whom I +had so lately said farewell at the Wagon-lits hotel at Peking. + +Alas! for my well-meant effort. The Finn felt extremely unwell after +partaking thereof, but in a subsequently confidential moment he +explained to me that the omelette had unhappily not harmonised with +a vast amount of cake which he had during the morning eaten in the +sad intervals of wakefulness while I was riding and he was snoozing +in my cart out of the wind. The innkeeper kept us company, of course, +during the meal, when he gave us the latest intelligence concerning +the movements of the Mongol and Chinese troops. All along the caravan +route to Urga, he told us, the Mongols were removing their camps and +flocks to remoter quarters for fear of being pillaged; and even down +here, little more than a day’s journey from the frontier, most of the +colonists were ready to pack up their ox-carts at an hour’s notice and +hurry away to the security of Chihli. + +The day, which had begun with so much promise, developed badly, a high +wind sprang up from the north, and, laden with alkaline saturated +sand lashed one’s face into a condition of soreness. Riding, as we +were, straight into the teeth of it, our progress was slow and the +hour late when we made for an isolated and miserable little compound +in which to pass the night. So few wayfarers had we seen during the +day that it seemed reasonable to suppose that we should have the place +almost to ourselves; but not at all. A most unholy looking crew of +Chinese and Mongols appeared to occupy every possible corner when the +door was opened, and we were told baldly that there was no room for +us here at all. There was, however, no alternative but to remain, and +with a little persuasion on the part of my old Mongol, a few of his +fellow-countrymen betook themselves to a less comfortable shed which +the innkeeper had considered unworthy of sheltering us. Some of them +remained, and there was, of course, nothing to do but to make the best +of it. The Finn told me that he thought he could get the Chinese men +turned out as well if I liked, but this would have been a desperately +unsportsmanlike thing to do, and I felt that one could not possibly +allow a missionary so to prejudice his profession. I could see that he +was relieved by, and much appreciated, my point of view, which I must +say seemed merely an elementary action in “playing the game”. + +There were some nine or ten of us to share the room, and two of the +Mongols looked most awful villains. I always slept with my revolver +under my pillow--most people did, I fancy, during those troublous +times--and I was amused at the Finn remarking, “You should put your +trust in God rather than in firearms”. I told him that I quite agreed +with him, but that I had always believed that intelligence combined +with a straight eye had been given to us with a view to helping +ourselves in tight corners. This same excellent man, be it related, +never himself travelled without a revolver in his pocket and was at +this time the proud possessor of a shot gun into the bargain. It struck +me afterwards that he was not unreasonably a little nervous as to whom +I might shoot were I to wake up suddenly frightened in the night. As a +matter of fact, the known possession of firearms in such a country is +in itself a certain amount of security. + +Getting away in the early morning was always rather a business. My +stubborn mule had sometimes to be coaxed and threatened alternately +for half an hour before he would allow himself to be put between the +shafts of the cart, and finally our caravan would get under weigh, +disentangling itself from the apparently inextricable confusion of the +crowded compound. + +Mongolian dogs, roused by the crackings of whips, keeping up an +incessant growl, breaking into a savage bark should the unwary +visitor venture too near; weary ponies with drooping heads tethered +to the stone pillar in the middle; ill-conditioned pigs nosing about +everywhere in somewhat hopeless search of provender; and, as souls +apart, the stately camels in picturesque groups looking superciliously +on, snarling and snapping as their owners urge them to kneeling posture +to receive their loads--such is the composition of the inn compound +as one hangs around shivering in the chilly dawn, ready to hoist +oneself into the saddle and be off the moment that the caravan is on +the point of starting. It does not need great experience in this sort +of travelling to be firm in seeing one’s entourage set out before one +departs oneself. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +“Those who know when they have enough are rich” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +The countryside at this point, some seventy miles north-west of the +Great Wall, begins to lose its cultivated aspect and to develop into +great stretches of undulating prairie as far as the eye can see, which +would have been ideal for riding had one had no retarding caravan to be +kept in view. By this time I had grown quite attached to my pony, for +although obstinate, as Mongolians must always appear by comparison with +Europeans, he had a very fair mouth and was evidently used to being +well treated. The monotony of the plains was broken not far from the +last sign of civilisation, Haraossu, a place composed of a temple and +a few houses, to reach which we had the excitement of fording a river, +the carters making no end of a bother about this. First of all they +persuaded one of the younger Mongols to divest himself of his trousers +in order to wade out to ascertain at which point the animals would best +be able to negotiate it. He walked into the water gingerly enough, the +others all pouring advice into his ears at the tops of their voices, +and after a considerable delay and a ridiculous amount of fussing +and preparation--the water in the deepest part did not come up to our +axles--we got over with great yelling and shouting. The little red +pony in my tandem flew over as though demons were after him, nearly +upsetting the cart by rushing up the steep bank on the opposite side. +My saddle pony went over quietly enough with me on his back, I having +reassured him by letting him drink a little water first, and having +therefore no difficulty at all. + +The last mud hut, a private house--there being no more inns on this +side of the Gobi desert--was reached long after dark. It was a truly +depressing habitation, the only virtue of which was that it was almost +deserted save for an old man and his two sons. They may have had +relatively comfortable quarters, but all that they could be induced +to give us was the merest little outhouse, a lean-to shed, from the +roof of which hung cobwebs heavy with the dust of ages. Warmth or +comfort there was none. Stacked round the walls and in the corners were +harness, primitive agricultural appliances, a collection of fusty bags, +and a mass of rubbish. When the dim light of our candles penetrated to +the rafters we saw hanging therefrom a number of skins of sheep, goats, +etc., some of them quite recently disassociated from their carcasses +and in sanguinary condition, as well as a skeleton of what I diagnosed +as a cat. + +It was a horrible place and so appallingly dirty that one felt desire +neither to eat nor rest in it. Packed up on the tail of my cart, +however, I carried a canvas camp-bed of which I had not expected to +make use before arriving at Ta-Bol. Here it was a great comfort, for +at least it raised me above the dust-level of the crowded k’ang, and +one did one’s best to become oblivious of the surroundings as soon as +possible. The owners of the place were evidently very nervous, and a +murmur of conversation kept me awake most of the night. They would tell +us nothing, however, and pretended ignorance of all that was taking +place in the country. Seeing some fowls, we persuaded them with some +difficulty to sell us a few eggs, which they assured us were perfectly +fresh. To my surprise, however, in applying the test of spinning them +round, they whirled like a teetotum, and I learned for the first time +of the native custom of hard-boiling them as soon as they were laid. + +We awoke to very cold weather next day, and I found to my sorrow that +my pony had developed a swollen back and that it would be unwise to +saddle him. Starting by leading him, I tied him up later on to the +tail of the cart just in front of my own, thinking to keep an eye on +him as we followed. But this was too undignified for the game little +beast, and with a toss of his head he broke his reins and went off at +a gallop, heading for the detestable quarters we had left an hour +earlier. This delayed us considerably, for we had already made a late +start owing to my stupid old Mongol first breaking the strap which held +my bedding together and then so packing everything into my cart that I +could not possibly get into it as well. The entire contents had to be +disgorged and re-arranged. + +By this time I had got my carters pretty well into shape, and they +were beginning to realise that things had to be done in my way, that +the cart was mine _pro tem._, and that I was not out for their sole +amusement. In a country where women are wont to take such an entirely +back seat it needs time and perseverance to establish this novel +state of affairs. As I had foreseen, there being two of them to one +of me, they tried in a mild way to bully me by seating themselves on +my shafts at the same time, thereby, when I was inside, completely +obscuring my view, and putting me on a level with the native women who +are neither seen nor heard. It was, too, only by considerable firmness +that I established a right to my favourite possession, a large sheet of +Chinese oilcloth. My bed was spread upon it at night, when it made a +sort of neutral territory between myself and the many insects by which +I was likely to be attacked. By day it shielded my baggage from the +dust and occasional rain storms, as well as gladdening my eyes when +they rested upon its brilliant imperial yellow. Not once but many times +did my driver try to annex this precious oilcloth in order to protect +his fodder therewith. + +With two of the Mongols who accompanied us for their own convenience, +I had very little to do. One of them, a son-in-law of the older +man, was a mere youth, very under sized, of seventeen or eighteen, +whose wedding, I learned later, was the great event of a few months +previously in Inner Mongolia. The father-in-law treated him with much +respect and consideration, for the boy is rich as Mongols go, and was +returning from Kalgan with saddle bags filled with purchases for his +bride; most uncomfortable they must have been, since they pushed out +his short legs from the saddle in a most ludicrous way. Starting an +hour or so later than we did, they were handed a packet of letters +which arrived just after I left, as well as a dollar’s worth of stamps. +They remembered to give me the letters a day or two afterwards, but I +can only conclude that they kept the stamps to trade with next time +they visited Kalgan, for I saw them never at all. + +Mongols pure and simple inhabited the hut at which we drew rein for our +horses’ midday rest, and girls with bright chubby cheeks and large dark +eyes came out to stare at us. After this between us and the Gobi there +was nothing but boundless prairie with an occasional group of Mongol +yourts, or tents. The air here was so clear that the eye carried for +a considerable distance. Far out on the horizon one may see objects +bobbing up and down, and, like a ship upon the high seas the sails of +which come into view long before her hull, these objects gradually +resolve themselves into figures, and a couple of Mongols mounted upon +camels dawn upon one’s view, swinging along at a great pace, the wind +at their backs. They are the pioneers of a storm and great clouds +of dust are rolling up behind them. The unusual sight not only of a +whirlwind, but of a whirlwind walking across the prairie was very +striking. It revolves at a tremendous rate upon its own axis as well as +making swift progress. In the high wind we found hereabouts, I several +times saw two or more solid columns of dust rising high into the air, +apparently stalking each other over the plains. Another curious and +equally amusing sight was that created by lumps of camel wool, which, +becoming detached, are blown along gathering loose dry grass and more +wool on their way, gradually forming huge boluses and trundling along +in the high wind with an amazing velocity. + +We were now in Mongolia proper, and the language of the people we met +appealed to me as infinitely more musical and harmonious than the +throaty sounds that emanate from the mandarin speaking Chinese. Early +in the day we arrived at the home of my old Mongol, Dobdun, and here +in his yourt we were evidently not only eagerly expected, but received +a very hearty welcome from the wives, a lama priest, brother of our +host, and from a number of young people and children. There were +several yourts clustered together, and outside the ubiquitous Tibetan +prayer flags fluttered in the wind. As we rode up, we were greeted by a +volley of barks from several ferocious dogs, and in Mongolia one soon +learns never to dismount until some one from the yourt comes out to +control them. When within shouting distance of the settlement at which +one wishes to stop, one should stop and call out the word “Nuhuoi” +(Mongolian for dogs), which as a rule brings out not only the dogs +themselves, if they are not already on your tracks, but the inhabitants +of the yourts who are bound by law to control them. + +The yourt is an umbrella-like framework of trellis-wood covered with +rather thick felt, which when new is perfectly white, and in travelling +in cold weather I ask for nothing better than to be housed in one of +these. Some 14 to 18 feet in diameter, they are circular in form, +having a dome-shaped roof. The door, which is originally painted red, +faces always south or south-east. Upon entering the yourt, you are +confronted by the little family altar, on which is arranged a Buddha +and perhaps several smaller and subsidiary gods, together with sundry +little brass cups containing offerings of one sort and another. In +front of the altar is a low Chinese table, and round the sides of +Dobdun’s yourt were some fine old red lacquer chests for clothes and +valuables. Most of these had nice old Chinese locks, but on one of +them the Finn recognised an European padlock as his own which he lost +when travelling a year ago with this same Mongol. He did not call +attention to the fact; it would be of little use, for Mongols pick up +and pocket things when the opportunity occurs and think nothing at all +of it. + +Dobdun’s yourt was exceptionally well-equipped. The ground was covered +with semi-circular mats of very thick white felt with a device +_appliqué_ in black as a border. Some handsome skins were also strewn +about. The centre of the yourt was occupied by an iron basket of +flaming argol, the smoke from which escaped through a circular opening +in the roof. Our host, my quondam “boy,” being a man of means, had +some handsome cushions for his guests to sit upon, and on these we +squatted cross-legged. There is a considerable amount of etiquette to +be observed in visiting a Mongol family, and the first thing to be +remembered is of significant importance. Just as one does not carry an +umbrella into a London drawing-room, neither should one take a whip +or stick into a Mongol yourt. To do so is tantamount to an act of +aggression, and the proper thing is to lay them on the roof outside as +one enters. Once inside, the usual palaver, as in China, takes place +as to where one shall sit, and it is interesting to reflect how very +nearly related after all in some respects our own manners are to those +of the Asiatics. It would surely be a very modern young person who +would plump himself into the largest armchair before his elders and +betters were disposed of. + +To the left of the fire are the seats of the lowly, and the inevitable +invitation to “come up higher” necessitates a certain amount of +elasticity on the part of those unaccustomed to sink gracefully to the +ground into a cross-legged position. Should cramp ensue from squatting +thus, the visitor should remember that to sit with his feet pointing to +the back of the tent is a heinous breach of good manners. If stretch +they must, it should be towards the door, not the altar. On the other +hand, if the foreigner divests himself of his headgear, which among the +Mongols is not customary, he must place it higher up than, that is, on +the altar side of, himself. If the word of greeting has for the moment +been mislaid, as in my own case it invariably was, bows and smiles +carry one a long way all the world over. Friendliness, but never to the +point of permitting the least familiarity, seemed to me in the East to +pave the way as a rule. + +With their warm welcome, a good deal of curiosity is naturally +combined, and I did not flatter myself that it was “love at first +sight” which made the ladies of the family so anxious to sit near to +me. Again, as the Chinese do, the Mongols like to finger one’s clothes, +get a close look at our “funny white eyes and light hair,” and if one +wears a ring, they are as amused as children to be allowed to try it +on. But Dobdun, having had some experience of Europeans was not going +to allow his womenkind to over-reach themselves, and their share in +the entertainment was to initiate me into the mysteries of Mongol +tea-making, and keep the fire going, and then, literally, to take a +back seat and allow the superior sex to converse. + +Having finally settled into such seats as befitted the relative dignity +of the visitors, an interchange of snuff-bottles took place, but in the +case of Mongols alone it would be the caller who would offer his to the +host and then to the others present. Of all their personal possessions, +there is nothing more highly prized by the Mongols throughout the +country than their snuff-bottles, which, in the case of rich men, +are frequently made of carved jade, crystal, and precious stones. A +considerable amount of ritual surrounds the offering and receiving of +the snuff-bottle. Our host, however, pandering to our foreign ways, +produced his snuff, and I learned from him to receive it in the palm of +my hand, lift it slowly to my nose, sniff, and then bowing return it +with deliberation to the owner. Dobdun’s habitat, I was warned, was not +to be taken as an index to all yourts, for the general cleanliness, as +well as the quality of the tea there, were vastly superior to anything +else I was likely to meet in Mongolia. I was, in fact, being let down +very easy in my initiation. + +The Mongols are very hospitable and insist upon giving the visitor tea +and milk. It is at first a trying experience to know that good manners +compel you to drink from a filthy bowl the still filthier milk which +you see taken from a skin bag, made from the “innards” of a sheep, +hanging up the side of the yourt, and offered to you by hands which +from the day they were born appear never to have been washed. Brick +tea, of which there are several qualities, and which in some parts of +Mongolia still forms the currency, is made at Hankow from the dust and +sweepings of the leaf. It is used throughout the country, and forms the +staple drink of the Mongols. It is brewed by shavings, cut from the +slab, being pounded up and stewed indefinitely in milk, to which salt +and a cheesy description of butter are added. + +The relation between the tea and the argol was somewhat too intimate +for my peace of mind, and it went sometimes much against the grain to +drink from a bowl wiped out by the fingers of some dirty old woman who +the moment before had been employed in feeding the fire with the horse +or camel droppings. The collecting of argol is a source of constant +occupation throughout the spring and summer, when after being spread +over the ground in the sun, it is piled in great mounds near the yourts +for use during the winter months. It makes a good hot fire and has +practically no smell at all when burning. While engaged in endeavouring +to drink this saline mixture and at the same time to convey the +impression that I liked it, an elderly man in a loose robe of dark +red cotton cloth, his head clean-shaved, rode up, dismounted, and came +in. He was presented to me as “my brother, the lama”. He was an old +friend of the missionary, and they at once entered into an animated +conversation. + +A particularly handsome small boy with large and merry brown eyes made +his appearance soon after, and to my surprise, lama priests being +vowed to celibacy, was introduced by Dobdun as “the son of my brother, +the lama”. The Finn chaffed the priest gently on the subject of the +breaking of his vows, whereupon every one laughed, including the +illegitimate son, who, a fine lad of twelve or so, had already been +dedicated to the temple and was now a lama student. They retaliated, I +heard subsequently, by asking the missionary what on earth he was doing +travelling about the country with a woman. This might have embarrassed +me had I known the language. It is not the first time that I have +experienced the blissfulness of ignorance. The lama in embryo and his +little sister were quite willing to be photographed later on, and were +posed for me by their seniors at their usual occupation--gathering +argol. + +[Illustration: A CAMEL CARAVAN] + +[Illustration: THE LAMA IN EMBRYO, AND HIS LITTLE SISTER GATHERING +ARGOL] + +In spite of Dobdun’s constant association with missionaries at Kalgan, +in spite of the fact that he knows by heart quite half of the Bible, +that he has had every opportunity and every encouragement to become +a Christian, he remains as devout a Buddhist as ever he was; and, +although interested in the religion of the Western world, he regards +it as similar but vastly inferior to his own faith. And so he continues +to enshrine his little brass figure of the prophet, and at sundry times +he doubtless makes his prostrations, and fills up the many little metal +cups with suitable offerings of corn and wine to his god. + +Thus my first impression of a Mongol yourt was an extremely pleasant +one, and I was sorry at the end of an hour or more to say farewell to +my first Mongol friend, little knowing that he had no intention of +letting me very far out of his sight and that he would turn up again +within the next forty-eight hours in order to present his foreign +protégée to his various friends in the neighbourhood. But you never +know your luck in travelling, and in seeking shelter for the night you +are as likely as not in winter to find a very different sort of yourt. +The young calves and lambs share the warmth of the stove with their +owners, and, if the size of the family (a very elastic term here) is +out of proportion to the accommodation of the yourt, they will all lie +down together, well wedged in with their feet towards the fire in the +middle, the animals squeezing in where they can. + +Delightfully drowsy hours in my cart over smooth prairie followed the +substantial meal in the warmth of the yourt as we pressed on toward +Ta-Bol, when I was suddenly awakened by an unexpected halt, in time to +see the Finn dismount at the sight of a couple of Mongols on camels +who drew up to speak to him. The camel-riders made their beasts kneel +and they swung themselves out of their saddles to shake the missionary +warmly by both hands. By this time a third man riding one and leading +another pony appeared on the scene and the four men squatted on the +ground in earnest conference. It transpired that they were attached to +a great caravan on its way down to Kalgan; that they had already been +obliged to go much out of their way in order to avoid the soldiers; +and that they would be thankful if the Finn would give them “written +words” in case any further effort were made to commandeer their camels. +I provided them with leaves from my note-book for the purpose, and the +Finn did what he could for them. + +[Illustration: CARRYING MAILS] + +[Illustration: BY THE WAYSIDE] + +[Illustration: ‘HE DREW REINS TO TAKE STOCK OF THE FOREIGNER’] + +Exactly why his words should have weight with Government troops in a +country under martial law, I could never quite fathom. Perhaps it was +that the soldiers from China and these Mongols from Urga would not be +able to speak one another’s language--more than probable. These Mongols +at all events departed quite happy and apparently much reassured by the +missionary’s advice. The horseman lent the Finn the capital little pony +he was leading. They would meet again before long, he said, and then it +could be returned to him. That night I reached the most northerly point +of my little excursion into the wilds, and camped out in the vicinity +of the only mission in the heart of Mongolia. + +Lack of hospitality has never been one of the variety of faults so +erroneously attributed to missionaries, but the little five-roomed mud +structure which housed two families as well as three or four unattached +men and women, to say nothing of an adopted Mongol orphan, had its +limitations, and I was not at all sorry to pitch my own tent rather +than tax the already overburdened resources of this newly established +station. It was but a few weeks after my visit that this little +community had to fly for their lives in the face of the pillaging +Mongols from the north, and up to the present time there has been +apparently but little hope of their returning to rebuild the ruins of +their compound, and to resume their almost hopeless task of conversion. +Missions in China are making quite unprecedented progress at the +present time, owing doubtless in some degree to the prevailing desire +for Western education and enlightenment in general. But Buddhism, or +indeed any other form of belief, has nothing approaching so strong a +hold over the Chinese as Lamaism has over the Mongols, where in every +family at least one boy is dedicated from birth to the priesthood, and +where lamas are estimated as forming over 60 per cent. of the total +male population. + +Within hail of this plucky little band I pitched my tent, and for the +first time experienced the diversions of life under canvas in what +was practically winter and during a gale. Among certain things I lay +claim to have learnt at Ta-Bol was how to appear cheery and optimistic +at breakfast time when from early dawn and even earlier one had been +engaged in finding out all about the ways and possibilities of canvas +during a raging hurricane. The Mongols are an astonishingly feckless +lot of people compared with the Chinese who nearly invariably “go one +better” and improve upon anything one shows them from the Western +world. The first thing that happened when I retired for the night +was the collapse of my canvas bed. The “boy,” to whom the business +of erecting it and my tent had been entrusted, had satisfied his +conscience by merely hooking the ends to the bed supports, and had +left the sides (literally) to rip. They did. With a tremendous effort, +the light blowing out at intervals, I managed to detach the frame from +the canvas and begin again. In course of time, and extremely cold, I +got into bed. By 3 a.m. I was aroused by the flap of the tent untying +itself and making a most irritating noise. There was nothing for it but +to wake up thoroughly and make it fast. + +I think I could not have been asleep more than half an hour before +I gradually became conscious that my tent appeared to be the sole +obstacle in the path of a tremendous hurricane on its way down from +Urga to Peking, for all the force of the gale sweeping over hundreds +of miles of desert seemed to be expending its force upon the canvas. +The flap-flap was merely the overture to a grand chorus, and the cords +on one side of the tent suddenly freeing themselves from the pegs +outside, the entire place became transformed in the twinkling of an eye +into a pandemonium. + +The dust was dense and my belongings blew round in it in base imitation +of the whirlwinds which had amused me so much during the early part of +the previous day. Loose corners of the tent smacked at everything with +extraordinary vigour, smashing all that came within their reach and +inflicting stinging slaps as one sought to make them fast. Any sort of +light was out of the question and chaos reigned for hours. Having made +the ropes fast again and, regardless of dust, deposited everything upon +the ground with the heavier articles on the top as the only possible +expedient, I again made a bid for the oblivion of a final nap. From +sheer exhaustion I managed to sleep again even in that storm, to wake +up shivering with cold and in a gritty condition of great discomfort. +For the rest--every single article in the tent had to be cleaned when +the wind went down. Among things I noted during that eventful night was +that it is essential when sleeping so near to the bosom of mother earth +in winter to pack as many clothes underneath as on the top of one’s +body in a canvas bed. More than once I woke up in the morning quite +stiff with cold. + +Life, however, is full of contrasts, and “joy cometh with the +morning”. At an early hour a missionary called upon me with a pleasing +proposition from the Mongols, who, hearing that I had a gun, thought +that it would be a good opportunity to organise a wolf hunt. Wolves are +the arch enemies of the Mongols on account of the tremendous amount +of damage they do to the stock. The Mongols hunt them with a zest +bred of vengeance, and ride them down (at a somewhat severe cost to +their ponies, for the pace is terrific and the strain great), finally +lassoing them with a loop of raw hide attached to the end of a pole. +The wolf thus caught has a poor time at the hands of the revengeful +hunter, and I heard horrible stories of the unfortunate brutes being +pegged down to earth, jaws bound, skinned alive except the head, and +then set free. Of Mongol bravery there is no doubt, but the reason +they give for wolves never attacking men in Mongolia is typical of +their “bounce” and conceit. Wolves certainly “go for” people in Russia +immediately north, and in Manchuria and China immediately to the east +and south of Mongolia. The Russians and Chinese, say the Mongols, are +cowards and run away, while they, the Mongols, attack the wolves, +yelling and shouting. + +A certain she-wolf had for some time carried on successful forays in +the neighbourhood, and had done considerable damage, not only among +the flocks and herds, but had even pulled down a colt quite near to a +settlement. Her lair, where it was suspected that she was maintaining +a litter of young cubs, had been located on a distant hill-side. Our +armament on this occasion was, though varied, quite insufficient, and +consisted only of our service and two smaller revolvers as well as a +shot gun. We lacked the essential rifle. The expedition, however, was +not wholly unsuccessful. Taking a line well to leeward of the suspected +hill-side, four of us with as many Mongols, armed with spades and +picks, spreading ourselves out with a view to cutting off the retreat +of the old wolf, should she attempt to dodge us, began a silent march +over the dried-up grass. We had walked for less than half an hour when, +sure enough, the vibrations of our footsteps carried the news of our +approach through the earth to the lair, and in the distance we descried +the lady, who, while keeping her weather eye upon us, was making off at +a swinging lope at right angles to us. If only we had had a rifle! Each +of us was ready to pose as a certain shot and swore to the unquestioned +demise of the wolf in such a case. A couple of excellent shots from the +service revolver scuffed up the dust after her retreating form, and +some of us ran at an angle and tried to head her off by shooting in +front of her. But pack of novices that we were, she got well away, her +tongue no doubt in her cheek, and we watched her regretfully into dim +distance. + +Hard work was to take place of suitable weapons. The lair was not +difficult of discovery. The hill-side was a perfect honeycomb of holes, +and we tried several before settling down to the task of a navvy upon +the most promising group. We all took our turn in wielding the two +Chinese spades the Mongols had brought with them, and before long we +had made a deep gully some eight or nine feet in length and four or +five in depth which we fondly hoped would soon disclose the nest. Our +disappointment in discovering that we had merely turned up a passage +which went off sharply to the innermost recesses of the slope was +great, and two of the party threw up the sponge, declaring that the +game was not in the least worth the candle. Personally, I had ulterior +motives in view, and was nothing loth to getting my muscles into trim +by such excellent exercise as digging. To become the owner of a couple +of wolf cubs and to take them back with me to Peking and possibly ship +them home alive seemed to me very well worth while. + +We dug all day, and towards evening decided, on the advice of the +Mongols, to try to smoke out the wolves by lighting a fire at another +entrance to the group of holes upon which we were engaged. We were +certainly rewarded, not by a capture of wolves, but by one of the most +wonderful sights I had experienced in the East. Whether accidental or +intentional, it was not very clear, but in any case the Mongols managed +to start a prairie blaze which ran like wildfire over acres and acres +of dried-up grass. It was a wonderful display. Numbers of eagles, +harrier eagles, they called them, hovered and hung over the burning +expanse, swooping down with deadly certainty upon any ground game that +might run. It was very interesting to watch four of these great birds +hunt and chase a miserable white hare which simply had no chance at all. + +There is any amount of sport even in this unpromising part of Mongolia; +antelope, prairie chicken, and hare offering a welcome variety to +the everlasting mutton of the stewpot. It was fortunate that the +fire spread in a direction away from the little mission station and +the Mongol yourts near it. At night the whole horizon to the west +was glowing, and one could see flames leaping high from time to time +as they licked up some little bush or scrub, the hillocks becoming +sharply outlined for a while and then part of the blaze itself. Had the +strong wind of the night before kept up we should have been in a tight +corner. It was an alarming as well as a beautiful sight. The relentless +progress of the crackling flames was awe-inspiring, and the phenomenal +part of it all was that after laying bare some thousands of acres, the +whole thing seemed to fizzle out almost as rapidly as it had begun. +I gathered that it was against the law of the country to start such +fires, but the Mongols seemed to think that it all made for good and +that the new grass would have all the better chance by the clearing off +of the old. + +At daybreak the following morning a couple of us sallied forth once +more to the scene of yesterday’s excavations, and seeing from the +distance some movement among the upturned earth we fired, to find upon +closer inspection that one fluffy little cub playing outside the hole +had been badly peppered and that another one had been killed outright. +That there were more inside was fairly certain, for a litter usually +consists of from five to seven or more. We decided to continue digging +operations. After several hours’ extremely hard work and a display of +great bravery on the part of one of the missionaries who burrowed into +the hole, where there might very well have lurked the parent wolf, +until nothing but his feet could be seen outside, we came upon a nest +of three more cubs as well as a wounded one in a passage leading to it. + +The Mongols were delighted with the bag, and clamoured for the pretty +soft little creatures whom it went to my heart to destroy. One was +spared for me, and I fed it for several days from a Mongol baby +bottle--but it died. The baby bottle of the country, I may mention, is +the horn of a cow pierced through to the tip, with a teat cut from the +udder of a sheep attached thereto. A great many babies whose mothers +have died in childbirth are, I am told, brought up in this way. By the +time we had finished our labours we had dug a trench of over twenty +feet long, sometimes seven feet in depth, to say nothing of various +false tracks, in the process of which we turned up several tons of very +tough earth, blistered our hands badly, and made a most untidy mess +of the hill-side. Over and above their joy at having given the happy +despatch to no fewer than six of their potential enemies, the Mongols +were delighted to cut up the wolves for the sake of their livers, which +form one of their most highly valued medicines. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +“That the wicked have plenty to eat is no indication of the approval of +heaven” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +It would be unkind to recommend any sensitive person to make a first +experiment in camping out among such a friendly, but inquisitive +crew as the natives hereabouts, and I could but be thankful to have +served my apprenticeship in this respect in China. After travelling, +very much off the beaten track, sometimes for eighteen months in his +country, the Chinese, wherever I met him, in Mongolia or in Russia, +or in Russo-Japanese Manchuria, seemed far more to me like “a man and +a brother” than the inhabitants of any of the latter countries. The +casual manner in which the Mongol would walk into one’s tent was, to +say the least of it, embarrassing; and I have heard it said that quite +a little grievance exists among those who from time to time visit +Peking for trading purposes or on official business because the houses +of Europeans are not open to them as are their hospitable yourts to the +traveller in their country. + +[Illustration: METHUSELAH AND HIS DAUGHTER-IN-LAW] + +[Illustration: ONE OF THE LARGEST CAMEL CARAVANS THE AUTHOR HAD EVER +SEEN] + +An old, old man dropped in one day to see me, stone deaf, and +dumb. I had been hearing a good deal and in great variety about +their superstitions regarding devils, and when this wrinkled old +leather-face, overshadowed by a sheepskin cap black with the dirt of +ages, silently approached me in the half-light of late afternoon, it +was as though the evil one had materialised. Very thin--there is no +soft corner in the Mongol heart, as in the Chinese, for the aged--very +tattered, and with bleared eyes, Methuselah gently fingered all my +belongings, passing his filthy fingers up and down the bristles of +my hair- and tooth-brushes with evident enjoyment. My interest, to +say nothing of my astonishment, was far too great for me to think of +raising any objection. Poor old man! + +Far from being venerated on account of advancing years the old people +in Mongolia run a very good chance of being crowded out of their +yourts by the younger generation, and left to live or die with no more +possessions than a bit of felt covering and a meagre allowance of food +on the dust heaps surrounding the settlements. + +A son of my old visitor had been a lesser mandarin in this part, but +was dispossessed as the result of having been altogether too grasping +in his “squeeze” of the soldiers whom he was supposed to pay with money +that was provided for that purpose. Four or five fairly well-to-do +yourts were the fruit of his ill-gotten gains, and his chief wife, +the T’ai-t’ai, showed me with pride her beautiful headdress which she +said was worth over one hundred taels, which it was not difficult to +believe. A number of relations crowded into the yourt when I went to +pay my call--an astonishingly picturesque crowd in blue, purple, and +lavender coats, mingling with the bright orange and dull red of the +lamas’ habits--all more or less dirty, and some very ragged. The men +with their shaggy fur caps and silver-mounted hunting knives, ivory +chopsticks hanging in cases, and flint and tinder purses slung on +silver chains round their waists or attached to their girdles; the +women with elaborate headdresses of the same metal, richly studded with +jade, coral, and sometimes pearls, are all really very imposing. + +Nothing would satisfy them but that I should go to call upon the little +bride of the family and their son, her boy husband. Escorted by the +mother-in-law, I made my way to a very new-looking yourt covered with +clean white felt and with a newly painted red door. It formed quite a +landmark among the others, which were in varying stages of dirtiness +and decay. We were received by the young bridal couple, who, arrayed in +all the splendour of their wedding garments in my honour, had omitted +to tidy up their habitation, which presented a sorry spectacle of +thriftless disorder. I gathered that some of the wedding presents had +been of a practical nature, for I noticed--incidentally by hitting +them with my head--haunches of antelope and joints of mutton hanging +from the roof just inside the entrance. The marriage did not seem to +me to promise particularly well, for although amply endowed with +such worldly goods as the Mongol heart could desire, the boy and girl, +children that they were, seemed distinctly snappy with each other, and +each kept his or her own key of the red lacquer chests which contained +their respective treasures. + +[Illustration: A MONGOL BRIDE] + +The girl’s bridal coiffure was quite wonderful, and back and front +her strings of coral and silver chains, with their massive ornaments, +reached almost to the bottom of her coat. I noticed that the older +women’s strings of beads seemed to grow shorter with age, and gathered +that, as the girls of the family married, their headdresses were +contributed to by the senior generation. A bride, therefore, in a poor +family possesses much finer jewels than does her mother, who, like many +a mother at home, has been impoverished by the wedding. + +The tribe of this region is the Chakhar of South or Inner Mongolia, and +owing to the proximity of China they are, I believe, the least pure +bred of any. In the main a nomadic people, they move their settlements +under normal conditions but twice in the year, the principal object +being, of course, fresh pasture for their cattle. They also, however, +attach some importance to tradition, and will move their yourts just +a few yards sometimes just for the sake of having done so. A fairly +well-watered country, the locale of the yourts is to some extent +determined by the wells, but the areas are relatively circumscribed, +and there is little difficulty in discovering at any given time the +whereabouts of any particular family one may be seeking. + +The great lamaseries are necessarily of permanent structure, and +fine temples surrounded by a number of yourts and rough houses of +Chinese type form villages of considerable size. One comes upon them +unexpectedly like oases in the desert. Once a most warlike tribe and +foes greatly to be feared by their Chinese neighbours, the Chakhars +appear to be now a more peaceable folk than their cousins of the North, +and have not, in unison with the Khalkhas, sought to throw off the +Chinese yoke with the downfall of the Manchu dynasty. I have heard it +said that the Chakhars are cleaner than other tribes, but for the truth +of this statement I am unable to vouch; and truly, in view of the fact +that it would be difficult to be dirtier than they, I myself find it +hard to believe it. Mongols, generally speaking, are an extraordinary +dirty people, and one of their superstitions is that if they have too +much to do with water in this life they will become fish in the next +incarnation. They suffer much from contagious diseases, on account of +their habits as well as owing to their lack of morality. + +[Illustration: A TYPICAL CHAKHAR] + +The Mongols are, I am told, some of the most frankly immoral people in +the world, and this is not the result of the absence of moral code, +for theoretically this latter is of the strictest possible character. +The lamas certainly have an extremely bad reputation; certain orders +of them are allowed to marry, but the great bulk of the immense +population of priests is nominally celibate. Among the various orders +of the priesthood are some whose mission it is to travel about the +country to collect money for the temples. When one of these holy men +(the greatest villains unhung, would be my honest opinion) visits +a settlement he is invited to stay in the richest yourt, given the +best of everything to eat, and the chief wife, or, if he prefers her, +the daughter, is offered to him as a matter of course. There is no +question, I believe, of these women, who belong to the lamas, being +looked down upon--far from it. But as far as I could observe and +understand, women entering into this irregular alliance do not wear the +distinctive and very beautiful headdress of the married woman. + +Lamas throughout Mongolia have their heads clean-shaven, and in this +region their ordinary dress consists of long tunics of coarse cotton +in varying tones of terra-cotta and yellow, bound round the waist +with sashes of dark red, as well as long folds of the same material +which, worn ordinarily across the chest, are on ceremonial occasions +and whilst officiating unwound and used in shawl fashion. Even were +there no other distinguishing feature between the Mongol and Chinese, +by their boots you would know them all the world over; clumsy, +loose-legged affairs, coming two-thirds of the way up to the knee, +the dignity of the Mongol is very greatly diminished if he has to +walk or run in such a footgear. Toes upturned, the sole is thick and +cumbersome, the boot fits nowhere at all, and the walk degenerates +into a shuffle in consequence. For purposes of differentiation the +laity are called black men, their hair being worn in long handsome +pig-tails, the front of the head shaved in Chinese fashion. I was +present on the occasion of the inauguration of the first Parliament +of China’s Republic in Peking in the spring of 1913, when the Mongol +representatives, three of them from Inner Mongolia, were conspicuous +in that ultra modern and newly cropped assembly by their _queues_, by +their high boots, and by their old-world satin-brocade, fur-trimmed +coats of a richness and quality now seldom seen in Peking. + +Men and women are extremely fond of dress and ornaments; the former +run to beautiful and valuable snuff-bottles, elaborate decoration of +their hunting knives, tobacco pouches, chopsticks, and flint and tinder +boxes. Extremes seem to me to meet in the cherished possessions of an +old Mongol mandarin. He showed me with much pride an up-to-date rifle, +a splendid pair of Zeiss field-glasses, and then his flint and tinder +box. + +Ta-Bol, the meaning of which, “five mountains,” suggests a somewhat +distorted view of the slight elevations which surround it, proved to +be a pleasant centre for my short sojourn in the Chakhar country, and +I managed to get a variety of experiences into the time I was there. +In a north-westerly direction and distant some 60 li from Ta-Bol lies +Hankarawa, an important citadel of lamaism and the largest temple of +Inner Mongolia. In perfect weather and over the most delightful riding +country imaginable, with a good track across undulated prairie, an +early start was made in order to have plenty of time on arrival. My +star seemed in the ascendant, and it was truly a lucky day that I chose +for the expedition. + +Forming a suburb to the lamasery were half a dozen or less yourts near +the entrance, and these I found on closer inspection were primitive +little stores kept by the Chinese for supplying the lamas--who here, as +in most other places, do no work at all and produce absolutely nothing +for their own use--with the necessities of life. The courtly owner of +one of them pressed me to enter, when he at once offered me the best +tea that I had had since I left South China. In stumbling phrases, I +expressed my appreciation and enquired whether the tea was not from +the Bohea hills of Fukien. This let loose a flood of conversation (of +which, I must confess, I hardly understood a word), out of which I +disentangled the fact that my host had come from that province and +was delighted to speak with one who knew and admired his native city, +Foochow. As to paying for my entertainment, they scouted the idea, and +when I departed I felt that at least I had now one friend in Mongolia. + +As I approached the entrance to the place it all seemed abnormally +quiet and deserted. I knew there were hundreds of lamas there, but +no one was about and not a sound was to be heard. It was all very +mysterious. It was not until I had tentatively opened many doors and +peered into the gloom of sundry temples, in one of which a very old +lama sat quite alone, droning his prayers in the Tibetan tongue, +clashing a pair of cymbals and beating a big drum with his hands and +feet respectively all at the same time, that I heard sounds as of +clapping and applause. I found them difficult to locate. Chancing on +the entrance to an unpromising looking and, as far as I could see +deserted, compound, I leaned my weight against the great painted +wooden doors, which giving way with a loud creak, precipitated me +most unexpectedly into the midst of an unlooked-for entertainment. My +own surprise can hardly have been less than the combined astonishment +of some two to three hundred lamas, ranging from little boys to old +hoary-heads, all squatting on the ground in the sunny forecourt of a +temple. + +[Illustration: TWO OR THREE HUNDRED LAMAS SQUATTING ON THE GROUND IN +THE SUNNY FORECOURT OF A TEMPLE] + +[Illustration: HANKARAWA] + +My sudden appearance with a camera in their midst was apparently most +disconcerting, and one and all they covered their heads with the dark +red sashes. To take a snapshot on the spur of the moment was literally +a reflex act on my part, and had my life been at stake in the doing of +it I could not have refrained. As it was, for a moment or two perhaps +the situation was a trifle strained, and whether my intrusion would +be resented, as it might well have been in that out-of-the-way +corner of the earth, was exceedingly uncertain. Scowls and anger were +expressed all too plainly on the debased faces of many of the younger +men, but at a sign from one of the leaders they seemed quickly to +recover their equanimity, resumed their occupation, and offered not the +slightest objection to my presence, when, by signs, I asked permission +to walk round the outskirts of the gathering. + +The deep red, vivid orange, and pale cinnamon of their clothes +suggested great borders of parrot tulips ranged on either side of a +wide flagged path leading up to the chief lama, who quite possibly +had seen, what probably few of the others had, white faces visiting +the temples in Peking. He allowed me to take a photograph at close +quarters, smiling (at his own cowardice, I presume) the while. The +little boys made hideous faces at me as I strolled round, and the +young men of twenty or so, an age at which I always feel there is most +to fear from devilment and cruelty, looked at me in an unmistakably +hostile manner. + +A little group of men stripped to the waist formed the centre of +operations, and these it transpired were candidates for a degree. They +were being examined by the seniors and cross-examined by their junior +colleagues of all ages. Each side backed its fancy apparently and all +indulged in wild clapping and gesticulation, some of them rising from +the ground in their excitement and yelling approbation or the reverse +to the victim of the moment. The brown-faced old chief lama sat suave +and imperturbable throughout. The scene was as picturesque as it was +interesting and fraught with mystery. + +Soon afterwards the assembly dispersed, and, freed from the restraint +of their elders, the young lamas hustled round me in an aggressive and +pugnacious sort of mood. I have found in my limited experience that to +meet this kind of thing good-humouredly, but never to show the least +sign of embarrassment, usually has a placating effect. I allowed one +or two of the more objectionable youths to look through my camera, for +instance, but when one of them wished to take it from me for a closer +inspection I smacked his hand away as I would have done a child’s, +whereat they laughed. Not more than five per cent of the uninitiated +seem able to see anything through the lenses of a camera, but if one +or two can be made to do so the others are placed at a disadvantage, +which, to some extent gives one the whip hand. + +In the same way with the Chinese. On rare occasions I was faced with +the type of swanking young man who conceives it to be his mission in +life to make the foreigner “lose face”. He usually begins by calling +attention to one’s limited knowledge of his language, but I succeeded +more than once in turning the tables by enquiring if he knew “English +talk,” “French talk,” “Russian talk,” and so forth. A contemptuous +shrug of the shoulders and an expressive movement of the hands, with a +well-there-you-are look on your face, and the crowd laughs with you, +while the swanker retires to reflect on the fact “that they don’t know +everything down in Judee”. + +On one occasion in Mongolia it became essential for me to assert +my position. The lad who had insisted, against my wishes, upon +accompanying my caravan up country (I discovered afterwards that +he was actually the owner of and alone could manage the pony which +helped to draw my cart) declined to carry out my instructions in some +small matter or other one day, and, moreover, when I insisted, he +was cheeky, imitating me in the way I spoke Chinese almost before my +face. This could not, of course, be permitted for an instant. I waited +my opportunity, and later in the day on returning from an expedition +I asked a missionary to explain his misdeeds very carefully to him, +and to help him to realise that though I might not be able to speak +his language I did not intend to stand any nonsense from him. I +stepped in at the end of the harangue and seizing him by the pigtail I +administered the severest chastisement I have ever given, boxing his +ears soundly several times. The crucial question had arisen. Was I to +lose face, or was he? I have to admit that I was not “hitting a man of +my own size,” but the effect on the Mongol onlookers was excellent, and +as for the lad himself--well--he and I and a young Mongol spent the +greater part of next day together hunting for eagles’ eggs, far away +from the camp. That I taught him the approved Western method of blowing +eggs with one hole only (some of them were in an unpleasantly mature +condition) sealed our relationship, which remained friendly until I +left China. + +One romantic evening in South Mongolia comes back to my remembrance +in Europe as it were in a dream. I had arranged to accompany my old +friend the Finn on a visit to a distant settlement in order to see +whether these people there with whom he was totally unacquainted would +give him a hearing at all. After a ride of some twenty li or so, we +arrived late one Sunday afternoon at a group of tents sheltered from +the north and easterly winds by a belt of low hills, and came to a halt +a hundred yards away from the most important looking yourt with a shout +of “Nuhuoi”. + +The people emerged from the surrounding tents and restrained the very +savage dogs who were howling for our blood. Women controlled them, +kneeling on the ground and holding them in by their collars. The moment +the dogs see that strangers are given a friendly reception there is no +more trouble with them until the time for departure comes, when the +same performance has to be repeated. The owner of the yourt we had +selected for our visit was a Mandarin of some standing, and his fine +manners greatly impressed me as he offered us the snuff-bottle in the +most courtly fashion imaginable. With him was a very handsome man who +might from his gentle and learned appearance have been--what one likes +to imagine they are--an Oxford don. This was the Mandarin’s secretary, +and having lived from time to time in Peking, he had acquired something +of the culture and refinement of the Chinese upper class. Through him, +the Finn addressed most of his remarks to the Mandarin who was keenly +entertained until the subject of Western religion was broached, when he +completely changed his aspect, becoming palpably indifferent, if not a +little sulky, remaining with us only because good manners compelled him +to do so. + +People from neighbouring tents swarmed in, crowding and jostling each +other at the entrance in order to catch a glimpse of the foreigners. +The atmosphere became not a little thick, the doorway being absolutely +blocked up by a solid little mass of humanity, little faces even +peering in between the ankles of the older folk. A motley crew indeed, +the sun streaming in like a brilliant shaft through the hole in the +roof, the rest of the interior in deep shade, the colours of their +clothes and the whimsical faces of the people making altogether a +fascinating study. The Finn suggested that I, as a new-comer to +Mongolia, would like to hear some of the music of the country, and +there was a great pow-wow as to who should perform for my benefit. +After a prodigious wait, two young lamas disappeared, soon to return, +the one with a long multi-stringed instrument of wood distantly +related, perhaps, to the zither family; and the other bearing a +banjo-like affair provided with four strings. + +In the dim light from the setting sun, and with a shyness charming +to behold in these usually somewhat truculent youths, they twanged +their strings in pretty little minor chords, and from time to time +one of them would sing quietly and very bashfully of the prowess of +his historic forebears. The singer of the settlement, a girl, was, I +gathered, too shy to appear at all. It was all so weird and barbaric, +so remote from life as I had known it, and so extraordinarily like a +dream. The Mongols, as I learnt during my months in Peking, are totally +unlike the Chinese in their relation to music. While I was in Peking +the last of the Manchu empresses departed from the disturbed life of +her country, and the lamas, of course, played an important part at +the funeral ceremonials. Grouped in a little temple-like structure +to one side of the platform upon which the obeisance to the memorial +tablet of the dead empress was made, some forty or fifty priests in +brilliant togas of Imperial yellow satin intoned a solemn dirge which +was absolutely in harmony with the atmosphere of mourning. Many people +who deny entirely the least suggestion of musical sense to the Chinese +were, I remember, greatly struck with the extraordinarily deep and +rich tones that came from the Mongol throats in their Gregorian-like +chanting. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +“The best riders have the hardest falls” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +The people in the neighbourhood of Ta-Bol were quite a friendly lot, +and I was frequently invited to go and have a chat in the various +yourts. To persuade one inside and therefore to be at close enough +quarters to enjoy a thorough inspection of the foreigner’s clothes, +hair, “light eyes,” etc., was a source of much enjoyment to some of +the younger women, and turning a blind eye, that _sine quâ non_ of +all good travellers, upon the dirt and disorder, I managed to see the +people under more or less normal conditions, which one seldom succeeds +in doing when journeying with a definite goal and object. In some of +the yourts, each one, it seemed to me, dirtier than the last, were +delightful babies, confiding little creatures who had never known +harshness, some of whom wore really beautiful charms of jade and lumps +of amber round their brown necks, which nothing could induce the +mothers to sell, for fear of jeopardising the fortunes of their little +ones. From what I saw of them, both in the north as well as in the +south, I came to the conclusion that the youthful Mongolian, until +he arrives at such an age to be dedicated to the vicious life of the +lamasery, is a particularly happy little person. The boy baby dominates +the yourt as much as he dominates the palace, but I imagine his little +sister has a rather fairer chance in life than she often enjoys in +the Chinese family. At any rate, I never saw a child being ill-used +in Mongolia, and to hear one cry is of rare occurrence. Families all +over Mongolia are, I am told, small, and in one yourt when the mother +of twins was presented to me as a somewhat phenomenal person, she +apologised for the fact and said, “The foreigner will regard me as +being like a dog to produce two children at one birth”. + +Upon returning one evening to my camp, I found that the local Mandarin +had sent across one of his camels in response to a remark of mine +that I had never ridden one. The natives, I think, expected a fine +entertainment, for there were several unwonted loafers hanging about +the compound. The camel looked a nice gentle young thing, and we took +to each other at first sight. At a word from the man who brought her, +she knelt in order to receive me in the saddle, which was the usual +sort of Mongol affair with very short stirrups. Having neither reins +nor bridle is at first disconcerting, but I was assured that it was +simple enough to steer with the single rope of camel’s hair which is +attached to a wooden pin running through the cartilage of the animal’s +nose. I was lucky in not coming off at once, for it takes a little +experience to remember that in rising, hind legs first, the camel +pitches you forward against the front hump and then shoots you back +again when the fore-quarters of the creature come into position. I had +no intention, however, of making merry for the Mongols, and blithely +declining to be led (I somehow trusted that camel), I started off at a +gentle pace, wondering how on earth I would stop her should Madame la +Chamelle take it into her head to run away with me. + +Days of see-saws and swings are to me a still cherished reminiscence. +I by no means disliked the undulating motion which to many people +recalls the Dover-Calais boats, and, gaining assurance, I dug my heels +in and essayed a gentle amble. Madame obliged me, and we were, I fondly +believe, mutually satisfied, when I, becoming rashly familiar upon +so short an acquaintance, used a word I had learned from the Chinese +when riding a donkey along the dusty roads near the Imperial summer +palace at Peking. “Dôk, Dôk,” I gaily remarked to Madame, merely (and +quite unnecessarily) to suggest that she should pick up her feet and +not stumble. I forgot that her scholastic attainments included only +her mother tongue and that she did not know the Chinese language. The +effect was striking in more senses than one. She came to a sudden +standstill and with a tremendous heave shot me on to her front hump as +she plumped down upon her knees. It was but by the mercy of providence +that my neck was not broken, and that with the second movement reversed +I regained my seat. Fortunately we were well out of sight of onlookers, +but my confidence was badly shaken, and it was only when it occurred to +me that “Sŏk, Sŏk,” was the expression of the Mongols when they wished +their camels to kneel to be loaded up that I felt forgiving and able to +forget the little misunderstanding. + +The expression of a camel’s face is always one of supreme contempt. +Camels remind me of certain elderly and aristocratic spinsters who, +possessing no money and but little brain, have one asset, their +social superiority. But I like it all the same, breeding in camels or +spinsters either as far as that goes. + +During the whole time that I was at Ta-Bol rumours came daily to +our ears of the increasingly disturbed condition of the country, of +fighting that had taken place or was expected to take place at no very +great distance. The missionaries were warned by the authorities that +they must hold themselves in readiness for flight at an hour’s notice, +and that they would be wise if they lost no time in sending their women +and children into regions of safety. A trio of Chinese officials were +located somewhere in the vicinity, and the utmost secrecy was observed +in regard to their movements while the general atmosphere of unrest and +nervousness prevailed. + +It was not difficult to see that if I wanted to carry my whole scheme +into effect, which was to return to Peking, make my preparations, and +start again at once for Europe by way of the Gobi and Siberia, I had +better lose no time. This little expedition was merely by way of a +preliminary canter in order to gain experience for the more ambitious +journey right across the desert, as well as to test my capacity for +really rough travelling and primitive living. My journey back to China +promised to be a lonely one. I should this time have neither Finn nor +Mongols riding with me for company, but merely the two Chinese who were +daily becoming more uneasy and restless at the news from the north, and +who were pestering me with enquiries as to when we were to return to +the safety of Kalgan. + +Disliking anything savouring of monotony and being, moreover, +interested in the possibilities of Inner Mongolia from the European +point of view, I decided to go back to Kalgan by a different route from +that by which we came. I had heard in Peking of a large horse-farm +financed by a small syndicate in China, at which lived a solitary +German overseer, a long day’s journey to the south-east of Ta-Bol at a +place called Dol-na-gashi. I was told that this would be interesting to +visit. + +Although it was only early May, I had on the whole been most fortunate +as regards weather during my trip, but at the time of my proposed +departure a typical Gobi gale sprang up and delayed me for a couple of +days, during which time it was impossible to do anything at all. The +only satisfaction I had was that all my belongings were packed up and +out of the dust. + +My Chinese driver demanded money before starting; he had apparently +run up a bill with some Mongol, for fodder, he said, and he would not +be allowed to go before he paid up. I had stayed away longer than my +servants had anticipated, the original arrangement being that half +their total hire should be paid down at starting, and the remainder +handed over when they delivered me safe and sound in Kalgan again. I +certainly believe that it added considerably to my safety to travel +very light as regards money: I took with me but a few dollars. I was +careful now to give my men money enough only for their immediate +necessities, and to retain the whip hand by keeping the bulk of it +until the end of the journey. I am afraid that we were a somewhat surly +trio as we turned our backs upon Ta-Bol and set our faces homewards in +the icy wind and stinging dust. The Chinese were annoyed at having to +make this détour by--to them--an unknown route, while I have to admit +being rather “under the weather” myself. + +A Mongol rode with us some distance to put us in the right direction +for the horse-farm, and before nightfall we arrived at a substantially +built and very comfortable bungalow, planked down in the middle of +interminable prairie, upon the borders of an extensive shallow lake +which provided resting place for numbers of wildfowl. Surrounding +the bungalow were yourts, and long, low stables, in which I learned +later the magnificent Russian stallions who were to improve the breed +of Mongol ponies were housed. Concealing his astonishment at the +unexpected appearance of an European lady at his door, the German +overseer, speaking excellent English, gave me a most cordial welcome. +The interior of the bungalow contained all the comfort of a farmhouse +in Saxony, and glad I was to stay there for a night, and thus to reduce +by one the number of uncomfortable inns to be experienced on the way +back to Kalgan. After the ugly, undersized though serviceable little +Mongol ponies to which one had become accustomed, the magnificent +horses--Russian crossed with German, if I remember aright--looked like +giants. Their powerful build with short arched necks and small heads +was very dignified indeed, and for the first time in all my wanderings +I felt a suggestion of homesickness as I looked at them, and wondered +how far the development of the motor-car would have gone to oust the +horses which are seen to greater advantage in London during the season +than anywhere else in the world. + +A bunch of 500 Mongol ponies scattered about the prairie was the +material with which my host had to work. He had not, he told me, so +far had particularly good luck with them owing to sickness amongst +the mares, and he did not seem to think that the immediate prospects +as regards financial success were any too rosy. One point about +this horse-farm that interested me particularly was that with all +their horsey proclivities, their vaunted horsemanship, and general +prowess, the German overseer preferred to employ Chinese to Mongols as +infinitely more reliable with the animals in all respects. + +We made an early start next day. The weather had cleared again. A +handful of cigarettes between them transformed my Chinese into the +cheeriest and most considerate companions. Previous to this they had +been, perhaps, rather rubbed up the wrong way--most unintentionally, I +am sure--by first one person and then another conveying instructions +to them. But now that they were solely responsible for me and to +me, no one could have behaved better. Once succeed in giving your +Chinese employee a real sense of responsibility and you have one of +the most trustworthy men in the world to deal with is not only my own +experience, but that of men who have lived half a lifetime in China. +Those, indeed, who live there longest like them best. I have long since +come to the conclusion that as far as is practicable with virtually no +knowledge of their language the more one manages one’s native servants +oneself and without assistance the better one will hit it off with +them. As soon as ever the third person intervenes, misunderstandings, +ill-temper, and disagreement result. + +I was certainly pleased with my drivers when they told me that if I did +not mind cutting tiffin and the midday rest, they thought that they +could take me to a distant inn where I should be much more comfortable +than at the obvious halt. Nothing loth, and quite content with a diet +of walnuts and dates, since that was all that was accessible in my +cart, we travelled for twelve solid hours on end. The men were in +high spirits, shouting “Whoa, whoa,” to the animals (which in Chinese +topsey-turveydom means of course “hurry up”--I was taken in by this +every time) and cracking jokes all day, because, as the Yankees say, +they “felt so good”. It was certainly a hard day, and at the end of it +we met, what to me was a never-failing joy, one of the largest camel +caravans I had ever seen. Slowly climbing up over the horizon it loomed +between us and a gorgeous sunset, gradually dawning upon our vision +as it came swaying along in the golden haze, richly dressed Mongols +lolling easily upon the camels’ backs. There must have been over 200 +camels and sixteen or eighteen men, all fully armed, riding them, +bright patches of colour in their blue, purple, or priestly red. + +So completely was I absorbed in this beautiful picture that I did not +notice, neither apparently did the men, that we were approaching the +compound of an inn on the off-side, until suddenly our leading pony +made a tremendous dash right through the middle of the caravan across +the track, scattering the camels and causing something of a stampede. +The little brute was hungry and had no intention of allowing a few +camels to stand between him and his supper. The camels, who are only +loosely roped together in order to save their pierced noses should any +untoward incident, such as a stumble or cast load, occur, spread out +in all directions, and for the moment the air was rendered sultry with +Mongol execrations. No harm was, however, done, and every one laughed +at the d’hivilment of the fiery little red pony. But our destination +was not yet, and it was long after dark when we arrived “at the haven +where we would be”. A long parley at the gateway of the inn filled me +with fear that we were going to have trouble in securing accommodation, +but after much wheedling on the part of my pock-marked Chinese, we were +allowed to enter, and without a word from me some men were turned out +of a room in order that I might have it to myself. + +The lad whose head I had so severely smacked but a few days previously +behaved admirably, setting up my bed, fetching me hot water, and then +staying to see me eat my supper. It was only by presenting him with +the greater part of a leg of mutton (I detest old mutton!) that I got +rid of him at all. Alone for a short spell, I settled down to a hearty +meal composed of the various remains in my food box, and hurried off +to bed with the uncomfortable recollection that the boy had held up +four fingers as indicating the hour at which we were to start, or at +least at which I was to be called, on the morrow. Expecting to reach +Kalgan within twenty-four hours, I bestowed certain articles of food +upon the coolies who stood round watching me pack up next morning, and +was amused to see that my men got a _quid pro quo_ for anything I gave +away. A copy of “Punch” was the means, I observed, of purchasing fodder +for the red pony from the inn proprietor. + +Another somewhat strenuous day brought us to the top of the Han-o-pa +Pass, and by the time we reached the heights the colouring was superb. +Purple and pale blue mountains pushed through a misty atmosphere, +the sun shone brilliantly, and great masses of clouds shed their +deep shadows over the gateway to North China. It was here that the +road from Dolo N’or joined our caravan route, and we had indeed the +evidence of our own eyes that the fighting of which we had heard so +much was no mere myth. We overtook ox-cart after ox-cart escorted +by small detachments of Chinese soldiers, bringing down knapsacks, +accoutrements, and caps belonging to the poor Chinese who had fallen +to the splendid marksmanship and dash of the Mongol troops at the +battle of Dolo N’or. The Chinese are much too thrifty (and poor) to +allow their caps to be buried with the soldiers. More than once, too, +we saw some miserably wounded officer being carried down that terribly +rocky pass on a rough stretcher. One man had had to pass the night at +the last inn at which I stopped, and it was pitiful to see the agony +he suffered in being lifted on to his stretcher again. He had been +badly shot in the lower part of the body, and I am sure he must have +wished that he had been killed outright. People say that the Chinese +are insensitive, and that relatively speaking that they do not suffer. +One thing I know about them is that some of them have the power of +self-control very wonderfully developed. As to their sensitiveness to +pain, I should not like to speak, but I am very certain that it is rash +to generalise. + +It is strange what a haven of comfort and security one’s headquarters, +however temporary, become for the time being, and my last day on the +road was marked by the now-we-shall-soon-be-home feeling. By way of a +final experience, we encountered for three hours over the highest part +of the pass the thickest dust storm that it has ever been my lot to +see in the East. So dense it was, that covering myself up completely +with the oilcloth I cowered as far back as I could get in my cart, +and breathed in air which might have been caused by a practical +joker with a bag of flour, while for safety, as well as out of sheer +humanity, I gave my motor goggles to my perspiring driver. Appearances +do not trouble me much off the beaten track, but the whole of the day +following was devoted by myself and a “boy” in trying to drive the dust +out of the riding kit which I had worn in the storm, and even from the +few things which were carefully packed away in a small box. + +The descent from the heights some fifteen miles north of Kalgan was +one of continuous jolt, joggle, bang-joggle, bang, jolt. One wheel +would mount a time-worn boulder, linger a second on the top, and +slide off with a gulp into the soft sand. The other meanwhile, would +execute a “pas seul” on a rock newly disintegrated from the mountain +side. Packed even by an old hand well versed in Chinese travelling, +everything breakable got broken on my journey down over the Kalgan +Pass, and even the sides of my books were ground against each other +until the cardboard showed through the cloth covers. As for my camera, +my cherished old Kodak which for over fifteen years had served me well +and in many countries, and which especially in Mongolia had given me +cent per cent of good results, I did not mean to let it get broken if +I could possibly help it, and I saved its life by carrying it slung +round my neck so that it rested on my chest, thus providing a certain +amount of resistance against the jarring. The reason of this somewhat +excessive destruction was that we came down the mountain side at top +speed, reckless as to driving, in order to reach Kalgan before the +closing of the city gates. + +Away down on the level all our troubles were forgotten in the +compensating peacefulness of shelter from the wind. The road along the +Kalgan valley was very beautiful, very soothing, and full of incident. +The rugged mountains round us were bathed in the soft warm glow of +sunset, the shadows closing in behind us fell in rich violet tones. The +trees, which little more than a month ago had been bare, were now fully +clad in their daintiest, freshest green, and what had been a frozen +river-bed was once again a running stream. Many men and boys watering +their horses greeted my drivers, and incidentally myself, as heroes +who had deeds of daring done, and welcomed us as travellers returned +in safety from a distant and dangerous land. The Chinese are horribly +afraid of the Mongols. + +[Illustration: A PASTORAL SCENE] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +“With coarse food to eat, water to drink, and the bended arm as a +pillow, happiness may still exist.” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +So greatly had I enjoyed my experiences of travel in Inner Mongolia, +that it was in a sanguine frame of mind I returned to Peking to engage +in the pleasant task of making my preparations for a more extensive +expedition. I had not, however, been long in the capital before I +received from an authentic quarter news which made my prospects of +carrying my plans into effect look somewhat dubious. Confirming the +rumours I had heard at Ta-Bol, a Reuter’s telegram was published to the +effect that a battle in which 1200 Chinese soldiers had been routed had +taken place immediately north of that place, and that the Hung-hu-tzes, +once a robber band, now authorised Mongol soldiery, were plundering +within a few hundred li of Kalgan, and killing Mongols and Chinese +without distinction. + +The next thing that happened was that one afternoon at the British +Legation, forty-eight hours only after my return from the north, I met +Mr. Edward Manico Gull, then of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, +who, like myself, undeterred by the question of risks, was keenly +desirous of crossing the Gobi and of visiting Urga with a view of +learning at first hand something of the political conditions which led +up to the rebellion of Mongolia against Chinese rule. A few days later +he propounded the very practical suggestion that it would be decidedly +economical, and, what was of far greater importance, very much safer, +if we joined forces in order to make the attempt. Plans then grew +apace. Mr. Gull left for Kalgan almost immediately, and spent a weary +fortnight in making strenuous efforts to secure first camels, and then +a Mongol to accompany us as guide. Only people who have had this sort +of experience can realise the constant disappointment, the promises, +the breaking of promises, the endless procrastinations and delay that +attend an endeavour to persuade the Asiatic into doing something +concerning which he has misgivings--it resolves itself into a perfect +see-saw of anticipation and disillusion. + +At extortionate rates, camels were commissioned over and over again; a +southern Mongol undertook the duties of guide. When the time arrived +for their appearance there were no camels. The Mongol backed out of his +bargain. For my part, I undertook the purchase of stores--a somewhat +unknown quantity, for under the unsettled conditions of the country +it was wise to be prepared for all emergencies, such as dodging the +fighting forces, which conceivably might mean making a détour taking +weeks. I also bought a capital pony--alas! only to sell him back again +to his owner a few days later. But I at Peking was less sanguine +than my friend at Kalgan. The little experience I had already had of +Mongolia had taught me something of the difficulties of the situation, +and by then the frontiers were so tremendously guarded that there was +never the ghost of a chance of getting out of China nor of our caravan +going through the lines. + +To the kindness of certain friends at Peking at this time I owe +more even than perhaps they realise. Plans had of necessity to be +kept private under the circumstances, and the sympathy as well as +the practical assistance in preparing my outfit that were given to +me in the most generous manner possible by the two people who were +in my confidence can never be forgotten. But to cut a long, and to +me a heartrending, story short, we had, after straining every nerve +to achieve our object, to abandon the notion of crossing the Gobi, +and, travelling by train in the most prosaic manner possible through +Manchuria and Siberia, we arrived at Verkne-Oudinsk on the Eastern side +of Lake Baikal. The journey thither, had not the vision of all we had +missed in being forced to cut out the Gobi from our calculations loomed +large on our horizon, would have been very interesting. As it was, +I broke my journey by the South Manchurian Railway for twenty-four +hours in order to see something of the old capital and metropolis of +Manchuria, Moukden, while Mr. Gull travelled on to spend a few days +with some friends at Harbin. + +Moukden attracted me on several counts. I wanted to see with my own +eyes something of the effect of the Japanese influence (the line from +Peking to Ch’angch’un is Japanese) on the Chinese in Manchuria, as +well as to visit what had been the scene of great slaughter during +the Russo-Japanese war. Most of all was I anxious not to miss the +opportunity of inspecting the small but fine collection of Ch’en Lung +pictures which interested me deeply. These, together with an enormous +collection of porcelain, are kept, thick with dust and but rarely +seeing the light of day, in the old palace, the ancestral home of the +late dynasty, perilously exposed, it seemed, to danger from fire, but +perhaps safer as regards looting than they might be in China proper. +One of these days one fears that a needy Government, if it continues to +sail under Republican colours, will cast its predatory eye on this mass +of treasure, and a long purse from the United States will replenish +the coffers of the iconoclasts at the expense to the nation of some +of the most precious heirlooms of the faded monarchy, the priceless +possessions of Ch’en Lung the magnificent. The tombs of the Manchu +sovereigns a few miles out of the city also helped to convince me that +it had been well worth while to break my journey at Moukden. + +From Ch’angch’un to Harbin one travels under Russian auspices on the +Chinese Eastern Railway. Never in all my experience have I arrived +at a more depressing place than Harbin, some eighteen hours’ journey +on from Moukden. Never have I felt more of a stranger in a strange +land. Chaos reigned among the cosmopolitan crowds on the platforms, +and I was in despair at securing my luggage before the train went +on. A friend in need, in the person of a hotel porter, came to my +assistance after I had effected the whole business myself, and haled +me off to the dreariest hotel it has ever been my lot to enter. Of +mushroom growth consequent on the opening of the Siberian Railway, +there is little that is attractive in Harbin, and it was depressing to +find that Russian holidays, when all shops are closed, necessitated +remaining there for several days in order to make final purchases. I +could find no redeeming feature in Harbin, although it was there that +an extraordinary piece of good luck befell us. In a dismal tea garden, +Mr. Gull and I were using up a great deal of energy in the endeavour to +persuade a Russian waitress to provide us with bread and butter, when +a handsome old man turned round and in dulcet tones said, “Would you +like me to interpret for you?” We did indeed like, and still more did +we enjoy the conversation that ensued. We learned that our friend, a +much-travelled man, had been in Urga, and was therefore able to give +us most valuable information as to the means of getting there. In the +kindness of his heart, he even presented us with introductions to a +Russian who had it in his power to be exceedingly useful to us, but +who unfortunately was absent from Mongolia when we arrived there. This +kindness on the part of a perfect stranger was truly refreshing, not to +say inspiring. + +Leaving Peking as we had done by so entirely different a route from +that we had projected, we had been unable to provide ourselves with +the permits necessary for carrying firearms in Russia. The Russian +customs are the bugbear of trans-Siberian travel. Even when all is in +one’s favour, passports duly _viséd_, every detail _en règle_, endless +difficulties are apt to crop up, and sad and varied are the stories +with which passengers regale each other of lost luggage, missed trains, +and other uncalled-for troubles, one and all resulting from--shall +we say excess of zeal?--at the customs. The Russians still seem to +think that they are doing one a favour in allowing one to travel in +their unattractive and expensive country, in which I for one certainly +encountered more sheer discomfort than in any other place I have stayed +in. + +The settlement, it is scarcely worthy of being called a town, of +Manchuli is separated by some forty-eight hours’ journey from Harbin. +It is solely of importance as being the Russian frontier, and is the +scene therefore of all that is exasperating in connection with customs. +It was here that we anticipated trouble with our guns, revolvers, +and ammunition. But good fortune was beginning to shine upon us, and +owing to a little kindly advice from another casual acquaintance, we +experienced no difficulty at all. We had been warned that if the guns +were too much in evidence they would unquestionably be confiscated and +that imprisonment without the option of a fine would result without +doubt. Stories of the awful dungeons on the Volga floated through my +mind. + +My gun, therefore, was taken from its case (the latter being sent +back by post to Peking) and the three sections wrapped up and packed +among the underwear in my trunk. The ammunition, I was advised, should +be so distributed as to give no clue to its presence. This was by no +means an easy matter. Over a hundred rounds packed away into a tin jug +and basin, with walnuts placed on the top, were made into an untidy +brown paper parcel. The remainder was carried in a haversack. It being +generally agreed that the less likely of the two of us to be suspected +was myself, I undertook to do my best to perpetrate the deception. +Underneath my Burberry I slung the Mauser pistol and a large Colt +revolver; my smaller weapon I carried in my pocket. The ammunition for +all these I had also spread about my person. Outside my coat was the +haversack, the strap concealed round my neck, and in order to suggest +the lightness of--food, shall we say?--I carried this jauntily on the +tips of two fingers. The total was somewhat weighty, and I felt for all +the world like a Gilbert and Sullivan pirate. + +The examination of my small trunk was to me a nerve-racking +performance. To present a bland appearance to the officials who +conducted the search was, under the circumstances, rather hard. Layer +after layer was lifted out, but when on the verge of disclosing my +disjointed gun the generalissimo in command stayed the hands of his +underling and all was well. But it was touch and go. + +Upon our box of stores we had fully expected to pay duty, since +everything entering Russia is liable, and a few days previously I had +been told of a lady travelling home by this route with her baby being +charged full price on sixteen tins of milk which she had purchased for +her journey. But the officials were content with the turning out of the +entire contents of the box, when finding that there was no one article +in sets of dozens, they were good enough to pass the lot through +without charging us a penny. + +The remainder of the journey to our destination, Verkne-Oudinsk, was +pleasant enough by the ordinary trans-Siberian daily express, and +without incident worth recording. There was no restaurant car, but +the station buffets all along this route are excellent, and in taking +advantage of these for meals we were able to husband the contents of +the food box for Mongolian emergencies. We drew up at more or less +suitable times for meals thrice daily, and soon learned to accommodate +ourselves to these or to go without altogether. At the buffets we +found capital food at very reasonable prices, and it was usually +cooked to the minute of the train’s arrival. At wayside stations +too, we were able to buy wild raspberries in any quantity, but never +were we able to hit these off at the same station at which we bought +beautiful cream--the equivalent of about half a pint for a penny. Food +on such a journey (there were about fifty hours between Manchuria and +Verkne-Oudinsk) plays no unimportant part, and for the sake of those +who fear lest they may go hungry should they have the courage to travel +other than by the _train de luxe_, I will just mention in passing that +the little spatch-cock chickens fried in egg and breadcrumb, after a +liberal helping of the famous Russian Bortsch (which indeed is a meal +in itself) make a dinner hard to beat. Travelling second class for +economy’s sake--for we were in utter ignorance as to how our financial +resources would hold out in Mongolia--our travelling companions were +mainly Russian officers and their families, and from time to time a +couple of priests of the Greek Church would get in. But one of all +these knew any language other than his mother tongue. To find the +wonderful linguists with which Russia is usually accredited one must +go, I fancy, into the society of Petersburg or Moscow. This particular +linguist, a priest, had lived in America. The conductors on the trains, +though civil enough, spoke Russian only. The well-equipped washrooms at +the end of each compartment were dreadful traps for losing things, and +an unpleasing coincidence occurred when we discovered the loss of our +respective watches both on the same day. + +They were undoubtedly stolen. Mine was less easily explained than that +of my fellow-traveller. For less than two minutes he had left it on the +edge of the lavatory basin, and on becoming aware of this second loss +it seemed that the time had come for complaint. Complaint in Russian, +however, is not so easy when one does not know one word of the tongue, +and we resorted to the primitive method of drawing the watch, and then +making pantomimic enquiries of our companions--at that time a couple of +priests and the two sons of one of them. It was one of these latter we +had reason to suspect, and going sternly up to them, I brandished the +drawing in their faces and demanded the watch. The father broke out to +our astonishment in voluble English, and assured us (what parent would +not have done?) that his were good little boys, and would not think of +keeping the watch had they found it. Our surprise was even greater when +the second priest produced his cigarette case, opened it, and disclosed +the watch. He presented it to me with an unctuous bow, explaining that +not knowing to whom it belonged he had retained it. I am afraid that +we must have mingled incredulity with our gratitude, or perhaps his +uneasy conscience smote him, for he pulled forth a large crucifix from +his voluminous garment, kissed it sanctimoniously, held out his hands +to both of us, and before we had time to realise the situation kissed +first one and then the other of us amid great protestations of honesty. +A most revolting person. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +“Whom Heaven has endowed as a fool at his birth it is a waste of +instruction to teach” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +Our real difficulties had, however, barely begun, and it was upon +arrival at the Hotel Siberie at Verkne-Oudinsk that we felt completely +at sea in the absence of one word of a common language. Reaching +our destination late at night we had the greatest trouble in making +them understand that we were hungry and wished to have supper before +seeking our rooms. Eggs, we thought, would be the simplest and most +easily obtainable fare. I therefore drew an egg. What they did _not_ +think it was meant for can hardly be described; that it was an egg +never occurred to them. Certainly an egg drawn in a hurry might be +many things. Therefore I added an egg-cup to my sketch; and at this +they stared in blank astonishment. I think they had never seen such a +thing. I then tried to draw a chicken; at which they laughed, but had +no conception as to my intention. With all the resourcefulness of the +superior sex, Mr. Gull had a brilliant notion. Out of all patience--he +is a peppery little man--he pointed to my picture, and, violently +flapping his arms, he squawked “Cock-a-doodle-doo” at the top of +his voice. Delight on the part of the staff. The demonstration had +penetrated their thick skulls, and we had eggs for supper that night. + +Next day our intention was to find out all about the steamboat which +was to carry us up the Selenga River to Kiachta, but how to encompass +this was almost an insurmountable problem. The clerks of the telegraph +office had been our solitary hope, but on acquaintance we found that +this means was worse than useless. They knew not one word of French, +German, or, of course, English. We wandered, somewhat disconsolate, +along the dusty streets, wondering what we should be able to do, when, +when coming away from a private house, we encountered the amiable +countenance of a Chinaman. We seized upon him, and our troubles were, +for the time being at least, at an end. What he did not know himself, +he put us in the way of finding out, and retracing his steps into the +house he invited the master thereof to come forth and to speak with us. +This gentleman turned out to be a German-speaking Russian engaged in +one of the more important businesses of the place, and of his kindness +we have the most grateful recollection. He helped us to order dinner, +he walked with us, and drove with us. He took us to the steamship +company’s office, purchased our tickets, and finally put us and our +luggage on board the “Rabatka,” waving us farewells from the wharf +like the good friend that he was. + +Verkne-Oudinsk is not a place of many attractions. Once a penal +settlement, now a military stronghold, its main feature is the huge +white prison standing on the banks of the Selenga River a short +distance outside the town; it seems out of all proportion to the +population of some 40,000 inhabitants. This prison is capable of +containing 600 men and women, and in some of the rooms there are as +many as seventy persons herded together. Criminals of the worst order, +as well as those prisoners who have escaped and been recaptured, are +isolated, confined in dungeons, and wear fetters on their ankles. +Of Verkne-Oudinsk’s 40,000 inhabitants some 10,000 are said to be +Chinese, while of the remainder an appreciable proportion is no doubt +composed of Russian political exiles and ticket-of-leave men with their +families, or their descendants. + +In relation to the size and position of the place the shops of +Verkne-Oudinsk are fairly good. There are also a couple of factories, +while a brisk trade is carried on at certain hours of the day in +the big market square. Considerable business is transacted in +Verkne-Oudinsk in connection with skins, fur, wool, and timber. +The first-named are, however, exported in their raw condition and +therefore not a great many people are employed in this trade. As in +most Russian towns, the church forms the dominant feature, and that +in Verkne-Oudinsk, with its copper-green roof and white walls, is +decidedly attractive to the eye, standing as it does, on the banks of a +flowing river. + +The houses, mainly of wood, and often composed of rough logs with the +bark remaining, are for the most part of one story and border the roads +on which the dust is habitually ankle deep. The only possibility of +comfort under such conditions is to wear the long soft top boots of the +country. Yet it is only the men of the place who do so, and the women +for the most part go about in trodden-down slippers and with shawls +over their untidy heads. + +The weather was by this time growing hot, and the prospect of two +days’ travelling on a river steamboat sounded exceedingly pleasant +after the shadeless, dust-laden streets of Verkne-Oudinsk. But we had +reckoned without the mosquitoes. The “Rabatka” can hardly be called a +luxurious boat, and the vibration and noise from the paddle-wheels were +at first not a little trying. The cabins, arranged with three hard, +velvet-covered seats in place of berths, were very small, while the +necessity that arose for the thick wire-gauze screens over the windows +as soon as the sun went down, rendered them almost unendurably hot. +There was a roomy upper deck upon which we had fondly contemplated +spending all our time, but alas! the funnel emitted, not smoke, but a +continuous rain of red-hot charcoal, and in view of the danger from +fire there was, of course, no awning. + +The scenery, which was mildly pretty as we passed between the pine-clad +hills outside Verkne-Oudinsk, soon became flat and uninteresting. +Selenginsk, the only village of any size and with the usual large +white church with green domes, was passed about half-way between our +starting-point and Ost-Kiachta, and may be remembered as having been +during the early part of last century the field of a group of English +missionaries who established there an excellent work among the Buriats +(a Russian-nationalised tribe of Mongols). They lived there in complete +exile until Nicholas Imperator ordered them out of the country in the +early forties, the reason being that it was English influence and not +the Christianising of the Buriats that was feared by the authorities. + +Delightful indeed it was to reach the little port of Ost-Kiachta in +the cool of the morning, to make a bad bargain with the owner of a +tarantass, and to find ourselves driving along through country which +was in refreshing contrast to that we had recently left--stretches +of flowery moorland bordered with pines and silver birches. At one +point across a shallow valley drifted sounds of melody, which, we +discovered later, arose from the tents of an encampment of Russian +soldiers. This part of Siberia, in fact, bristles with bayonets, and +the ulterior motives of massing such numbers of soldiers in territory +so obviously peaceful is significant enough. We must have driven for +some ten miles or more when we dashed through the gay little town +of Troitze-Casavsk, in which churches and barracks seemed to dominate +everything right up to the door of the unpretentious, one-storied, +barn-like erection which called itself the Hôtel Metrôpole. + +[Illustration: TROITZE CASAVSK] + +[Illustration: OUR BURIAT HOSTESS] + +[Illustration: THE JAMSCHIK AND HIS TARANTASS] + +The place presented a depressed aspect, and the bedrooms, like cells, +opening off a long and odoriferous passage, were far from cheering. +The washing arrangements, just a trickle of water coming from a tin +receptacle of doubtful cleanliness fixed above a basin, and the +sheetless, blanketless beds were by no means inviting. The landlord, +however, a portly Serb, was a pleasant enough fellow, and sent us in an +appetising lunch, which, after our picnicing experiences on both boat +and train was welcome. Kiachta, of which Troitze-Casavsk is merely a +division on the northern side, we found to be a far more interesting +place than Verkne-Oudinsk. A great military centre, with newly-erected +barracks of strikingly ugly design and capable of accommodating over +15,000 soldiers, mars the foreground of what would otherwise be a most +charming view extending as far as the eye can reach into Mongolia. + +A ribbon of no man’s land divides Kiachta from Mai-mai-ch’eng (buy-sell +city), a pretty little Chinese township which fringes the northernmost +border of Mongolia opposite Kiachta--the neutral territory being +defined by a couple of stone pillars on the strip of dusty waste. +But Russia has long ago broken the laws of neutral territory by the +establishment of barracks within five miles of the frontier, and +Mai-mai-ch’eng is depressed. They are very depressed indeed, for the +Russians are pressing the Chinese very hard here, and, while the latter +doubtless squeezed the Mongol to the limits of his endurance, they +in their turn are being ground down and out of existence by dues and +taxation on both incoming and outgoing goods, in face of the special +protection which is afforded to all Russian products. The Chinese +were very ready to talk about their grievances, and we sat in their +little shops and drank excellent tea, in Russian fashion, in vast +quantities one hot afternoon while they poured these grievances into +our sympathetic ears. Chinese, Mongols, and Russians live cheek by jowl +in Kiachta, but all told, apart from the military, the total population +numbers not many more than a thousand souls. + +It is here in Kiachta that one first makes the acquaintance of the +Khalkha or Northern Mongol. In the streets, in the market place, in the +burning heat where the sand refracts every atom of glare, they are to +be encountered. Always mounted, they presented the most extraordinarily +picturesque appearance, and the first impression fascinated me. +One couple, an elderly rake and his pretty young wife, we followed +about while they made their purchases. The girl, sitting easily and +gracefully on her pony, bartered for things at the various stalls, +while her elderly swain doled out the roubles with a cheeriness +which made me think that she must surely be the wife of “the other +fellow”--it certainly was not marital. At a Chinese booth she drank, +what looked like, sherbet, made an awful face over it, whereat Don +Yuan laughed derisively. Riding astride, she appeared both eminently +practical and unpractical at the same time--the curious spreading +coiffure looking as though it would catch the wind to any extent when +she was going fast. This seemed to me as though it might possibly have +been the forerunner of the Manchu headdress which strikes one as being +so attractive the first time one sees it in Peking. The typical Mongol +swagger, of which later we were to see plenty, was not absent from the +pair, and the maiden evidently enjoyed our interest, and was, moreover, +quite coy about it. + +How to get away from Kiachta was a problem somewhat difficult of +solution. Wild rumours regarding the turbulent soldiery and the +Hung-hu-tzes, or “red-beards,” as these murderous robbers are +called, sent up the prices alarmingly. By an European we had met in +Verkne-Oudinsk we had been told that our route might be infested by +such, and that on meeting a bunch of mounted men in Russian boots and +slouch hats we were to shoot at sight and not to wait for them “to +plug the lead in first”. Hung-hu-tzes have the reputation of killing +first and robbing afterwards. How sound this advice may have been it +is difficult to determine now, for fortunately we never had occasion +to put it into practice. Through the kind offices of a solitary Dane +in charge of the telegraph system at Kiachta, to whom we were lucky in +having an introduction, we were able to come to terms with the owner +of a tarantass. The latter is a rough cradle-like, hooded structure, +virtually springless, on four wheels, drawn by three fiery horses, +driven by a Jamschik or Russian coachman. For sixty roubles (nearly +£7), ten of them in advance (which we inadvertently forgot to deduct +when we got to our journey’s end), our ruffianly looking driver +undertook to convey us to Urga, but, he said, owing to the rivers at +this time of year being in flood, he would not guarantee to do so +under a week. From my point of view this was no drawback; lingering on +the road enables one frequently to obtain an intimacy with the local +conditions which hurrying through against time and under contract +completely frustrates. + +I was glad to shake the dust of Russia from my feet for a while and +depart from the hotel which at 8 o’clock on this perfect summer’s day +was still slumbering and slothful. Evidence of the previous night’s +debauch sufficed to make breakfast in the dining-room an unattractive +experience, and it was not a place in which one cared to remain longer +than absolutely necessary. A charge in our bill of something over five +shillings for a cooked cauliflower was proof enough that the Russians +love money though they do not love work. Rather a Mongol yourt at any +time than an Hôtel Metrôpole in Siberia. Civilisation, so called, is +all very well, but more often than not it destroys simplicity while in +no sense augmenting comfort. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +“The Great Way is very easy, but all love the by-paths” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +The sheer discomfort of our crowded tarantass could not quench the +glorious optimism with which on the last day of June we sallied forth +on the highway to Urga. Our driver, though he looked a ruffian, was not +unpromising on further acquaintance, and we ended up by liking him very +much. On the day previous to our departure he had called to see exactly +how much luggage we wanted to take with us, and this he was inclined +to limit severely. Needless to say it had expanded considerably during +the night, and we cudgelled our brains as to how to get it into the +tarantass without exciting his criticism too much. The Jamschik was +all smiles in the morning however, and took no notice as package after +package was stowed away. The awful thought passed through my mind +that perhaps he was in league with the Hung-hu-tzes and felt that the +more the stores the better the booty. We were far too crowded to be +comfortable. Experience, however, had taught us that in due course one +shakes down to anything, and anyhow we were feeling altogether too +pleased with life to worry much at this juncture. With us, surrounding +us, and suspended above our heads from the roof of the tarantass, +making hard corners and lumps when we tried to sit on or lean against +them, were our food supplies for the double journey (which as regards +time limit was exceedingly vague), a modicum of personal baggage, our +bedding, and, not least, our cameras, firearms and cartridges. The +weapons had to be so arranged as to be immediately available. We had +but one desire--to get to Urga. + +The tarantass was drawn by three horses abreast with a fourth tied up +and trotting alongside always--in the way, poor little chap, being +crowded up banks when the road narrowed and coming in for the sharpest +cuts from the long whip on account of his ill-luck every time. Our +last stop, long before we had shaken down into anything like comfort, +was at Mai-mai-ch’eng, just across the frontier, where we had hoped +to lay in a stock of cigarettes, to purchase fresh bread, and to post +final letters. But, Russian influence prevailing, Mai-mai-ch’eng had +not waked up, the post-office and bakers’ shops were still shut, +and our sole catch was cigarettes. Once out of Kiachta and through +Mai-mai-ch’eng we were actually in Mongolia proper, speeding over +undulating country on tracks rather than on roads, driving across +flowery prairie, having said good-bye to all civilisation and houses +for the time being. At midday we fetched up at the first Russian +resthouse, a new and therefore fairly clean log-hut, and congratulated +ourselves upon the prospect of simple comfort when a blue-eyed, +blue-bloused young Russian produced the ubiquitous _samovar_ and made +for us even here tea the like of which you can get neither for love +nor money outside Russia. While we ate our lunch the Jamschik amused +himself by detaching and thoroughly oiling the wheels of the tarantass, +a business which delayed us considerably and which it seemed to us +might very well have been performed before we started. + +The day which had begun so well grew dull, and grey clouds turned into +steady rain which made us anxious as to what the night might have in +store for us. Through pretty country, grassy and well sprinkled with +flowers, a small species of scarlet and yellow tiger-lily growing in +abundance everywhere, we drove on for four or five hours before pulling +up in a torrent of rain at dusk, at an unexpected shanty surrounded by +three or four yourts out of which several Mongols promptly appeared. On +further acquaintance we came to the conclusion that they were Buriats, +but be their nationality what it may, they gave us a warm welcome; +the woman who appeared to rule the roost there did her best to make +us comfortable, dusting the rain from us and even going so far as to +wipe the mud from Mr. Gull’s mackintosh with my sponge which I had +unfortunately unpacked a thought too soon. The family appeared to be +extensive, both numerically and in size. They all helped to carry in, +and were eager to unpack, our belongings. The good lady soon had a +_samovar_ bubbling cheerily and a fire crackling in the mud stove which +occupied quite a third of the floor space. She conveyed to us, entirely +by pantomime and we afterwards verified her statement that she had once +been in the Russian consul’s service, that she was a Christian--there +was an icon in the corner of the room to which she pointed--and that +therefore she loved us very much and would do anything she could for us. + +The men brought in a goodly supply of wood--it was cold even in the +early July nights--and then stood and gazed at us solemnly. The +entire family and many friends from the neighbourhood entered quite +unceremoniously from time to time to have a look at us. They would walk +straight in, stand and stare for a minute or two, finger anything that +attracted their notice, and go on their way. Not so the little boys, of +whom there were three or four, who refused to leave us and from whom, +while they were picking up little bits of food, we tried to pick up a +word or two of Mongolian. The sheep and goats too, squeezing together +under the eaves, tried to enter each time the door was opened, and +would have crowded us out had we not been firm. As it was, they kept up +a melancholy “Baa, ba-a,” throughout the greater part of the night. +There was here, of course, no Kangue, and following our Jamschik’s +example, we spread all the available clothes and rugs upon the floor. +I lay awake for, it seemed to me, many hours, the men snoring on the +other side of the stove, listening to the rain beating down, and +thankful to be in such relatively comfortable quarters. Before 7 a.m. +we were up again, spreading our hard biscuit with blackberry jam (how +I regretted not having insisted upon taking over the commissariat +department and buying bread!) and drinking our cocoa as hot as possible +in order to warm ourselves. The children came in for the dregs, in +return for which they did their best to teach me to count up to six +in their mother tongue. I do not think that their own knowledge went +beyond the figure. + +It had rained all night and continued to do so all the next day, and +the night following that again, and we were not sorry when our Jamschik +intimated to us that we had better for the moment stop where we were. +We knew that we had shortly to cross a river, and when he raised his +arms above his head and said “Ura Gol,” we rightly concluded that the +river, swollen high, was impossible to negotiate. Besides, next night +might, for all we knew, mean camping in the open, and this under the +present conditions of weather was by no means enticing. We had a very +lazy day, writing a little, reading and talking, playing with any small +Mongols who happened to put in an appearance. + +By the following morning the river was said to have gone down +sufficiently for us to cross, and we were well under weigh by 6 a.m. in +none too promising weather. The Ura Gol was not far off, and we crossed +the rushing waters by means of a flat-bottomed barge pulled over by +wire hawsers. We all crowded together on our tarantass, horses, and +men, paying the Mongols who thus transported us about three shillings +for their trouble. The banks were flat, and there was nothing to charm +the eye in this part of the river or in the bleak and hilly landscape +over which a watery sun was making a futile attempt to shine. By tiffin +time we had accomplished our third stage and drew up at a mud hovel +depressing to a degree. The heavy rains had partially destroyed the +roof and the floor was in consequence a morass of filth. There were +living here in melancholy exile three or four unkempt and murderous +looking men, and a very unhappy woman with three little boys clinging +about her draggled skirts--miserable and dissolute Russians upon whom +the hand of fate had fallen too heavily to admit even the faintest ray +of hope upon their horizon. There is something peculiarly pathetic +in the sight of the reversion to this condition of animal existence +by people who have obviously at some time or another belonged to +civilisation. What they lived on here was more of a mystery than how +they lived. + +The day had cleared to a perfect brilliance, and the world seemed a +cheery place as we ascended from the mosquito-ridden and marshy valleys +and wended our way among the hills to the highlands. Coming over a +long and somewhat tedious pass, a tremendous view rewarded us at the +top of the climb--an immense plain, ascending by gentle slopes to the +mountains, a ribbon of wheel-tracks running across it. It was evening +when our Jamschik suddenly turned in his seat and, pointing with his +whip, shouted out something as unintelligible as it was exhilarating. +In the twinkling of an eye we seemed to be transplanted into another +life. There, right at our feet, was a huge Mongol settlement, girdled +about on all sides by the low-lying mountains. Numbers of yourts, +clustered in twos or threes, formed the centre of great activity. +Colour, form, and motion were literally rampant. What in the distance +had looked like ant-hills with ants swarming around them turned out +to be the yourts surrounded by cattle and flocks. Brilliantly dressed +Mongols galloped around in every direction; hundreds of horses were +scattered about in herds over the foothills. The men were rounding them +up for the night. From time to time some wayward little beast would +break away from the rest, proposing to spend the night in mountain +solitude. A gaudy stalwart would dart off after it, standing in his +stirrups, leaning well forward in his saddle, reins held high in one +hand, while in the other he trailed behind him what looked like a +fishing-rod ending up in a loop of raw hide. With a twirl of his +wrist he would bring this flying round at the right moment, and lasso +the pony with great adroitness, hauling it, subdued at once by the +tightening thong, back to the herd. + +Nearer the camp, the women coped with the gentler cattle and sheep, +and by the time we arrived numbers of cows were tethered with their +calves reluctantly allowing a modicum of their milk to be diverted from +its natural destiny. The milking of a Mongol cow is less easy than it +might appear. The latter has far more character than that cow which +is confined to the proverbial three acres, and on no account will the +Mongol bovine yield up her milk until her calf has had its whack. I +have seen them myself arching up their backs and persistently refusing +to allow one drop to be drawn. + +“We shall be able to get new milk here,” rejoiced my travelling +companion, to which I replied, “The newer the better,” and foraged for +a jug among the contents of our food basket. He was all for buying some +from the pail of a laughing maiden who was drawing freely on the teats +of a cow tethered near by. I, however, having been brought up for so +many years under the direct jurisdiction of those who frame the public +health laws, did not fancy the milk that had filtered through dirty +fingers into a still more questionable sheepskin pail. I therefore +waded in on my own account, and, tin jug in hand, walked up to the +nearest cow, laughing and joking with the Mongols who crowded round me, +oblivious of a murmured protest in connection with my “appalling cheek” +from Mr. Gull, and proceeded to milk her. But no, the cow did not +see the joke. She declined to be milked by an impertinent foreigner. +I turned to another, a gentler creature, who was quite willing. The +Mongols greeted my attempt, my successful attempt, I may proudly add, +with the utmost hilarity, and my jug was half-full when--what I thought +was--a furious old woman pushed through the ring, and gave me very +plainly to understand that this was her cow, and that if I stole any +more milk she would set her equally furious dog, which was barking +loudly at her heels, upon me. The other Mongols urged me to continue, +and soundly rated the old--man, I discovered him to be--on his lack +of hospitality. To them it was a stupendous joke, and so popular did +the incident for the moment make me that I might have milked every cow +in the place after that had I wanted to. My companion, while strongly +condemning my action, drank the milk with keen appreciation--“Adam”! + +[Illustration: A RUSSIAN SAMSON SEPARATES THE COMBATANTS] + +[Illustration: THE LAMA AND HIS MAIDEN] + +In the meantime, Mr. Gull and the Jamschik had fixed up our quarters +for the night. A handsome young lama had pressed the hospitality of +his yourt upon us, and intimated that the only other occupants would +be himself and the maiden who appeared to be attached to him. There +were from thirty to forty yourts on the plain, some clean and +new, others filthy and in the last stage of dilapidation. Ours was +reasonably clean, and the felt, with an effective decoration in black +for a border, was in good condition. As I returned from my milking +exploit, the lama beckoned me to enter, and as I did so, mindful of my +manners, I laid my stick on the roof above the door. To my surprise, +the priest picked it up and brought it inside--he evidently thought +that such a handsome foreign stick would be too great a temptation +to his enemies. A great fire sending forth volumes of smoke was +blazing in the centre of the yourt, and I found my fellow-traveller +suffering greatly in consequence as he struggled with our baggage and +the unpacking of the food box preparatory to the evening meal. We had +arrived at a satisfactory division of labour--the culinary side, which +included “washing up,” fell to my lot, the unpacking, repacking and +cording--which had to be done with great thoroughness--was carried out +by my companion. The great tip in a smoky yourt is to squat on one’s +heels and so keep one’s head out of the smoke which rises at once to +the roof leaving the ground more or less clear. + +Half a dozen Mongols besides our host and hostess came and sat on the +opposite side of the yourt as we spread our supper in front of us. They +boiled the water for us and I made tea, when a happy thought struck me. +I poured out two mugs full of tea, added plenty of sugar and milk, and +rising, we handed them respectively to the priest and to the girl. +They were delighted, and the others chortled at the unexpected good +manners of the foreigners. They rose to the occasion at once, poured +the tea from our _mugs_ to their _bowls_ (for which I was thankful), +and, turning to the pail of milk behind them, filled the mugs and gave +them back to us. In phraseology journalistic, “an excellent impression +was produced”. + +After supper, in total ignorance as to the rules of procedure for going +to bed in a yourt, we walked about and watched night falling on the +camp. The fierce guard dogs were let loose, and we were left alone +with two or three little lama boys who never ceased pestering us for +cigarettes. Then we turned in; our rugs and waterproof sheeting spread +along the periphery of the yourt in order to catch all the air that was +moving. They had evidently been waiting for us. The lama entered soon +afterwards, and undressing to the extent of only divesting himself of +his long coat and boots disposed himself quite near to my head and was +soon sound asleep. By and by, the little girl crept quietly in, and +pulling off her great boots with their embroidered tops of black and +green, she curled herself round like a kitten at the priest’s feet, +and with sundry little grunts settled down for the night. Shortly +afterwards, the deep silence of the wilds was unbroken save for the +snores of our trusty Jamschik, whose hefty form lay stretched across +the entrance to the yourt. + +I lay awake for some time trying to realise the strangeness of my +environment; trying to realise that I had attained the desire of my +heart for the moment--primitive life among an unmistakably primitive +people--realising alas! too well, that the freshness and novelty of all +things wear quickly away in the face of one’s amazing adaptability to +the immediate requirements and realities of life. Then gradually, with +that easy exaggeration that attends the semi-conscious condition, I +dawdled off into the land of the wildest dreams, becoming merged into +that essential factor which is common to all existence, be it primitive +or civilised--sleep. + +Dawn broke amazingly soon it seemed to me, and by 5 o’clock we had +spread our breakfast in the pale golden sunshine on the grass outside +the yourt. By degrees the settlement awoke once more. The camp was +alive again. The women drove the flocks hither and thither suckling, +their babies at the same time, astonishingly picturesque in their +wonderful headdresses of hair flattened out into the shape of rams’ +horns, finished off with long plaits, at the extremities of which were +suspended coins, as often as not of Russian origin. There was again a +great deal of tearing about on ponies, and one could but admire the +splendid horsemanship as the men sorted out their animals and drove +them to browse upon fresh pastures. After breakfast, I watched our +hostess of the previous night making little cakes of koumiss, which she +did by squeezing the thickened mares’ milk through her grubby little +hands. She presented me with a cake, and watched to see whether or no +I would eat it. As she finished them she placed the cakes on a large +bamboo sieve and put them to dry in the sun on the roof of the yourt. +If one could dissociate the taste from the appearance of the fingers +that had made it, the koumiss was not at all bad, and reminded me +strongly of a certain cheese which, but a few years ago, promised long +life wholesale to mankind on the dictum of a great name in science. I +should have liked to remain there for weeks, and we left the settlement +most reluctantly. That one experience alone made my visit to the East +worth while. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + “I would that I were as I have been, + Hunting the Hart in Forest Green, + With bended bow and bloodhound free, + O that’s the life for Joy and me” + + --_Scott_ + + +The wisdom of an early start soon became apparent when we were obliged +literally to cut our way through forest undergrowth for hours on +end. Starting with a steep climb, we had to dodge the water which +was pouring down in rivulets between the trees. The erstwhile track +had been washed away and now formed the bed of a torrential river, +which having scattered the loose material was in parts quite deep. +The horses floundered about in great distress and uncertainty for +some time, and finally we decided that there was nothing for it but +to make a path for ourselves through the thicket--fortunately not of +a particularly dense description. To make the whole concern narrower, +one pony was unhitched, and I led him, while the men struggled to get +the tarantass through the trees, branches from which had from time to +time to be hacked off in order to let it pass. Frequently we had to +negotiate rushing streams. One of us would leap over first to receive +the leading rein of the loose pony--anything but a docile little +beast--which would then jump across. It went down once, but fortunately +was none the worse, and the Jamschik was on ahead and did not see it. +I also went down once, in the very middle of a stream, the banks of +which had not afforded a very good take-off. Amusement in that instance +seemed to deprive my fellow-traveller of all sympathy. + +Our gymnastic feats, however, were not such as to swamp our +appreciation of the scenery around us. It was as though one gardener +had decided to make a rockery of ferns and foliage whilst the other had +come along and sewn seeds of every variety of flowers among them. We +feasted on the sight and scent. It was marvellously pretty here, and +we lamented that the Jamschik saw fit to press on, and bring us, after +some strenuous hours, to an open hill-side before he would allow us to +outspan and have tiffin. Certainly it was dry enough there; hot beyond +expression. The weather had undergone a sharp reaction, and we sat +grilling in the sun until our thoughtful driver rigged up a sailcloth, +when the effect of our hard morning’s work, to say nothing of lunch, +induced us to succumb promptly to a siesta in its shade. + +As to why the Jamschik should loaf now when but a few hours previously +he had hurried us uncomfortably, we could not fathom until in the +late afternoon we arrived on the banks of the Hara Gol, the most +important river on our route, and found it to be so high that it might +be another two days before we could get over in safety. Other people +had been hung up in the same way, and we fraternised with a large +family of Russians whose destination was the gold-mining district to +the north-east of Urga. It was here that my fellow-traveller and I had +our first--and almost our only--difference of opinion. I had my own +notions as to suitable places for camping out, and did not at all wish +to do so upon ground that from time to time was covered with water, +and which after all was only temporarily dried-up swamp. I was certain +that we should be much harassed by mosquitoes. We were both rather +tired, and--shall I admit it?--I, at least, felt a bit irritable. In +turn we had each indulged in a considerable bath in the river, but I, +being in no sense a strong swimmer, had to content myself with a muddy +backwater, instead of plunging into the stream. On my return I found +that the superior sex had settled matters and had unpacked upon a piece +of ground about 300 yards only from the little encampment belonging to +our Russian neighbours, instead of, as I had wished, driving back a +mere mile to a delightful hill-side where we should be free from the +pest which had been my greatest trial throughout my sojourn in the +East. As a matter of fact, the Jamschik had had, I suppose, the casting +vote; moreover, our neighbours might have felt hurt had we gone so far +away, so, with his usual consideration for the feelings of others, my +fellow-traveller had given way during my absence. + +I was, again I admit it, decidedly cross, and found great relief in +putting my gun together (for the first time, for it was practically a +new toy), stuffing my pockets full of ammunition, and stalking off by +myself to some marshy land at a considerable distance from the camp. +My new toy was tremendously soothing to my feelings, and I banged +away a dozen or so cartridges--incidentally killing a wild fowl which +I was unable to retrieve--with great satisfaction. A small lame boy +appeared from nowhere, and followed me about in delighted anticipation +of empty cartridge cases. I tried to kill at too great a range. There +were wild geese and duck in plenty, but they circled above my head, +making derisive squawks at me; and finally with the lightest of light +bags I got back to our camp happy and hungry. I managed to maintain +a dignified reserve throughout dinner, at the end of which, however, +rested and replete, we decided that formality and strained relations +on the banks of a river a thousand miles away from civilisation were +hardly consistent with our philosophy. A confidential little talk +during our after-dinner stroll in the dusk put matters right again. + +As a matter of fact we scored decidedly in making friends with the +Russian miners. One of the party spoke a little German, and we were +thus enabled to trade tinned food and chocolate for the fresh meat and +bread which they had killed and baked on the river banks. Next day we +fed royally, and I maintain that the best râgout I have ever tasted was +the result of my own genius in allying well-soaked, dried apricots with +half a leg of mutton, and stewing the lot for hours. The apricots made +an admirable substitute for the vegetables we were unable to procure. +The smell arising from our delicious stew, must, we thought, be making +the Jamschik’s mouth water considerably, and at some sacrifice to +ourselves--it was hungry work, this trekking--we decided to invite +him to share the feast. What was my disgust, chagrin, when he dug his +jack-knife into the saucepan and speared out the meat, deliberately +pouring off all the gravy and apricots upon the ground. There was +nothing to be done, but I swore there and then that this was the last +time I would invite any foreigner to share pot luck of my providing. + +But if the Jamschik did not appreciate the râgout, the dogs did. +I had been driven by the onslaughts of the mosquitoes to sleeping +rather uncomfortably in the tarantass, and all through the night I +was disturbed by these horrible animals prowling about underneath, +sniffing round the sleeping forms of the men under the sailcloth. They +did not appear to be conscious of them, but later I discovered that the +Jamschik slept with one ear at least on the “qui vive,” for apparently +he knew his own horses’ footsteps among a hundred, and got up in the +dead of night to hobble them when they wandered together with scores +of others too near to the camp. + +Apart from the dogs, the persistently inquisitive Mongol boys, and +the mosquitoes, camping on the banks of the Hara Gol returns to my +memory as one of the pleasantest episodes in the journey. I found a +perfect bathing place a little lower down the river, with a hard, +shingly bottom, and though not in the current it was perfectly clear +and away from the public gaze. From yourts far and near we were visited +by Mongols, who usually, when they found that we did not speak their +language and could convey no news to them in consequence, spent but +a few minutes in making their inspection and rode off again. On one +occasion we witnessed a very amusing sight. We had given a particularly +ragged lama some odds and ends of food, and a squabble immediately +arose between him and another. They quickly came to blows, when the +smaller man, finding himself outmatched, stopped suddenly, and picking +up a large boulder proceeded to hammer the head of his adversary. The +Russian sense of fairplay could not stand this, and a huge man with the +ruddy countenance of a David and the flaming beard combined with the +muscularity of a Samson, walked in, and seizing each man by the scruff +of his neck, hurled the twain apart, to the great glee of the onlookers. + +At a very early hour of our third day’s camp, I was awakened with the +news that the river had gone down sufficiently to admit of a trial +trip to cross it. A great deal of preparation was necessary in order +to keep things dry, and when we were about the middle of the river it +was just “touch and go” lest the water would overflow the sides of the +tarantass. A great caravan of us crossed together, Russians, Chinese, +and a rabble of Mongols, who, stripped almost naked, carried over our +loads on their saddle bows. I regretted afterwards that I took no +photograph of the crossing, but I was far too much occupied in keeping +my camera and cartridges dry to think of doing so. + +The next two stages offered no special attraction in the matter of +scenery, and we broke into the routine of the day only by leaving our +tarantass for the space of an hour that we might inspect at closer +quarters what looked uncommonly like a foreign building about half a +mile away from the road. It turned out to be quite a large flour mill +called Wang Ch’ang Shan, belonging to a Chinese firm, and employing +apparently some twenty-five to thirty men. Although they offered us tea +and sold us some eggs and stodgy little dough rolls at high prices, +they maintained that baffling reserve as to their business, which +amounts only to the polite Chinese method of telling you to mind yours. +Another couple of hours brought us to an unexpected little oasis in +the shape of a promising and well-built house in Russian style, but +owned fortunately by a young Chinaman, who welcomed us most warmly and +who could not do enough for us. We sat on chairs and ate a delicious +tiffin of lightly boiled eggs, toasted dough rolls, and _samovar_ tea, +at a table in great comfort, after which Mr. Gull thought to crown all +by indulging in a luxurious siesta in--what looked like--a nice clean +little bedroom adjoining. I sat and read a book over a final cup of +tea. I had not settled down for more than ten minutes when the peace +was suddenly disturbed by execrations coming from the other room, +and an earnest entreaty that I should send in the Chinese proprietor +at once “to see”. He did so, and found the usually philosophical +Englishman rampant and furious. Biting him, crawling over his clothes +and on the cork mattress which he had taken in with him, were numbers +of large and lively--I must write it--bugs. Nothing but a complete bath +in a very small basin, followed by a change of all his clothes--which +involved the entire unpacking of the tarantass--would soothe him. +The incident had really a humorous side, for we had, in theory, +contemplated encounter with every variety of carnivorous insect on our +journey; and then at first sight to produce such a hullabaloo! + +Our Chinese host was careful to explain that the majority of his guests +who made use of his rooms were less cleanly than ourselves, and that +the Russians who were his most frequent visitors were “dirty pigs”. He +was himself suffering from a highly inflamed condition of both eyes, +and was mightily pleased when I gave him some “foreign medicine” with +the use of which I predicted a speedy cure, as well as showing him +how to open his eye in a wine-glass. I bore the mild contempt of my +fellow-traveller with the patience bred of faith, and nobly refrained, +when some weeks later we returned from Urga and found that the solution +of boracic acid had done its work in effecting a complete cure, from +saying, “I told you so”. + +The night following we were far away from all humanity and passed +the night sheer out on the open hill-side down by the wheels of the +tarantass. We had had a long and somewhat dreary drive, twelve hours in +all, exclusive of a midday rest. To go to sleep with a vision of heaven +beyond the twinkling stars is one thing--to wake up in the cheerless +grey dawn, saturated with dew and stiff with cold, is another. We had +little difficulty in starting off at four o’clock that morning, and I +do not remember that there was a great deal of conversation between the +three of us for the first couple of hours or so. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +“Better good neighbours than relations far away” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +Our proximity to Urga became now apparent in the increasing traffic +over the prairie. From the hill-side on which we halted at breakfast +time we watched the life of the plains--little groups of horsemen +sitting casually in their saddles, turning round to stare at us, +standing in their stirrups, sped quickly past. A settlement was in +process of striking camp; the trellis and felt of the yourts were +folded up and piled on the backs of the unwilling camels. A splendid +Mongol riding proudly at the head of a string of camel carts came along +from the west, dismounted, stretched himself, and climbed up to see +what we were doing. By unmistakable signs he invited us to descend to +his caravan below. In the first cart were his wife and two little sons, +the jolliest little creatures imaginable. In pukka Oriental style I +admired and fingered the headdress of the lady, and then dandled the +children, expressing my appreciation of their weight and beauty. The +man quite grasped the photographic idea, and posed his family for my +benefit. Afterwards he surprised us greatly by asking for money; +despite the fact that one string of his wife’s pearls would have +fetched far more than we were able to raise between us. But he did not +resent our refusal, and hailed us with the cheery greeting of “San +bainu” when we overtook him later in the day. + +[Illustration: A MONGOL AND HIS FAMILY ON THE PLAINS NEAR URGA, POSED +FOR THE AUTHOR’S BENEFIT] + +Moving on from the plains which stretched away into the mountains and +valleys on all sides, we soon began the steep ascent of the Urga Pass +when the subtlety of our Jamschik showed itself in suggesting that +in the bordering woods hereabouts there was any amount of game. We +jumped out of the tarantass--which was soon out of sight--in a sanguine +frame of mind, and guns over our shoulders we trudged and trudged up +that mountain side. Tiring it was, in the fierce July sun, beyond +expression, and we got--never a shot. But the scenery here was well +worth the fag of the climb. Range upon range of mountains disclosed +themselves as we ascended among a perfect wilderness of flowers. +Peonies, roses, and delphiniums, Japanese anemones, blue columbines, +red and yellow lilies--a background of dark pine forest, and away in +the distance, blue mountains beneath a canopy of soft masses of rolling +clouds. + +Half-way up, we were overtaken by a number of Russian officers who +looked, as well they might, in astonishment at the sight of a couple of +English people, apparently without belongings or conveyance, calmly +strolling up a mountain in the heart of Mongolia. We met them again at +the summit of the Altai Berg. Their Mongols were having a rest, and +incidentally, I dare say, “gaining merit” by adding a few stones to the +great cairn, from which numbers of dirty rags serving as prayer flags +fluttered. I think the officers were waiting in order to discover what +on earth we were doing there and what was our object in going to Urga. +They did not, however, make much headway with us. Their knowledge of +German was very limited and we on our side did not see the force of +burdening them at this juncture with our confidences. They, needless +to say, had remained in their conveyances all the way up. The latter +were being drawn Orton fashion by four mounted Mongols. A pole is fixed +across the thin ends of the shafts, and is carried by the Mongols +between the pummel of their saddles and their stomachs. Usually a +couple of men ride on either side of the shafts. Six to eight Mongols +accompany each carriage, women as well as men taking turn and turn +about. They laugh and fool about all the time, tearing up hill and down +dale, the tarantass swaying about with plenty of play at the other end +of the shafts. They are absolutely reckless and care not one straw what +happens--as we learned to our cost later on. + +[Illustration: THE AUTHOR’S PARTY INSPECTING A CARAVAN] + +[Illustration: THE SUMMIT OF THE ALTAI BERG] + +Our Jamschik greeted us cheerily when we met him again at the top of +the pass, and at once “took on” the Mongol outriders for a race down +into Urga. We did not know the Russian for “not so quick” or “steady,” +and we flew over the ground holding on like grim death, our three +horses galloping and taking the most reckless short cuts at breakneck +speed. Down, down we tore, over the roughest and most impossible tracks +to an accompaniment of terrific jolts and bangs. The Mongols kept up, +yelling and laughing as they rolled about in their saddles. It was no +less terrifying than it was painful, but personally I was far too tired +to care much what happened, or to feel as alarmed as I do even now in +retrospect. But we got in ahead of the Russians, which was a great crow +over for us. + +Urga was at length in view. Situated on the north bank of the Tola +River, it lies 600 miles north of the Chinese frontier at Kalgan, and +200 miles south of the Russian frontier at Kiachta. A long straggling +vista of gaudy temples and groups of yourts, little wooden houses +enclosed by high palisades, numbers of brightly painted sheds which we +found afterwards to contain the Tibetan prayer wheels, a few foreign +bungalows looking like dolls’ houses and built of pitch-pine, as +well as clusters of Chinese houses--such was our first impression of +Mongolia’s capital. On the western side lies the Holy City, where, it +is estimated, dwell some thirty thousand lamas, and in which no lay man +or woman may remain after sundown. The Chinese city, Mai-mai’ch’eng +again, is situated to the east, and between the twain are a number of +untidy, depressing little shanties, as well as the pleasant Russian +consulate, out of all harmony and character with the rest, belonging to +the ever-increasing army of Russian traders. Closed in on all sides by +mountains, some of considerable altitude and densely wooded, the sacred +mountain of Bogdo N’or dominates the city. Bogdo N’or abounds in game, +but nothing must here be killed, and no one may pitch a tent on that +side of the Tola River which separates the holy ground from the plains +upon which Urga is situated. Death is the punishment for the Mongol who +so far forgets his traditions as to kill bird, beast, or fish on Bogdo +N’or, and imprisonment for life--the far worse fate--for any foreigner +who should be rash enough thus to transgress. + +One trusts to luck very largely in travelling under such circumstances, +and we had no very definite idea as to what we were going to do when +we reached Urga. At the time of our visit, exclusive of Russians there +were only two Europeans in Urga, probably in Mongolia, and Mr. Gull +and I were the sole representatives of Great Britain and Ireland. The +two Europeans were a Norwegian and a German, both engaged in trading +with the Mongols. The latter I had already met in Kalgan, and he was +certainly as good as his word and twice as hospitable when I saw him +again in Urga. To the former Mr. Gull had an introduction, and on +arrival we made straight for his compound where he received us most +kindly, allowing us to make our headquarters with him during our stay +in Urga, as well as letting us go shares in his commissariat for the +time being. The Russian Agent, to whom we reported ourselves next day, +treated us with the greatest hospitality and contributed greatly to +our comfort by lending me some chairs and other luxuries for the tiny +Chinese house provided for me in the Norwegian’s compound. Our luck +held good. + +Anxious to see the Mongols as they really are and through the +unprejudiced eyes of those unconnected with political considerations, +we were fortunate indeed in having for our host a man of such +intellectual qualities and broad sympathies as Mr. Mamen. Speaking +their language as one of themselves--he had, I believe, lived in +Mongolia for under two years--this young Norwegian of the appearance +and stature of a Viking, was on friendly terms with most of the Mongol +princes and officials, evidently being well-liked and trusted by them. + +One has but to forego for a short time what are regarded as the +commonplaces of existence in order to appreciate them at their true +value, and, after a week of far from restful nights, I could have +dilated at length upon the sheer luxury of a very tenth-rate bed. It +was a day or two after I reached Urga that I felt my old appetite +for sightseeing return, and this was whetted by a curious little +ceremony of daily recurrence, a good view of which was obtainable +without going beyond the limits of the compound. Less than two hundred +yards away there appeared above the compound wall a small stage about +four or five feet square supported by a rough scaffolding of perhaps +twenty-five feet high. Each day when the sun was well up, two lamas, +climbing laboriously up to their perch, would don their official yellow +Chanticleer pull-on caps, queer ragged capes of many colours, and +proceed to call their gods to the Temple. Turning to the east, north, +west, and always ending up with the south, thus facing the sacred +mountain, they would, first one and then the other, produce prolonged +and continuous blasts by blowing upon a conch shell, the melancholy and +hollow note of which seems to come back to me over time and space. + +Living as we were in the Chinese quarter of the place, and an +intolerably gritty road of almost two miles in extent separating us +from West Urga, obviously the first thing to be done was to obtain +ponies. I was all for purchasing a couple outright, but other counsels +prevailed and we hired them, thus placing ourselves at the mercy of a +scallywag horse-dealer, a lesser mandarin by the way, who imposed upon +us from beginning to end. The price, small though it sounds at home, +was high at thirty roubles (then £3) a month for each nag (in a place +where one can purchase a very nice little beast for less than double +that amount), even though it included such feed as could be picked +up on the plains during the night, and when we were not using them. I +really think their owner must have had his tongue in his cheek when +he sent along the first pair for us to try. Mine had the appearance +of a worn-out van-horse--a tall, thin brute, with a mouth of iron +and legs that scattered in all directions when I forced him into a +canter--which was not very often. I kept him for one day only. For Mr. +Gull a miniature pony was provided. It had a sore mouth which made it +extremely irritable. Together we certainly presented a very comical +appearance. But any mount in dusty Urga is preferable to none, and on +sight-seeing bent it really did not matter much that our nags were +“crocks”; the fact that with patient, drooping heads they would stand +for any length of time, was perhaps, under the circumstances, rather +convenient than otherwise. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +“He that does not believe in others finds that they do not believe in +him” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +Our very first ride took us right into--what any Mongol other than a +lama would, I am sure, describe as--the heart of Urga. At the foot of +the hill upon which the holy city, K’urun, stands is the centre of +activity in Mongolia’s capital--the horse and camel market. All day +and every day the bartering goes on, and it is here perhaps that you +may study with the greatest advantage the salient characteristics of +the race. The Chinese, I believe, invariably score off the Mongols +in business transactions, but not so in connection with horses. The +Mongol is born, bred, gets drunk, and dies in the saddle, and, like +many others with a knowledge of horse flesh, he would cheat his own +grandmother over a deal of this nature--except for the fact that the +old lady would probably be one too many for him. + +In a dusty expanse, fringed on either side with small Chinese shops +crowned with low curved roofs, painted poles, and swinging signs with +gold characters carved large on them, stand the ponies in their +hundreds, and the supply would seem to be well-nigh inexhaustible. +Generally speaking, the animals are small and unattractive looking, and +it would certainly require the “seeing eye” to make a selection from +this mass of unkempt little beasts who, until they are mounted, show +not the least suggestion of the spirit that is in them. The camels are +few and far between, and I have never seen anything approaching a fine +beast on sale here. One has to penetrate into the compounds of the +camel owners in order to buy the best, I think, for usually it is but +the indifferent and unwanted that find their way into the open market. + +Urga, the Da Huraz (the first monastery) or Bogda Lama en Hurae (the +encampment of the supreme lama) as it is severally described by the +Mongols themselves (Urga being probably a Russian corruption), Urga, +the religious centre as well as the capital of Mongolia, may be split +up into three distinct and separate divisions, the market-place serving +as a link between two of them, the holy city and the Russian quarter. +The former, in shape resembling a gigantic dust mound and in appearance +a piece of crazy patchwork, is covered with a perfect rabbit warren of +compounds, in most of which felt yourts take the place of buildings. By +circuitous paths between the high palisades which cut one compound off +from another, one reaches as one nears the top the so-called University +buildings, “the Gando,” from which at certain hours of the day lamas +in their thousands may be seen pouring forth. + +Crowning the hill is the great white temple, newly erected and barely +finished when I saw it. In walking round a temple, either in or +outside, foreigners should remember that sacred objects should always +be kept on the right hand as a mark of respect. Inside the temple is +one of the largest Buddhas in the world; an immense brazen figure +with four arms rising nearly one hundred feet out of the centre of +the symbolic lotus flower. This was presented by Bogdo, the ruler, +spiritual and temporal, of Mongolia--a thank-offering for restored +eyesight (which I heard is now as bad as ever) at a cost of 1,500,000 +roubles. Facing the idol, and in direct violation of all Buddhistic +principles which ordain the celibacy of its priesthood, two thrones, +equal in every respect and draped in royal canary-coloured silk +damask, are placed for the lama pontiff and--his consort. This really +beautiful temple, with its mass of gilding and harmonious decoration, +forms a perpetual testimony to the inability of the Mongols to go far +independently of Chinese assistance, for one does not contemplate as a +likely event in the near future the building and decoration by Russian +workmen of what they would regard as pagan edifices. This Mongolian +building, with all its Tibetan ornamentation and detail, was erected +entirely by Chinese hands, the brass for the Buddha being brought +across the desert from Dolo N’or. In no sense do politics come +within the sphere of my observations, but having seen a certain amount +of Chinese, Russians, and Mongols in juxtaposition, there appears to +me to be but little doubt as to which two nations form natural allies. +The Mongols, beyond breeding ponies and cattle, making the felt of +their yourts and engaging in a certain amount of transport business, do +practically nothing, make practically nothing, for themselves. Their +very clothes and ornaments are of Chinese manufacture, and certainly it +is the Chinese who are alone responsible for anything that is beautiful +in Urga. + +[Illustration: THE GREAT WHITE TEMPLE, URGA] + +[Illustration: THE HORSE AND CAMEL MARKET, URGA] + +I, as other travellers in Mongolia have done, found it very difficult +to buy any characteristically and exclusively Mongolian objects, and +was therefore delighted to discover, not many days before my departure, +that a Mongol auction was in progress immediately outside the great +temple. I went boldly in amongst the crowd and made bids for various +things belonging, so far as I could make out, to departed lamas. The +articles on sale were in the main clothes, altogether too dirty to +handle, but with a few interesting little objects connected with the +temple services among the rubbish, of which two, a priest’s bell and a +small brass drumstick, passed into my possession. A fine milk-jug in +white metal with thick raised repoussé bands became mine at the price +of five roubles. Instead of an aperture, the top was covered in and +holes pierced through the metal to allow the milk to be poured into the +jug. Thus, there was not the faintest chance of its ever being properly +washed out, which, seeing the use to which it was to be put, seemed a +drawback. + +A very decorative pail, of copper and brass, much worn, and certainly +without great expectation of life before it from an utilitarian point +of view, greatly excited my envy, and I made a bid for it--two roubles. +A Mongol promptly offered a few kopecks more, and my price finally rose +to three roubles or six shillings. No one outbidding me, so far as I +could see, I was fully under the impression that the pail was now my +property; but not so. In company with the auctioneer and three or four +others, I went the round of the neighbouring yourts to find out whether +or no anyone else wanted it and would give more. The man, however, whom +the auctioneer thought might care to make a higher bid was not at home, +and after hanging about for fully a couple of hours I came away without +my pail, and learned once more that hurry is a word unknown in the +East. There is apparently no time limit for bids at a Mongol auction, +and a transaction frequently takes several days to complete. + +The Russian quarter is adjacent to the holy city and separated +therefrom, as I have said, by the horse market and the Chinese shops. +It boasts of some half a dozen general stores, at which tinned foods, +boots, and materials for clothes can be purchased at ridiculously +inflated prices; there is also a restaurant of a most depressing +description, as well as a chemist’s shop. It may well be imagined that, +the majority of the Chinese traders having been driven forth during +the rebellion in 1912 on the one hand, and the virtual suppression of +Chinese goods by a grinding taxation on the other, Russian retail trade +in Urga is in a flourishing condition. + +The Mongols are now to all intents and purposes forced very largely +into dealing with Russian stores, and when one is told that 40 to 50 +per cent is regarded as a reasonable profit, one can only wonder how +long it will be before the natives realise that they have exchanged +the frying pan for a remarkably fierce fire. But it is to be trusted +that this condition of affairs will right itself again in time. Russian +enterprise--should it develop--will probably fail through lack of +labour. Their own command of labour in these regions is practically +_nil_, and the cost of imported energy would be likely to spell failure +to anyone engaging in business. On the other hand, the Mongols never +have worked and it is highly improbable that they ever will. Mongol +requirements are simple, but such as they are it is clear that they +need the Chinese to supply them. + +This Russian quarter forms the least attractive division of Urga. The +houses are small, squalid, and untidy; their inhabitants possess +apparently not the faintest knowledge of sanitation. What must be the +civilising effect, of which one hears, of the Russian influence upon +the Mongols, it is not difficult to foretell. The Chinese may be dirty, +are extremely dirty in some respects, no doubt, but at least they do +not appear to lose their sense of the artistic for all their defects +in this direction, and under normal conditions even in the poorest +quarters of their cities, a certain “esprit,” a “joie de vivre,” is +seldom absent. It is exceedingly difficult to arrive at anything +representing even an approximate estimate of the number of Russians +in Urga. Of civilians, perhaps 1000 forms a liberal estimate, but all +enquiries as regards the military strength are politely but firmly +repulsed. The people in the Russian quarter, in the shops, restaurant, +and on the streets, are a surly looking lot. Their suspicious character +is plainly painted upon their uncouth faces, and every one with whose +business in life they are not entirely “au fait,” they regard as a spy +of some sort. Throughout our stay in Urga it was significant that we +rode nowhere but that we met the same Buriat soldier ostentatiously +uninterested in our existence. + +Urga must have presented a gayer appearance under Chinese rule, when +the great untidy stretch of waste land reaching almost from West +Urga into Mai-mai’ch’eng, waste land formerly bordered with Chinese +shops and houses, would have had a far more cheery atmosphere than +it possesses nowadays. Now the few Mongol yamens stand isolated and +unsupported, and the merry “va-et-vient” of commercial prosperity +is no more. At night it is said to be rash to venture across it +unaccompanied, and indeed on more than one occasion we encountered a +Cossack riding full pelt across the stony expanse, brandishing his +naked revolver in his right hand. But latterly there appears to have +been a somewhat arbitrary planning out and dividing up of the main part +of Urga by the Russians, and an expanse which must be of dimensions +approaching something like two miles long by three-quarters of a mile +wide in the very heart of Urga, and in the centre of which the Russian +consulate happens to stand, is to be doled out in concessions to +Russians and to Russians only. To the north of this desolate scene are +sundry temples, and outside them stand a number of brightly painted +little sheds containing the well-known Tibetan prayer wheels. Sexagonal +in form, and with the characters representing “Om Mani Padme Hum” +painted in red letters upon the panels, these prayer cylinders turn on +a central pin, and anyone giving a hefty swing to them as he passes +says his prayers with a minimum of trouble for a maximum of result. The +Mongols, both lamas and laity, use the wheels devoutly, and one’s ears +grow accustomed to the light creaking sound long before one realises +whence it comes. + +The Russian consulate, in the midst of a heterogeneous collection +of barracks, officers’ quarters, and outbuildings, is a pleasant +house enough, English in style and furnished, the Russian diplomatic +agent told me, to resemble an English country house inside as far as +possible. Of modest dimensions, it stands back from the road in an +untidy compound, over the gates of which the Imperial standard looms +large and menacing. The present agent is a man of marked ability, and +speaks, I believe, no less than eight modern languages with a fluency +equal to his native tongue. He has obviously succeeded in bringing the +Mongol authorities to heel in a surprising degree as was evidenced not +long ago when he insisted that the Hut’ukt’u, the ruler of all the +Mongols, supported by some of the chief men of his country, should toe +the line in person and make profound apology at the consulate for some +slight that had been shown to the Russian flag. Whether or no this was +a well-calculated action has yet to be proved. But that the Mongols +are making a desperate effort not to be swallowed up exclusively and +irrevocably by Russia is strongly suggested by their recently expressed +desire to the other powers that the latter should be represented +by consuls in Urga “in order to conclude treaties of commerce and +friendship”. It is moreover rumoured that the Mongolian Government has +recently issued an order forbidding the Chinese to sell any land in +Mongolia to Russians. The only other house of any size or importance +is the hideous red-brick erection which forms the headquarters of +the Mongolore Company, which represents an important concession of +gold-mining rights granted to the Russians prior to the declaration of +independence. + +[Illustration: A BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE AT MAI-MAI’CH’ENG] + +[Illustration: A MONGOL PRINCESS IN HER OFFICIAL ROBES, ACCOMPANIED BY +HER TWO LADIES] + +In so far as the structural picturesque is concerned, this is +undoubtedly now centred in and confined to the Chinese quarter, +Mai-mai’ch’eng, where fine gateways and a very beautiful little temple +remain as evidence of the prosperity enjoyed under Chinese rule. Now +the entire place, which is surrounded by a strong stockade of fourteen +or fifteen feet high, which, in a country where stone is so rare and +labour so expensive, takes the place of the usual encompassing wall, +is almost entirely deserted, and one may walk from end to end without +encountering half a dozen people. The courtyard and temple far surpass +in decoration and cleanliness anything that I saw in China. The mural +paintings illustrate Chinese fables and are exceptionally well carried +out and preserved. They have evidently been most carefully cherished +by the guild of Shansi merchants, the Shih Erh Chia, of whom it is the +headquarters. The Mongols use the temple as much as the Chinese do, +and I watched a Mongol princess in her official robes, accompanied by +her two ladies, most devoutly performing her prostrations one day. She +allowed me afterwards to take two or three photographs of her, but it +was difficult to persuade her into sufficient light to make a very +satisfactory picture. + +Immediately outside the north gate of Mai-mai’ch’eng is the Chinese +cemetery, where hundreds of unburied coffins are piled awaiting, I +gathered, the far distant day when they might be carried back to be +interred in Chinese soil. The poorer Chinese, for whom there was never +such happy prospect, are buried in alien earth behind the Russian +consulate--a series of little mounds like magnified molehills being all +that remains to indicate the fact. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +“Since men live not for a hundred years it is vain to scheme for a +thousand” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +Whereas in Inner Mongolia I did not see the Chakhars in sufficient +numbers to enable me to form even an impression upon which to base a +generalisation as to typical characteristics, the Khalkha or Northern +Mongol struck me as being of rather superior build. Roughly speaking, +I think that the average height of a Khalkha man must be in the +neighbourhood of five feet eight inches, while a large number of them +are really tall. The women are strikingly smaller, and, generally +considered, are not less than ten or twelve inches shorter than the +men. The recollection I have carried away of them is that they are a +fairly handsome race. Masses of black hair surmount almond-shaped, +strikingly bright and responsive eyes; the cheek-bones are high and +slightly flattened. Small, well-formed aquiline noses above shapely +mouths and firm chins lend a suggestion of strong character. The teeth +are, as a rule, beautiful, and a ruddy colouring showing through the +sun-scorched, wind-weathered skin, gives them a very healthy appearance. + +The principal difference in dress between the northern and southern +Mongol lies in the arrangement of the hair of the married women. In +Inner Mongolia the form of headdress might be described as a skull cap +of silver filagree, from which long chains studded with precious stones +are suspended. The hair is fastened up and hardly shows at all. + +The Khalkha matron, however, is contented with nothing so simple. Her +sleek locks are strained over a wire frame which spreads out like wings +above her ears, and are held together by some resinous preparation, +with jewelled slides at intervals to keep the whole in place. +Surmounting this is the filagree skull cap, often richly set with +turquoises and pearls, and from it hang tassels of pearls ten or twelve +inches in length. In poorer circumstances the jewelled slides have +their counterparts in little strips of bamboo, and the pearls would be +substituted by chains of silver and strings of coral. One and all adopt +this obviously inconvenient style of coiffure, the unmarried girl alone +wearing her hair in long plaits and entirely unadorned. The Khalkha +women must have exceedingly long tresses, for although nine or ten +inches are thus taken up by the wings, the remainder is of sufficient +length to form into long plaits which, as shown in the picture of the +princess, are either confined in highly decorative silver tubes, or +are allowed to fall free on each side of the figure to the waist. + +Hat pins being an unknown weapon in Mongolia, it was a matter of +much conjecture to me as to how these ladies contrived to keep their +smart little hats so securely perched on the summit of this elaborate +headdress. The hats themselves are very trim and dainty. Made of course +by the Chinese, who are always great hands with the paste pot, a shape +is first created from bamboo paper, hard and unpliable, not unlike a +jelly mould. Over this is stretched yellow satin, while the brim is +turned up with black velvet in summer, or with a handsome piece of fur +in winter. The crown of the hat tapers to a point embellished by a +gold or silver ornament, which in the case of men supports the ball of +coloured crystal denoting by its colour the rank of the wearer. Men’s +hats are otherwise similar to women’s, and if the wearer belongs to the +mandarin class a peacock’s feather protrudes horizontally from below +the crystal ball. The main difference, headdress apart, between men’s +and women’s clothes is that the former sport a sash bound round and +round their waists with the ends tucked in. All wear long coats and +trousers, the women having their shoulders padded up into little peaks +such as were worn in Elizabethan days. All have very long sleeves, the +cuffs of which are turned up with pale blue--no matter what the colour +of the coat--and cover the finger-tips. + +The material from which the clothes of the more wealthy are made is +such as we use for our Court trains. In really beautiful satin brocades +and thick soft silks both men and women are attired in this remote +corner of the globe, and I can well believe that dress forms a heavy +item in Mongol expenditure. Extremely fond of colour, the Mongol taste, +or rather that of the Chinese Worth or Paquin who dictates to them, +runs to rich harmony rather than to garishness, while their constancy +to the prevailing fashion, which here is the very reverse of fleeting +since it probably has not modified in any way for the past hundred +years--maybe much more--renders the finish and workmanship quite +excellent. While possessing small and well-shaped hands and feet, the +Mongols thrust these latter into clumsy boots which we should consider +many sizes too large for them. They are made of inferior looking +leather and the toes turn skywards; their loose tops, coming half-way +to the knee, are usually ornamented with very pretty green and white +sticking. + +Of their character one must speak of course almost entirely by +hearsay. Their very name is suggestive, “Mong” meaning “brave,” while +volumes might be filled with legends concerning their prowess. It +would indeed be absurd to generalise at all upon those with whom +one came into personal contact in the space of a few weeks, and in +the complete absence of knowledge of the language. That they have a +keen sense of humour is apparent to the most casual observer, and +anything in the way of a practical joke played off on the foreigner or +equally upon one of their number will produce hilarious merriment. In +common with most people who preserve a simple life and do not allow +their desires to advance beyond the possibility of fulfilment, the +Mongols are, in the absence of a cause which provokes them to anger, +very good-tempered, and most distinctly are they philosophical. An +angry Mongol is, however, an ugly sight, and one, if possible, to be +avoided. Of his capacity for endurance there can be no doubt. It is +constantly exemplified in everyday life. I have indeed heard it stated +that a Mongol will ride 600 miles in nine days, using the same horse +throughout. An instance of their toughness was shown by the cheery old +mafu who looked after our host’s ponies and occasionally rode with us +while we were in Urga. A somewhat heavy fall from his horse one day +resulted in a trio of broken ribs, and the man, whose age must have +been in the neighbourhood of sixty, remained huddled up in his yourt +for twenty-four hours. For bed, however, in our sense of the term, the +Mongol has but little use, and if he cannot live his ordinary life he +usually dies in preference. The mafu turned up the day following his +accident, and upon enquiry as to the damage to his ribs, admitted that +“It hurts a little when I cough”. On another occasion, in the depth +of winter, one of the ponies in his charge strayed, and for thirty +hours was missing. Taking another horse, the old mafu went out into +the neighbouring mountains to find him, and as the hours went on his +employer grew anxious. Night fell, and the thermometer descended two or +three degrees below zero. It was evening on the following day when he +re-appeared, none the worse for his exposure, nor from the fact that +he had not broken his fast throughout the day and a half he had been +absent. + +That the Mongols are wantonly cruel, I have never heard any evidence. +Certain cruelty arises from a dogma in their faith rather than from +any direct idea of being maliciously hurtful. They will, for instance, +leave an animal to die in anguish rather than put it out of its misery, +for nominally they are not allowed to take life, and consequently do +not trouble themselves to perform an act of humanity for its own sake. +That they will be brutally cruel when it is a question of revenge +there can be no doubt. On the other hand, that they are capable of +real devotion to their animals is, I think, suggested by the following +incidents, written down as told to me one evening by the Norseman, when +we were sitting on a river bank waiting for wild duck to come up. + +“The man will never get over it,” he said. “He was overwhelmed by his +grief. He loved those two fine dogs of his and he kept them only for +his hunting. He took them with him to the mountains to hunt lynx in +the dense forest which cover them over there. Three or four days at a +time, he would go out and his bag was never less than two or three, +sometimes four or five, skins, worth from twenty to thirty roubles +apiece. Then for two days he would sit in his yourt, resting, and +cleaning his guns, feeding heavily, and perhaps drinking the vodka the +Russians had given him when he sold his skins. Pig should be his next +object, he decided, and with one companion and his two dogs he sallied +forth to the mountain side. From a thicket, out rushed four great +boars. Off flew the lynx hounds after them. Bang, bang, went the guns, +and the quarry was slain. But alas! the trusty hound who had leapt up +to it was slain too--shot through the heart. The hunter returned to +his yourt on the plains near Urga, leaving the slaughtered pig behind +him on the mountain side, but bearing with him only the corpse of his +dog. Never before has a Mongol been seen to weep like this man. For +three days he sorrowed terribly. He would take no food. He desired +speech with no man. In life there was no comfort for him because of the +thought that with his own hands he had shot his dog. And now he goes +hunting, taking with him his one lynx hound only, and does not do so +badly. The better of the two dogs is the survivor, but the hunter will +never admit this fact. + +“It was this man’s own cousin I often went out with,” continued my +companion, “and he was every bit as keen on dogs. Once when I was with +him up beyond that ridge to the west there, a powerful bull elk broke +cover, and in the twinkling of an eye the dogs were upon him. A careful +aim was taken by the Mongol and--his gun dropped. With a tremendous +kick the elk had freed himself from his pursuers, and uttering a cry of +acute agony the dog fell and lay helpless on the turf. The elk’s hoof +had caught her full in the muzzle, and the space of time during which +she would have the power to breathe through the pouring blood could +be but short. His master ran up, calling to the other man to hurry. +‘Do what you can for her, do all you can to save her life.’ He knew it +was hopeless, and he left to his friend’s care his dying dog. Revenge +surged up in his heart. He thought of nothing but that cruel kick from +the elk’s hoof, and nothing did he consider as to where he was going, +nor as regards provision for the hunt. For two days he pursued his +prey, foodless, drinkless--and he returned empty handed to the camp. ‘I +have killed that elk,’ was all that he vouchsafed when he came back, +and he straightway went out to look at the frozen body of his dog with +its mangled muzzle.” + + * * * * * + +The Mongols are astonishingly fine shots, and it would take a very +accomplished sportsman to compete with them in potting the pretty +little sable-like tarbagans, whose heads flash in and out of their +holes on the prairie hereabouts with lightning-like rapidity. While +some of the well-to-do Mongols possess fine weapons (rifles of the +most modern design, which I was told were imported from Germany on very +easy terms), the majority of the hunting fraternity content themselves +with old muzzle loaders. Practically all Mongols rest their guns on +some support when aiming, and the muzzle loaders frequently have a +forked attachment which can be let down and fixed in an instant. + +The Mongols possess that most enviable capacity for putting away an +immense amount of food at a sitting, following which they can, if +necessary, fast for a very considerable time. The staple food of the +Khalkha Mongol appears to be meat in direct relation to the length of +his purse; horse, camel, mule, antelope, mutton, nothing seems to come +amiss; he takes, too, preparations of milk, farinaceous food, such +as koumiss and millet, as well as brick-tea made with milk. Added to +these, the well-to-do in Urga doubtless buy such delicacies as the +Russian shops provide when it takes their fancy. In a general store +we met one day a charming old mandarin of obvious refinement and high +breeding. He was in company with several ladies for whom he was buying +sweets in the most approved Western style. There were six of them +altogether, four ladies and two men. All were gorgeously dressed, the +ladies with most wonderful ornaments and string upon string of pearls. +The men had fine single stones, one a pearl, and the other a large aqua +marine, set in front of their caps. They tasted two or three kinds of +sweets, and finally, going in for quantity rather than quality, the +doyen of the party purchased a 7-lb. tin of rather unattractive looking +pear-drops, which was wrapped in paper and tied up for him. A moment +afterwards the string broke and the tin fell to the ground, burst open, +and part of the contents scattered on the questionable boards. They +took it most good humouredly, laughing inordinately, and all of them +went down on their knees on the floor to retrieve the sweets. To us +they were exceedingly friendly, and the older mandarin chatted away to +us in indifferent Chinese irrespective as to whether we understood or +not. + +Drunkenness, said to be on the increase, is, relatively speaking, far +more common among the Mongols than among the Chinese, and in Urga it is +no unusual thing to see two or three men going about with the cangue, +a wooden collar nearly two feet square, padlocked round their necks +as a punishment for the recent lapse from the paths of sobriety. A +frequent repetition of the offence results in the culprit being marched +off to the yamen and being severely beaten. The most usual method of +becoming intoxicated is by drinking arac, a spirit which is produced +by fermenting mares’ milk. I understand that one has to drink this in +large quantities to attain to the condition, but bulk, if in the end +the object is achieved, seems to offer no drawback to the inebriate, +for I have known Breton peasants who would put away as many as ten +litres and become gloriously drunk before half their day’s work +was done. A certain amount of Chinese whisky derived from grain is +imported, but it is very much more expensive, of course, and, generally +speaking, even with its more tardy result, distilled mares’ milk is +preferred by the Mongols. The lamas, whose vows in addition to those of +celibacy include abstinence from strong drink and the flesh of animals, +are also to be found amongst the bibulous. + +The more degenerate Chakhar is said to be addicted in a very slight +degree only to the use of opium, but so far as I was able to ascertain +the vice in Outer Mongolia is practically unknown. In view of this +fact it was interesting to read in “The Times” immediately on my +return from Mongolia that an English syndicate at Harbin had been +reported to have made a proposal to the Mongol Government to pay +them £100,000 annually for the privilege of importing opium into +their country. Upon the Russian Agent at Urga protesting, the Mongol +Government replied to the effect that the danger arising from opium +in Mongolia was in no sense commensurate with the advantages to be +derived from the annual receipt of a million roubles; also, that the +opium would not be for the consumption of the Mongols. Under the +present conditions of their relations with China and the flight of +the vast majority of Chinese from Mongolian territory, this latter +contention carries its own confutation. The Chinese in Mongolia are +certainly in nothing approaching sufficient numbers at the time being +to justify any syndicate in paying £100,000 per annum for the privilege +of providing them with the pernicious drug. Besides, away from the +influence of Russians, whom he now undoubtedly resents as having got +the better of him, the Mongol when you meet him on his own ground is a +cheery, friendly person enough, and under the most trying and arduous +conditions of travel it is the Mongol who keeps his temper best and who +remains complacent when every one else is inclined to grumbling and +irritability. His utter laziness and hopeless lack of gumption make him +useless in an emergency, and where, I always felt, the Chinese are our +superiors in their wonderful resourcefulness and quick adaptability, +the Mongol is stupid and shiftless in the extreme. + +Tremendously under the influence of their priests, the result of their +religion or, perhaps it would be better to put it, the application of +their religion, is not such as to compel one’s admiration. Humanity, +for instance, is by no means one of their salient characteristics, and +their behaviour to old people, whom they will turn out of their yourts +to die on the dust heaps, is absolutely barbarous. + +The loose matrimonial relations prevailing amongst the Mongols are much +condemned amongst the Chinese, who, although they take temporary wives +during their sojourn in Mongolia, where Chinese law will not allow +their own women-kind to accompany them, they never attach themselves to +Mongol women in any legal sense. The Mongol women, on the other hand, +are said to prefer the Chinese to their own race as husbands on the +grounds that the former possess kinder and gentler dispositions. The +children resulting from these mixed alliances, of which there are a +great many in Urga, are called “orles” or half-breeds, by the Mongols. +They are easily distinguishable from the others. + +Women have no very respected position or _locus standi_ in Mongolia. If +anything in the life of the country can be called drudgery at all, it +certainly falls to the lot of the women. Their claim on their menkind +appears to be mainly sexual, for while they are young and pretty they +seem to enjoy life and “have a good time” (I am speaking, of course, +of life in the capital). They are often very pretty, chic, and healthy +looking, for, in sharp contrast with their Chinese sisters, they lead +a life of freedom and of open air, ride about everywhere with the men, +attend all the festivities that are going on, wear gorgeous apparel and +lovely jewels, and, generally speaking, “go the pace”. + +What they do not know about the gentle art of flirtation is not worth +knowing, and the young woman who is unable to attract two or three +lovers to her side is, they say, generally looked down upon. The +northern Mongols appeared to me to be remarkably merry and bright +as compared with the southern. There is on occasions a great sense +of gaiety in Urga when the people seem full of the joy of life, and +perhaps the women are wise enough to accept their privileges rather +than to worry too much about their rights. Mongols, however, are said +to mistrust women greatly, never taking them into their confidence, +or allowing them a finger in the pie of any important business +transaction. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + “Each path with robes and various dyes bespread, + Seems from afar a moving tulip bed” + + --_Tickell_ + + +Our visit to Urga had been most fortunately timed, and we were +delighted to hear within a few days of reaching the capital that the +great semi-religious, semi-athletic festival of the Ts’am Haren, or +sacred dance, was to take place during the second week in July. A more +bewilderingly picturesque and fantastic sight than this presented day +after day--held at intervals it prolonged itself over a fortnight--I +never expect to see. Proceedings included the presentation of tribute +to the Hut’ukt’u, followed by an archery competition, continued with +the dance of the gods, a great wrestling tourney, and wound up with a +race meeting. + +Reminiscent in some degree of their past glories, the Mongol princes +and their banner-men came from distant principalities of the dominion +to take part in these feats of strength and skill, and at the same time +to present their gifts and to do homage to their spiritual and temporal +chief. Bogdo, the Hut’ukt’u (“he who is born again”), the Living God +of Mongolia, is nominally the ruling spirit of these festivities, but +although his chair of state was always prominently in position, this +mighty ruler, whom his subjects believe to be the richest as well as +the most potent monarch in the world (has he not 2000 white ponies and +a 1000 white camels?), did not come to sit in it. On one occasion only +did “He that can do no wrong” put in an appearance, and that was when +lamas and princes assembled to hand over to him the money and presents +that had been begged from, and squeezed out of, his subjects throughout +the length and breadth of Mongolia. Great were the rejoicings when it +became known that Bogdo was to be present in person, to receive with +his own fair hands the offerings that had been brought to Urga. Bogdo, +the Djibson Dampa Lama (Holy Reverence) Edsen Han, as he is severally +styled, the chief of all the Hut’ukt’us, by birth a Tibetan, being +son of a steward to the Dalai Lama, is a man of middle age, already +decrepit, in appearance bloated, dissipated, uninspiring. The spiritual +head of the Mongolian Buddhists, he now lays claim, since Mongolia +is no longer subject to Chinese rule, to temporal authority as well. +Indeed the position of this lama pontiff is of unusual character, and +might almost be said to embrace a dual personality. On the one hand, +the celibate ruler of priests, the religious leader of the faith. +On the other, the crowned emperor of the Mongols; crowned with his +wife, and firmly insistent that their ten-year old son should be +crowned as his heir, that there should be no room for doubt as to his +intentions in regard to the succession to the Mongol throne. + +[Illustration: BOGDO’S BODYGUARD] + +[Illustration: LITTLE LAMA BOYS PLAY ‘TAG’ ROUND THE BARRIERS] + +That all actions of the Hut’ukt’u must of necessity be right is +ingrained in the minds of his people, and taken quite literally by +his adherents. That he, the reincarnation of the sainted historian +Taranatha, should openly, and I use the word advisedly, for Mongolia is +a wonderful country for winking at things nominally taboo, take unto +himself a wife must, even though such action is a violation of all +Buddhistic principles, be right, because Bogdo can do no wrong. There +are many stories rife as to the iniquities of their ruler, and one that +I myself heard on good authority made him responsible for the cruel +murder of a well-known Mongol official, whom he is said to have forced +into drinking in his presence a cup of poisoned wine. + +Into Bogdo’s house we did not penetrate. It would have been difficult +enough under ordinary circumstances to have obtained an audience, but, +as it was, the Hut’ukt’u was in a bad state of health, and moreover +it was rumoured that an addition to his family was daily expected. A +pleasant ride along the valley of the Tola River brought us to the +confines of Bogdo’s compound, and we were interested in the queer +mixture of styles the house presented. Built of wood, the main part of +the structure might have been an English farm-house, but out of all +character with this was the square green tower in the middle of it, +and the many little Chinese turrets and pavilions with yellow-tiled +roofs. The compound was surrounded by a rough fir tree fence and the +place presented an untidy appearance. There was nothing to suggest the +immense wealth with which Bogdo is credited, beyond the insignificant +fact of a small herd of antelope inside a neighbouring compound. Far +more picturesque, at a stone’s throw distant, was the residence of the +Choi Gin Lama, Bogdo’s brother, a well-planted garden surrounding a +number of small houses and a temple, all with green roofs and Tibetan +in style. + +The general arrangements for the Ts’am Haren were carried out with +great forethought and method; the discipline and general order as +one event followed another would really rival the management of like +festivities in the Western world. Our main difficulty was that we +could seldom ascertain within a few hours as to when the performances +began, and in consequence of this we were always up to time and had +a good deal of waiting about. For the presentations to Bogdo great +preparations were made; the approaches to the temple were well +protected by southern soldiers who supplement the body-guard of the +Hut’ukt’u, and the barriers around which the little lama boys played +“tag,” or a Mongolian form of it, fenced off great spaces across which +the unwary foreigners might otherwise have cantered their horses in +disrespectful light-heartedness. + +The Temple of the Gods, situated on the north side of the stony expanse +between the Consulate and West Urga was the centre of a brilliant +scene. The body-guard in royal blue silk damask coats with black velvet +facings outlined with silver braid, prune coloured waistcoats and pale +lemon cummerbunds, formed a valiant looking band enough; their weapons +were modern in type, and their clothes apart from being picturesque +were, what is far rarer in the extreme East, smart, clean, and in +good condition. Quite satisfied with the impression their appearance +produced upon me, they showed no little keenness to be photographed. + +Inside the barriers the ground was lined on one side with a number of +marquees, under which in deep shadow sat the Mongol mandarins, silently +contemplative and out of the glare, the richness of the blue-purple +and chocolate of their silken garments looking all the richer in the +half light. Opposite them, at a distance of 150 yards or so, the rank +and file of the lama community were herded together, squatting on the +ground and standing in the back rows, thousands of them, from whom +from time to time darted forth some naughty boy with the object of +exchanging his seat for a better one. A mass of dull Indian red was the +effect they produced, unrelieved but for the wonderful banners that had +been erected on great frames of wood opposite the temple entrance. The +mob was kept within bounds by angry lamas who cut at the people if they +pressed forward or got out of place with sharp little switches. The +faces of these men were quite diabolically hideous; their expressions +evil and cruel. There is some idea, no doubt, that the uglier the face +the more alarming it is. + +A group of high lamas in gorgeous vestments of orange and scarlet sat +enveloped in their loose folds out of the sun beating down upon an +archway, their hard gilded hats, in shape reminding one of the tops of +raised pies, glittering where the light filtered through the roof with +a metallic brilliance. The crowds are moving now, lamas and “black men” +are mingled, although it is an essentially lamaistic occasion and the +predominating tones range from lemon to vermilion. + +Final preparations are now being made, yards upon yards of Imperial +yellow cloth are stretched in a golden pathway from the yourts hidden +away inside an inner compound, through the great p’ailou, under which +the priests shelter from the sun, and away and beyond to the main +entrance to the Temple of the Gods. The yourts behind the palisade form +the robing and refreshment rooms for the Hut’ukt’u, and we note a cart +drawn by a magnificent bullock pull up outside in order that the huge +pots of mares’ milk may be lifted from it. Bogdo is within the gates, +and none but prelates and princes have access to the sacred precincts. +At the portals high lamas sit, and two tall figures support the great +state umbrellas of silken embroidery on either side. The heat is +intense, and a row of sleepy dignitaries doze uncomfortably on the long +benches under the portico. There is a drowsiness about the day, and the +hum of conversation is subdued and soothing. + +[Illustration: CHURCH AND STATE: MONGOL PRINCE AND HIGH LAMA] + +Suddenly there is a stir, and a thrill of expectation runs through +all of us. A crowd of princes and mandarins and their sons hurries +forth from the little tents and forms up in lines on either side of +the golden pathway. Lama officials come forward and thrust lighted +joss-sticks into each of the outstretched hands. Space is left between +the long rows for three people to walk abreast. A look of intense +eagerness, even of anxiety, spreads over the bronzed faces, for their +god is but a sick man. A harsh trumpeting presages the approach of +their incarnate deity; continuous and raucous. Two heralds, each +holding what we suppose to be a glorified “hatag” on his upturned +wrists but made of leopard’s skin stuffed in the form of an elongated +sausage, made their appearance. Following them are the trumpeters, +first one and then the other producing a long unbroken wail from his +copper and brass instrument which resembles that which I bought as a +war trophy months past in Peking. + +A posse of lamas in robes and the mitred headdress of high ceremony, +looking for all the world like a perambulating bed of nasturtiums in +full bloom, precede their pontiff, who, fat, pallid, and ponderous, his +diseased eyes protected by round black glasses, supported (held up, it +seemed to us) by a priest on either side, walks labouringly along the +yellow cloth. The bearers of the embroidered umbrellas are close upon +his heels, and the crowd of privileged persons, priests, and laity, +jostling each other for priority, follow in his train to the Temple of +the Gods. Humbler lamas from remote corners of Mongolia stand about in +little groups. They are there to watch the passing of their god. The +feeling is tense. Fervid adoration shines from their straining eyes. +Clasped hands stretch forth in expression of profound emotion as the +procession winds its way into the temple, up to the tribute throne. +There is silence, save for the sound of the heavy footsteps of the +central figure as he stumps over the yellow tissue covering the boarded +pathway. In an ecstasy of worship the monks prostrate themselves near +the threshold of the sanctuary. They have beheld him whom they would +fain see: him whom they have travelled footsore and hungry so many +miles, for so many weeks, to honour. They are happy. Their faces are +sublime. They have reached the haven of their desire. + +[Illustration: THE GREAT STATE UMBRELLA OF SILKEN EMBROIDERY] + +[Illustration: IN AN ECSTASY OF WORSHIP THE MONKS PROSTRATE THEMSELVES +NEAR THE THRESHOLD OF THE SANCTUARY] + +Lined up along a wall not far from the great gateway to the temple, +waiting with radiantly expectant countenances, and bearing their +gifts in their hands, are some hundreds of ragged pilgrims. Fifty men +of Bogdo’s guard are in attendance here, ready when the time comes +to marshal them into the Presence. They have been waiting since +dawn, but in a state of supreme exaltation. They have drawn the lucky +number amongst their fellows, and carry their offerings on trays and +platters--little ornaments for the temple altars, sometimes even food +have they brought to lay at the feet of their spiritual sovereign. +But their turn is not yet. Precedence has been given to the princes +and rich men in fine raiment, and these, holding aloft in both hands +costly tribute hidden from sight in silken coverings of daffodil +yellow, make a wonderful procession as the crowd opens out for them, +and they pass from a blaze of sunshine into the dimly mellow light of +the great temple interior. A low droning chant rises and falls from the +throats of Urga’s priests as the doors open and close on the bearers of +treasure, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They are so numerous that they +can only be admitted in sections of a hundred or so at a time. + +Less stirring perhaps, but every whit as picturesque, was the meeting +of the archers held on the great grassy expanse between the sacred +mountain and the city. I rode out to it to find a scene which suggested +a herbaceous flower-bed in bright autumn sunshine. A background +of wooded hills rose up in the distance across the Tola River to +some 1500 or 1600 feet. The garments of the crowds--the laity were +in preponderating forces to-day--were indeed a study in contrasts +and harmonies. Pointsettia scarlet vied with pure turquoise and +lapis-lazuli blue; lavender and rich violet, sober mouse colour, pale +lemon chrome ranging to vivid orange--the brilliance of a field of +parrot tulips such as brought back to my memory the bulb farms in full +bloom which surround Haarlem. Cup day at Ascot would seem pale and +anæmic as compared with this Mongolian toxophilite display. + +At one end of the ground were half a dozen little marquees, light or +dark blue linen _appliqué_ with yellow and white devices. Under them, +upon comfortable square cushions, sat the princes and princesses, the +mandarins and their wives, with sundry other officials. Surrounding +them were the crowds, and again, like a wall beyond, hundreds and +hundreds of ponies were tethered, for no one ever dreams of walking in +Mongolia. In front of the tents at the south end of the ground were +half a dozen stances for the archers. They shot in pairs, princes and +peasants alike, and undistinguished save for the badge of office in +the form of the peacock’s feather which protrudes horizontal from the +crown of the round pork-pie hat with red streamers, and by the richer +material of the garments. They had four shots apiece, and their range +was about seventy to seventy-five yards distance. + +[Illustration: THE MEETING OF THE ARCHERS ‘RANGED THEMSELVES IN COUPLES +AT THE STANCES’] + +[Illustration: SCORING THE HITS AT THE BUTTS] + +The competitors were in great force, and coming out eight or ten at a +time they ranged themselves in couples at the stances, bowed low to the +magnates in the marquees, saluted the butts likewise, and let fly their +heavy, ivory-tipped arrows--not at targets, but at birch-bark rings +piled loosely as a child might build a “castle” with his bricks one on +top of the other, and making little low walls of perhaps ten or twelve +feet in length by eighteen inches high. At the butts were a number of +men scoring the hits, and as the arrows flew they flapped their long +arms above their heads and chanted a sort of dirge-like incantation, +not dissimilar to that with which our sailors accompany the hauling in +of anchor cables. + +The song rose and fell, crescendo and diminuendo, in harmony with the +success or failure of the competitors. A gentle swaying movement of +the crowds as their eyes followed the arrows was like a corn-field +shivering in waves as the breeze stirs it. The umpires stood right +in the line of the hurtling missiles, and little lamas in embryo, +bare-footed and bare-limbed, gathered the arrows as they fell, tripping +back with them to the archers like sun-kissed amorini with their +quivers full. The utmost order prevailed, and this event, as were also +the others, was organised to perfection. + +The Dance of the Gods which took place in the spacious outer courtyard +of the temple was similar in effect to the Devil Dances I had watched +with such interest at the lama temple in Peking in the previous spring. +The ground was marked out in sections and all operations were directed +towards a canopy of yellow silk ornamented with conventional devices +in blue, beneath which the throne of the Hut’ukt’u was placed. That +he would be present in _persona proprîa_ nobody expected, but in +his absence all honour was paid to the space which should have been +occupied by him. + +The status of Russia was officially recognised by the erection of a +special marquee not far from that of the Bogdo, and under this the +Russian Consul sat cross-legged and perspiring, supported by a number +of officials, an interpreter, and his handsome Persian valet at his +elbow. A large number of Russians also stood and looked on at the weird +gyrations of the masked dancers which continued untiringly hour after +hour beneath a fierce sun beating mercilessly down upon the thousands +of spectators fringing this gritty and treeless expanse. Picturesque +and novel though the dancing was, it became monotonous after a while as +troop after troop of actors, concealed beneath the most grotesque masks +which covered their heads and shoulders, issued forth in turn, and +went through what appeared to us to be the same evolutions one after +the other. It is very difficult to arrive at any exact interpretation +of such religious dances, but the most likely explanation is that the +scenes gone through are a representation in pantomime of incidents in +the early history of Buddhism. The dancers are masked to represent +the gods, mythological animals, and hideous devils, and they prance +about the chalked-in area to the strains of Tibetan trumpets and +other weird sounds. The gods, whose amiable and pallid countenances +very naturally bear strong resemblance to the sublime expression of +contemplation admired by the Chinese, overcome the devils in due +course, but to our disappointment by the means of peaceful exorcism and +not by muscular conflict. This sort of thing continued for the best +part of a day, and it was easy to see that the spectators grew bored, +for the majority were as ignorant, we were told, as we ourselves as to +what it was all about. + +[Illustration: A MASK AT THE DANCE OF THE GODS] + +[Illustration: A MONGOL PRINCESS WEARING A HEAD-DRESS OF GOLD] + +Attendance at the sacred dance may to some extent have been a matter of +obligation on the part of a considerable proportion of the audience, +but for the subsequent event, the annual wrestling competition, it was +a very different story, and the approaches to the ground were thronged +by men, women, and children, about whose keenness there was little +room for doubt. As far as the arrangement of the ground was concerned, +proceedings followed to a large extent those of the previous occasions. +The main difference, as far as I was able to observe, seemed to be that +all the princesses in Urga (if they were all princesses) were present +in order to lend encouragement to their swains. Seated demurely enough +in rows, these charming little ladies displayed their wonderful jewels +and clothes to vast advantage. Beneath their hats was to be discerned +the gold headdress that is worn only on very special occasions. In +shape similar to an inverted finger-bowl and of open-work design, many +of them were made of gold and must have been uncomfortably heavy on +this hot day. Suspended from the frame were strings of pearls, and a +modest estimate of these suggested that some of these grand ladies wore +from 300 to 400 pearls, many of them as large as peas and quite perfect +in colour. In this great mixed assembly they doubtless felt that their +dignity behoved them to present a formal appearance, but the brown eyes +and rosy lips looked merry enough, and one caught mocking and seductive +glances shooting backwards and forwards in spite of all their primness. + +The loose long coats worn habitually by the Mongol men conceal +successfully their proportions and claims to physical development, and +it was with some interest that we watched the wrestlers prepare for +the ring. Their faces, burned alternately by the strong sun and rasped +by icy winds, are usually weathered to the colour of old copper, and +one is astonished to see when they are stripped that their bodies are +as fair as those of the average Englishman. Strong rather than agile +in appearance, these braves, lamas and laymen alike, practice from the +time they are little boys and train seriously when the opportunity +offers; they are as hard as nails when the time comes for their prowess +to be put to the test. + +The signal is given, and four pairs of competitors enter the +gladiatorial ring, each being arranged at a given point and closely +watched by a couple of umpires, who, acting as backers into the +bargain, never cease pouring advice and encouragement upon them, +occasionally even punctuating their sentiments by administering +resounding smacks on the softer portions of their anatomy. Before +getting to work, however, convention has prescribed, doubtless from +time immemorial, that salutations shall be offered to the gods, or +to the presiding deity, be he who he may. Alas for the influence of +Western ways! The feet of the deity who should have presided have +developed perhaps just a shade too big even for his Mongol boots, and +salutations must be made instead to that empty symbol of sovereignty, +the unoccupied throne of the absent Hut’ukt’u. + +Moving in single file towards the northern end of the ground, +exclaiming as they go, the gladiators advance one by one to the empty +chair literally by leaps and bounds. Their prancing action brings the +knees up to the stomach with every step, and they present the most +ludicrous sight imaginable. Arrived at the dais, the braves leap in +the air, fall on their knees, and touching the ground three times with +their foreheads, perform profound obeisance. + +The bout began, and to the eyes of the uninitiated it appeared in some +instances a trial of brains rather than of muscles. A smart trick would +send one man down with lightning celerity, and at once the victor +would prance off again to tell that vacant throne that he had won. In +other cases a pair would remain in close embrace for several minutes, +motionless, and apparently thoughtful. Here one could only suppose that +endurance was playing its part, since for no apparent reason one of +the men would suddenly collapse, and the other would fly off to tell +the story. Notwithstanding my lack of technical knowledge, I found +this an absorbingly interesting form of entertainment, and rejoiced to +hear from the Norwegian, German, Russian, and Englishman that these +well-made specimens of humanity were sportsmen in every sense of the +word, that they played the game as well as any Westerner. Indeed they +may be said in one respect to set an example to the Western world in +the total disparity of the reward to the merit that had attained it. +A handful of little cakes, the greater part of which were distributed +among his friends by the victor, formed the entire “purse” for which he +fought. The honour of the thing is good enough for these uncivilised +Mongols. + +[Illustration: A MONGOL GLADIATOR] + +The closing event of the festival of Ts’am was most enjoyable of +all, and I feel that I cannot improve upon the description given by +Mr. Gull in the paper which he read before the Central Asian Society +on his return to England. “The race meeting was held in a beautiful +green valley a little east of Urga. We rode out to it in a merry +party of Mongols and their wives, who, though in gala array, rode +astride. There were thirty entries for a race over flat open country +for five miles. The jockeys were little boys and girls, the youngest +eight, the oldest not more than fourteen. The ponies, their riders +up and singing in chorus, paraded in a circle between tents coloured +light and dark blue. Presently a lama in flowing robes of yellow with +a pennon at the end of a lance placed himself at the head of the +line, and the slow parade broke into a trot. Four or five times the +circle was completed till the trot momentarily quickening became a +fast canter. Then the excitement of the ponies worked up to a pitch, +the lama gave the signal. With a sweep of his lance he shot off at a +gallop the circle behind him uncoiling like a lasso. It spread out +towards the plain racing towards a bend in the hills, the actual +starting-point. We followed for a little and then dismounting we waited +until in straggling file, flanked by those who had gone all the way, +the competitors reappeared. The first home was a girl with a sash of +orange bound round her jet black hair. A mounted lama caught her bridle +and led her up to each of the tents in turn. Before each he intoned a +prayer, and at the last the girl was handed a bowl of milk, and milk +was poured over her pony’s head. Each of the competitors was then taken +up to the tents in turn, and each pony anointed in the same way. At the +end of the afternoon the owners and others stripped off their clothes +and wrestled until the sun, crowned with a floating splendour of flame +sank behind the hills.” + + * * * * * + +The friendliness of the Mongols towards Europeans was on this occasion +decidedly marked, and in company with half a dozen Russian officers +who had brought over a number of their men to see the sport, we +were entertained “at tea” in one of the pale blue tents near the +winning-post. We all sat on the ground in a row, cross-legged, and the +lamas handed round queer little Chinese cakes and bowls of mares’ milk. +The latter looked dirty but was really not at all bad to taste. + +Our meeting under these strange but pleasant circumstances with +the Russian officers led to the establishment of cordial relations +between us, in spite of the fact, which surprised us not a little, +that one only of their number knew any language other than their own. +This great burly fellow, a Captain in a Siberian rifle corps, was +hail-fellow-well-met directly he saw us, and, coming from the Baltic +provinces, spoke German fluently. We took advantage a few days later of +his invitation to ride over to his quarters that we might see something +of the extensive new barracks which are being built by the Russians. +The soldiers are at present mainly housed in barracks which were begun +by the Chinese, who in 1910 proposed to keep a small force there. +Anyone more hospitable than these gallant Russians I have seldom met, +but their notions of entertainment did not run on lines exactly +parallel with our own, and it was impossible to persuade them that I +really did not like my tea half-and-half with neat brandy, and that in +view of a very solitary ride home across dangerous country there were +limits to my capacity for drinking vodka. + +[Illustration: A WRESTLING BOUT] + +[Illustration: YOUNG LAMAS.] + +I fancy that some of these officers, though nominally this Mongolian +exile is very distasteful to them, manage to amuse themselves and +to take advantage of the great possibilities of sport that this +region offers; they extended to us a variety of inducements such as +expeditions after bear, lynx, and wolves, to say nothing of wild-fowl +shooting, if we would remain in Urga long enough. There is plenty of +bird and animal life both in South and North Mongolia, harrier eagles, +vultures, sheldrakes, bustards, geese, ducks, magpies, crows and larks +abounding, while in North Mongolia beautiful herons, always seen in +couples, were so tame that they allowed one to get within very short +range before spreading their wings and sailing away. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +“It is only kindness and not severity that can impress at the distance +of a thousand miles” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +Among all the brightness and sparkle of life in Urga, there is alas! +a very dark and sinister side. Day after day, we rode past a certain +little inconspicuous enclosure surrounded by a rough pine stockade, +little recking of the appalling amount of misery it encompassed. How +far circumstances and how far sheer native cruelty are responsible +for the terrible condition under which the Mongols drag out a ghastly +existence in punishment for crimes either great or small, and even +prior to condemnation, it would be difficult to establish. Deprivation +of liberty and rigorous confinement is the accepted form of punishment +held by the Mongols in common with all nations of modern civilisation, +and the present form probably originated before there was any other +way of imprisoning malefactors than the felt yourt of the nomad, from +which, of course, any prisoner could escape in ten minutes. + +Few, if any, Europeans other than Russians have seen the inside of this +Mongol prison; and truly the dungeons at Urga beggar description. +Through the kind offices of one of our Russian friends we obtained a +pass from the Mongol Government to enable us to visit the prisoners. +The authorities were not a little suspicious as to our object in +wishing to do so, and since a reason had perforce to be furnished, +they were informed that we were merely humane travellers who desired +to distribute largesse among the suffering inmates. Accompanied by a +couple of Mongol officials, three Russians, and Mr. Gull, I was taken +over the entire place, and I believe that none of its horrors escaped +me. + +It would indeed be a hard heart that did not open to the hopeless +misery of the prisoners. Within a small compound fenced in by high +spiked palisades are five or six dungeons. The dungeons are thrice +enclosed by a stockade of rough pinewood some eighteen feet high, and +to gain access to them many heavily bolted doors have to be unbarred. +All the doors were double, and two great padlocks ensured the security +of each. As we entered, the gaolers, who struck us as being a most +unholy looking couple who literally gloated over the misery of the +prisoners in their power, met us, and called our attention, quite +unnecessarily, to a trio of pale-faced Mongols sitting on the ground +just inside the gates. Their hands and feet were heavily chained +together, and they fell on their knees when they saw us. We had each +contributed three roubles before entering the prison, and, having +reduced it to small change, one of the party doled it out, making the +sum go as far as possible among the miserable suppliants. + +Passing on to the interior, we came upon a heavy wooden chest, some +4 to 4½ feet long by 2½ feet deep, iron-bound and secured by two +strong padlocks. To our horror we discovered that it contained a +man--one might have imagined that a wild beast to be sent by train was +temporarily imprisoned therein! But a man! The hole in the side was +of sufficient size to enable the prisoner to thrust out his manacled +hands. This also provided the sole means of ventilation. But this +unfortunate creature was well off compared with the others we saw +subsequently. At least he was breathing in the open air. The dungeons, +we were told, were so full that this prisoner had to remain outside. +While we were discussing his pitiable lot, clank, clank, went the great +bars and bolts, and the gaoler had opened the double doors leading into +the first dungeon. There must have been from twenty to thirty coffins +in this, some piled on the tops of the others, and the atmosphere was +absolutely putrid. The two Mongol officials, whose general tone I +cannot say impressed us very favourably, now very ostentatiously held +their long sleeves over their noses, accustomed to smells though they +were. One imagines that there may have been some means of cleaning out +the coffins from underneath as is the case in cages in a menagerie, +for it was most strongly impressed upon us that never under any +circumstances whatsoever are the prisoners allowed to come out except +for execution or--rarely--to be set free. The majority are in for life +sentences. + +[Illustration: PRISONERS AT URGA, SHUT UP FOR THE REMAINDER OF THEIR +LIVES IN HEAVY IRON-BOUND COFFINS] + +One’s eyes growing accustomed to the darkness--the only light that +penetrates it is from the doors when they are opened--one became +gradually aware of wild shaggy heads poking through the round holes +in the coffin’s sides. I was standing, quite unconsciously, close to +a coffin, when, glancing down, I saw a terrible face, nothing more, +almost touching the skirt of my riding coat. Beside one coffin was a +pool of blood which told its own tale. Within it there was a poor devil +coughing his lungs up. The Russian officer, knowing Mongolian well, +spoke a few words to one or two of them, but they seemed too dazed to +understand. Their minds, like their limbs, quickly atrophy in this +close confinement. After a breath of fresh air in the tiny space that +separates the dungeons, which, by the way, are four or five feet below +ground level, another double door was unbarred for us, and we entered +the second dungeon where there were a similar number of Chinese, in +the coffins. It struck us as infinitely sad to find these gentle, +highly civilised Chinese here, Shansi merchants most of them, friends +and neighbours no doubt of the men with whom we had drunk tea in their +charming guild rooms adjoining the little temple in Mai-mai-ch’eng. +There they were, shut up for the remainder of their lives in heavy +iron-bound coffins, out of which they could never under any conditions +or for any purpose move. They could not lie down flat, they could not +sit upright, they were not only manacled but chained to the coffins. +They saw daylight but for a few minutes, when their food was thrust +into their coffins through a hole four or five inches in diameter, +twice daily. In one way only did they score over their Mongolian +fellow-sufferers. Their narrower Chinese skulls enabled them, painfully +and with difficulty, to protrude their heads through the hole in the +coffin side. The Mongol cranium is too wide to do so at all. + +Mr. Gull talked to the Chinese as long as the brutal-looking gaolers +would let him, and I admired the pluck which enabled him to remain so +long in that fearsome atmosphere. The men told him that all they knew +was that they were suspected of supporting the Chinese Republic at the +time of the Mongol declaration of independence. They had apparently had +no trial, and they saw not the slightest chance of escape from this +appalling situation. They seemed thankful to have a few words with +anyone in their own tongue. + +There were five dungeons and we went into all of them. It was +impossible in the dim light to estimate how many prisoners they +contained, and one got very varying figures, but I imagine that the +total must be in the neighbourhood of 150. One of the Russians wished +to take a photograph of the three prisoners outside, and the brutes +of gaolers held their hands when they tried to cover their faces. I +felt that one ought not insult their misery by doing such a thing. +Indeed, no matter what their crimes, one had nothing but the deepest +pity for the prisoners. We were profoundly moved by all the experiences +of the afternoon and rode back much saddened in the twilight to +Mai-mai-ch’eng. Nothing I can ever see in the future will wipe out the +memory of that terrible prison. + +What I had learned of the prison system in Urga helped me the better +to understand what I saw later on. I was present, not indeed from any +morbid curiosity, but in order to witness the much-vaunted Mongol +courage in the face of death, at the execution of three Mongol +soldiers, who six months before had murdered their general, Gen Dung +Geng, and since that time had been dragging out their lives in those +awful coffins. + +A perfect July morning. The ride over the short turf for miles along +the wide valley to the north-east of Urga made us forgetful for the +time being of the gruesome object of our expedition. Three of the +soldiers who had murdered their general--the prince, who had led them +400 strong against 4000 Chinese within the walled city of Kobdo, and +whose title was the reward of his conquest--were to be executed. +Discipline among his ranks had been terribly severe; his soldiers hated +him, and the glory with which they were covered as a consequence of +their victory did not outweigh the rancour in their hearts. A chosen +few were supported without exception by their fellows. They were +unanimous to a man. + +The prince must die. They rose against him on the morning of an +ice-bound day in January, and twenty Mauser rifles emptied their lead +into his body. Miraculous seemed the strength possessed by the General. +A bullet shattered his thigh, but he continued to run. The soldiers +hesitated when they saw that he did not fall. For one English mile he +fled from his pursuers, limping but swift. To the city he fled, and +people ran out from their dwellings to ask the reason for such doings. +They were out of earshot when the answer came flinging back to them. +But as he ran he called to those that would have come up with him, +“Stand away from me, or you also will surely be killed,” and in his +agony he pushed into a place of safety some little children who were +in his path. His heart was tender in spite of the severity of his +discipline. + +He ran; and coming to a gateway where he might hope to find sanctuary, +he threw himself with all his force against the door. He was a strong +man, and the door fell in, and he with it. He lay as he fell. His own +soldiers came quickly up with him, and to the first he cried, “Kill +me, then, that I may enter the new life without further delay”. And +straightway the man shot him through the head. + +... And we sat on the hill-side and waited, while our ponies found +fodder more luscious than that to which they were accustomed on the +nearer plains. We waited for over two hours. The Mongols are not a +punctual people. + +Presently, riding in twos and threes, they came straggling over the +hill; the hill that shall obscure from view the bloody deed which must +be carried out without the knowledge of the gods, which on no account +may take place within sight of the sacred mountain of Bogdo-N’or upon +whose face all Urga gazes. + +The horsemen rode slowly across the mountain, for they knew that more +slowly still would the ox-carts with their mounted escort of soldiers +from the south wend their way around its foot. Besides, there was no +hurry. The prince’s soldiers, three only of the many who were eating +their hearts out in those awful dungeons, were to die to-day for his +murder. + +Some sixty or seventy Chinese herded together near us, a cheery, +chattering crowd, make a jarring note in this sombre atmosphere. They +rejoice to witness death, more especially when a Mongol is to die. They +sit apart from all others. There is no natural affinity between these +warring races; and the chances just now are that in the near future +Mongolia’s relations with her celestial neighbours may be fundamentally +altered. + +Suddenly round the bend of the valley appears a multi-coloured little +group of riders, the predominant tint being the blue uniforms of the +southern soldiers making general harmony with the grey-green of the +grass on the slopes. They are quickly within range, and by the peacock +plumes in their velvet hats one sees that many officials accompany +the criminals. There, in the midst of the soldiers, are the primitive +little ox-carts, two of them, and in them sit, arms tightly bound to +their backs, the shock-headed criminals. Shock-headed and bearded they +have become during their sojourn in the coffins in which they have been +closely confined in Urga’s dungeons. Death is indisputably preferable +to imprisonment in Mongolia. One of the trio, in spite of the terrible +six months through which he has passed, is full of life and vigour, and +he shouts up in a truculent manner to the officials who have gathered +together in a little tent overlooking the stakes to which later on +the prisoners are to be bound, “Hi, you there,” he calls, “don’t go +and hide yourselves inside the tent. You have to watch our execution. +Come out and see us die.” And when the simple meal, with which they +are served immediately before the execution takes place, is served to +them--unable to feed themselves, the bowls are held to their lips by +the gaolers--this same man demands his rights, and asks for meat and +tea instead of the water and tsamba which are given to him. + +And then--having satisfied their hunger, they are quickly and securely +bound in kneeling posture to the stakes. For the last time the sturdy +ruffian expostulates at not being allowed to face the fire. “Why do you +not let us face the guns?” he argued. “Why will you not allow us to die +like soldiers?” This position is ignominious. It is unworthy of their +traditions. But no notice is taken of him, and perhaps his earlier +discipline impels him to submit without further demur. A lama, carrying +in his hands a framed picture of the Great Prophet, walks in front of +the captives. What he says to them we cannot hear, but one replies, +“I only want to be a soldier when I am born again”. The three gaze +reverently enough at the Buddha, and perhaps pray to him that their lot +in the speedy re-incarnation, which they confidently anticipate, may +be cast in pleasanter places. The lama retires, and with a startling +rapidity, three blue-clad soldiers have placed themselves at close +range, five yards at most from the murderers, and then--thud, thud, +and the dust on the hill beyond puffs up in three little clouds. The +heads of two of the men fall backwards with a jerk on their necks. The +bullets have done their work. But custom demands that a second and +even a third round shall be fired. Then we see that one of the men, +the central figure of the group, is still alive, and the awful thing +is that no one but ourselves appears to give heed to the fact, until +the Norwegian runs down the hill to the unfortunate victim and calls +the attention of the Mongols to his condition. Five minutes--they seem +like hours--pass before one of the troop of soldiers, already mounted +and galloping up the hill towards Urga, is called back. He dismounts, +kneels, and takes aim and fires. There is no mistake about the despatch +this time. The poor wretch has died hard indeed. + +We are a very quiet little party as we ride slowly homewards through +the valleys. Away behind us the kites circle round the spot we have +just left; waiting until the last of the crowd has taken himself off. +A human vulture has paid a few kopecks for the privilege of stripping +those three poor bodies of the filthy clothes in which they so bravely +expiated their crime, and he too waits until we are all out of sight +before he commences his gruesome task. And the dogs, the ghoulish dogs +that infest Urga, will compete with the vultures. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +“Those who know do not speak; those speak who do not know” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +The Mongol belief in an immediate re-incarnation leads them to be +entirely careless of their dead, and the only description of tomb I +saw in Urga were a couple of dagobas erected over priests’ graves. +“What does it matter?” they say. “The body is only a case for the +spirit, and the spirit is at once born again into a new case.” I think +that herein lies the reason they never seem to trouble to wash their +“cases”. Corpses are carried out on to the hill-side on the tail of an +ox-cart, a lama accompanying the man in charge of it. The lama selects +an auspicious spot; the man whips up his pony, jerks the corpse to the +ground, and they drive quickly off without looking back. The rest is +left to luck. If the body is rapidly devoured by wild beasts and birds +of prey, the virtue of the deceased is established in the face of any +evidence to the contrary. If, however, the process of dissolution is +protracted, a bad name will cling to the reputation of the departed +and also reflect inconveniently on his surviving family as long as +spiteful memory permits. + +A lasting impression of Urga is that of a city strewn with bones, and +horrible, ghoulish, and terribly savage dogs prowling among them. You +may count these dogs sometimes in hundreds about the refuse heaps that +surround Urga. Often they may be seen silently gnawing, gnawing away at +something which makes you shudder as you ride quickly past. One never +ventures outside one’s door unarmed, for in winter the dogs are very +fierce with hunger, and in summer there is always danger of meeting +a mad brute. Only a few months before we stayed there a young lama +from the temple just outside our compound was torn to pieces by these +pariah dogs. He was a fine strong young man, but had gone forth alone +one winter’s day and was without a weapon. A number of dogs attacked +him and before anyone could respond to his cries they had dragged him +away to a neighbouring refuse heap and there torn him limb from limb. +The dogs belong to nobody, and as well as being a constant source of +danger, they are most repulsive looking creatures, always unsightly +from some horrible disease that seems to beset them. The Mongol view +is that these dogs act as scavengers and so save them the trouble of +disposing of their refuse. + +[Illustration: A TOMB IN URGA DAGOBAS ERECTED OVER PRIESTS’ GRAVES] + +[Illustration: SOUTHERN SOLDIERS] + +Cut off completely from the world, as it seemed, I received neither +letters nor news of outside affairs, nor did I observe during this +gala time at Urga much evidence as to the unsettled state of Chinese +and Mongolian political matters. An occasional telegram was received +by my host from his colleague at Kalgan telling him something of the +movements of the two opposing forces, but it was little that we learned +as to what was happening, and if one had remained much longer there one +would certainly have come to regard Urga as the centre of the universe, +and to attach paramount importance to Mongolia as a political unit. + +The news, therefore, that Mr. Grant, a young Scotsman engaged in the +Chinese telegraph service, had been murdered by Mongol soldiery at +Ta-Bol was a great shock. We had met the companion who set out with +him, the preparations for whose expedition I had watched with such +interest three months before from the mission compound at Kalgan, when +we passed through Verkne-Oudinsk, and were told by him that Mr. Grant +would probably reach Urga before we left it. The story as it came to +us through Mongol sources was that Hung-hu-tzes had descended upon +this poor young fellow for food at an isolated telegraph station, and +that when they had exhausted his supplies, he, though resenting their +importunities, had despatched urgent messages to the Chinese Government +for relief. It is said that a telegram was sent to Yuan Shih K’ai +himself; but the Chinese Government were apathetic, or they did not +see the force of feeding this robber band whose object was to destroy +their men, when it was all they could do to supply their own soldiers +with the barest necessities. In any case, no relief came, and Grant +in desperation, no Chinese or Mongol being willing to undertake the +journey, finally set off to Kalgan that he might obtain the stores +necessary in order to continue his tour of inspection north. Why the +authorities allowed him to return under the conditions prevailing in +Inner Mongolia at that time it is difficult to understand. Be that as +it may, upon reaching Ta-Bol again in company with three Chinese he was +apparently captured by Mongol soldiers, who met him with the demand +that he should hand over his supplies and his Chinese as well to them. +He should go free, they said, if he complied, but if he refused they +would kill him. + +To his eternal honour be it recorded that Grant stood by his Chinese +companions. The Mongols, although they murdered him in cold blood, +have at least been forced to admit that the white man was their equal +in their boasted bravery; that he knew something of which they know +nothing--the supreme virtue of self-sacrifice. He did not die with +the satisfaction of knowing that he was saving the life of others in +so doing--one hopes that many of us would be capable of paying that +price for such a reward. He died because he would not save his own +life at the price of blood even though that blood was inevitably to be +shed. From Mongol lips the account of the final scene comes to us. +Announcing their intention of putting him to death, soldiers crowded +round him to take him captive. He jeered that so large a number should +be necessary to bind a single man. “We will soon stop your laughing,” +they said, and lining up twenty men they shot him down. + +Grant met his death in such a manner as to make his nation proud of +him. His action, combined with his last brave words, was of a gallantry +that places him high in the company of heroes. “You may kill me, but +you can never frighten me,” he said. A month or more later his body was +found with a bullet through the head, as were the bodies of the three +Chinese with whom he died rather than leave to their fate. Though the +murderers had fled, the camp near which the bodies were found still +remained, and it was on that account that they were found undisturbed; +that the wolves and vultures had left them untouched. It would almost +seem as though the Mongols, having done their worst, had guarded the +remains; as though they realised that a hero’s death must surely be +avenged. + +Although, as I have said, there was little enough on the surface in +the capital to suggest that a few hundred miles away fighting was in +progress and unrest was prevalent, one could not describe Urga as being +either a peaceful or a soothing place in which to settle. The fact that +one must always keep a loaded rifle at hand does not make for that. +A somewhat “nervy” little experience of my own one night was when +I heard rifle and revolver shots too near to be exactly a lullaby. +Creeping out into the compound, my revolver at full cock, and taking +cover under shadow of the low Chinese buildings that bordered it, I +discovered that a Mongol was sitting upon my roof taking pot shots at +his enemy over the wall. This is the one and only time that I think I +can claim literally to have been “under fire”. + +Another uncomfortable moment was one night in riding home in the dark +after dining with our Russian friends, when we inadvertently disturbed +a horde of pariah dogs very busily engaged in gnawing at--heaven knows +what! Several of them leapt up angrily at us, and there was temporary +uncertainty as to whether we might not be in for an extremely ugly time +of it. At night, too, our ponies were fearfully nervous, and after a +violent “shy” because my fellow-traveller struck a match to light a +cigarette, my little brute chucked me over his head most unexpectedly +when, on reaching the compound gates, I essayed to rouse the inmates +by banging on the doors with my riding-crop. We learned before leaving +Urga that to be out after dark was looked upon as exceedingly rash and +unwise, and before we left that city an order was issued by the Mongol +Government to the effect that no one was to go outside his house after +8 p.m.; that in one house in every twelve a man was to sit up all night +in order to give warning should Hung-hu-tzes threaten; and that in +every house or yourt a light was to be kept burning all night. + +These were not exactly reassuring auspices under which to make our way +back along the lonely tracks to civilisation. It decided us, in fact, +to give up the idea of taking a different route back in order to visit +the gold mines in the Iro district, for it was especially in that +neighbourhood that there was most likelihood of meeting desperate and +evil characters. Anxious therefore to prolong our stay in Urga to the +limit of the time we had at our disposal, we decided to cut the journey +back to Siberia as short as possible and travel “orton” in as rapid +stages as might be. The Russian Consul was very good in helping us to +make our arrangements. In fact, the uncomfortable feeling lingered +unexpressed at the backs of our minds that friendly though he had been, +he would not be sorry to see us turn our faces from Urga. It is obvious +that the Russians would not like a couple of inquisitive foreigners +poking their noses into all sorts of corners, especially in a country +where Russian jurisdiction is in the balance and control by no means +complete. + +An antediluvian tarantass was procured, and we were told that the owner +lived in Kiachta and that we might deposit it there for him. The small +sum of ten roubles seemed to ensure sufficient repair being carried +out on it to see us through the two hundred miles that lay between +Urga and our destination. The first day of August was spent in packing +up and making preparations for our journey, which we hoped to compass +in four instead of the seven days we had taken in coming. The friends +we had made during our stay came to speed us on our way and regaled +us during tea-time with stories of adventures that travellers had met +with on previous occasions over the same road. The Consul, very genial +and cheery himself, brought us our “huchaos” as well as the passes +which would enable us to carry our weapons out of Mongolia and through +Russian territory. Our last evening, as we fondly thought, we spent on +the banks of the Tola River, and with the whitened skull of a camel for +a target we tried to improve our marksmanship with the Mauser in the +twilight, using up all the ammunition we dared spare from the possible +requirements on the journey home. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +“To spoil what is good by unreasonableness is like letting off +fireworks in the rain” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +Again we had reckoned without our--Mongols. Rising betimes and being +from an early hour in a state of preparedness, we sat down and waited +for the appearance of our tarantass, our horses, and our men. We +waited all day, and in the evening gave them up as a bad job and went +off for a final ride over the short springy turf among the foothills +surrounding the holy city. Next day, five weeks exactly since we had +left Kiachta, the Mongols arrived before 8 a.m., but such are their +feckless and procrastinating ways, that it was noon before they were +ready to start. Our first halt came all too soon, for we were not more +than 300 yards from the compound gates when we had smash number one. +This, by the way, was the first and last time that I have ever seen a +Mongol unseated, and to do him justice, the man came off his pony, not +from having lost his grip, but in preference to being crushed against +the palings of the temple we were passing. + +We had started off three men short, and one of the ponies, never having +been used to draw anything before, and being, moreover, extremely +fresh, took advantage of the situation to jib, throw its rider, and +bolt off across the valley. Without a moment’s delay, the other Mongol +freed his steed from the tarantass and sped off after the runaway. We +were left sitting in the tarantass. The pony, after a wild chase, was +caught again, and then in order to knock the stuffing out of him a +little, his owner, belabouring him freely, took him for a sharp gallop. +Meanwhile, and just as we were ready to depart once more, the rascally +horse-dealer, who, by the way, had been our next-door neighbour as +well, rode up, obviously in a state of indignant excitement. Mr. Mamen, +our Norwegian friend, who, hearing of our smash, had come along to help +if he could, explained that the man was very angry and was under the +impression that we had insulted him. + +The story of the skull, the _casus belli_ with the horse-dealer, brings +back to me considerable regret. Ten days or so prior to our departure +I had found on a hill-side some distance from Urga a fine, and +apparently, clean, specimen of Mongol skull, and tyro in the subject +that I was, thought that to possess and take it home with me would be +interesting from an anthropological point of view. Threading a bit of +string through the eye socket, therefore, I tied the skull to my saddle +and rode back with it. My friends very kindly, instead of crushing my +aspirations, suggested that to let it steep for a few days in a pail of +disinfectant might be a wise and sanitary precaution. When, however, +I wanted to pack it up, I found on pouring off the disinfectant, that +the dogs and vultures had not performed their functions with the +thoroughness that I had anticipated, and that the cranium was still +half full of decomposed cerebral matter. My Chinese boy, of course, +would not look at it, and I could persuade neither of my European +companions to clean out the thing for me. The easiest way out of the +difficulty seemed to be to leave the skull behind. As soon, however, +as we had taken our departure, the boy in clearing up took the pail +and its contents to a neighbouring dust-heap and deposited the latter +thereon. + +Our Mongol horse-dealer had unfortunately been cognisant of the +proceedings, and, on the look out, no doubt, for a grievance, had +jumped on his horse that he might overtake us and complain of our +action in leaving the skull so near to the confines of his compound. +We apologised, of course, and tried to impress upon him the fact that +we had intended no insult. Noticing that he still appeared irate, my +noble fellow-traveller, with the object, I believe, of leaving nothing +but pleasant impressions behind, offered to go back and to remove the +skull from the vicinity. A further delay, and he re-appeared, bringing +with him a bulky parcel tied up in a newspaper. My penitence was not +assumed, and coals of fire were heaped on my head when not one solitary +word of reproach was uttered as we packed my very gruesome possession +away in the bottom of the tarantass. Even now it was in no pleasant +condition for transporting by civilised routes through Europe, and +I willingly agreed that it would be as well to rid ourselves of the +encumbrance at the first opportunity. To remind me of that incident, +even ever so gently, during the rest of the journey was to render +me immediately docile and amenable to any scheme, no matter how +distasteful it might be. + +We picked up our remaining Mongols in Urga, and bade adieu to the +Russian officer, Captain Gabriek, who came to see us off, give us some +parting words of advice, and take a photograph of us as a souvenir. +We were nearing the top of the first hill out of the capital when +smash number two occurred. The new pole which had been fixed across +the shafts of the tarantass and was being carried in the usual way +athwart the saddles of four Mongols, suddenly broke in two, and, +without a moment’s warning, the tarantass began to trundle backwards +down the incline. We sat tight, expecting to turn over every minute, +the Mongols, who are useless in a crisis, looking on aghast at what +had happened. We fetched up against a heap of stones in a manner +truly providential, when, keeping the right side uppermost, we +disembarked, and set the Mongols to work on mending the broken pole. +The opportunity having arrived, I took advantage of all their attention +being concentrated elsewhere to walk off with the newspaper parcel +containing the skull, and sauntering away to some distant bushes, I +concealed my burden amongst them. Years hence some Sherlock Holmes will +doubtless discover it, and making four out of two plus three, will with +his customary acumen come to the conclusion that a dastardly crime has +been committed here; that some brutal Englishman has murdered a Mongol +and disposing of the body (heaven knows how!) has attempted to conceal +the head by wrapping it in a copy of the “North China Herald,” and +leaving it by the wayside. You never can tell. + +We were forced into the position of making the best of a very bad job +as far as the repair to our broken pole was concerned, and came to the +conclusion that it would not bear the severe strain of descending the +long road which led down to the farther side of the Urga Pass, up which +we had trudged so cheerily little more than a month before. So, with a +couple of ropes to haul the tarantass back in order to avoid weight on +the pole, we allowed the now somewhat subdued Mongols to take it down, +while we ourselves led their ponies. Our accident delayed us for over +an hour, and this, combined with our tardy start, made us very late +in arriving at the end of the first stage. Here a relay of men and +horses was forthcoming, and we did our best to instil into them caution +as regards the fragile condition of our conveyance. The way diverged +considerably from the route our Jamschik had taken in bringing us, and +before reaching our night quarters we had a somewhat disconcerting +stream to negotiate. Under ordinary conditions the Mongols would have +raced over and torn up the steep bank on the farther side with wild +“Hoop-la’s”. Our broken pole necessitated a very different procedure, +and there was nothing for it but “all hands to the wheels” and to push +the heavy tarantass across. They gave me one of the ponies to ride, but +what with the water being deep and the pony splashing about I think I +got as wet as they did. Mongols detest getting even their feet wet and +made a prodigious fuss before they could be induced to wade. + +Our men on this stage were not a particularly ingratiating set, and, +though the subject did not come up for discussion, neither of us felt +any too safe in their hands. Their character was disclosed when we +arrived at our destination for the night, and they tried to force us +into paying eight roubles instead of the usual three, or the actual +five, which we offered them. The Mongols bluffed all they knew, and +swore (one of them spoke enough Chinese to act as interpreter) that the +sum of eight roubles was entered in black and white upon our “huchao,” +or posting permit. My less pugnacious companion was for paying and +thus saving discussion, but I felt that to give in at so early a stage +would mean being bullied at every subsequent one, and I therefore +gave them to understand that I would go back to Urga with them in the +morning to settle matters rather than be imposed upon in such a manner. +They made as though they would depart without the money, but finally +caved in before our firm stand, and after a pow-wow which had lasted +over an hour, they settled down to tea and cigarettes before taking +their departure, by which time it was nearly ten o’clock. + +Tired out with our long parley, thankful to see the last of them, but +pleased that we had managed to keep our tempers and that we had finally +scored off these Mongols, we fed hastily and settled down in the +traveller’s yourt for the night with as little preparation as might be, +feeling none too secure in this obviously hostile camp. In the wee sma’ +hours a sound of soft footsteps wakened me, and I sat up to listen. +I could hear from the deep regular breathing of the other occupants +of the yourt that nervousness was not troubling them unduly. But the +slight sounds developed, and a sudden creaking outside woke Mr. Gull up +too. An unexpected rush of horses’ hoofs and more creaking presented +in a flash to me what was happening outside. “They are stealing our +tarantass,” I whispered, and grasped my revolvers, one in each hand. +We sat still and waited in silence for a while, when lights and voices +reached us through the chinks and crevices of the yourt. “Those brutes +have come back to rob us,” muttered Mr. Gull, and crawling quietly to +the door I could see through the crack above it a crowd of faces. + +“What the devil do you want?” shouted one of us, and rejoicing to find +my hand steady as a rock, I prepared to fire at the first indication of +attack. Indeed I was veritably within an ace of pulling the trigger, +when suddenly I became conscious of a fair moustachioed, blue-eyed +face, topped by a forage cap, gazing at me in gentle amazement. I could +have fallen upon the neck to which it was attached in the reaction from +what we believed to be a desperate situation. The Mongols were not +there to attack us, but merely to usher in to the traveller’s yourt a +Russian officer and his servant who were posting through to Kiachta in +like manner to ourselves. We quickly helped them to settle in, plied +them with food and brandy (which seemed to please them enormously), +and the lot of us were soon sleeping soundly and securely, I with the +comfortable feeling that together we would be able to account for a +good many Mongols were the ruffians to come back and raid us. + +We had rather hoped that we might be able to continue our journey in +this pleasant, if speechless, company, but the Russians were travelling +very light, and were up and off by daybreak, while we had to wait for a +new pole; a young Scotch fir being cut down, smoothed a bit, and sold +to us for fifty kopecks for the purpose. I was interested in watching +the toilet of the officer, whose servant stood at attention opposite +him holding a small saucepan full of water in which he washed and +gargled with great thoroughness. + +The appearance of the group of Mongols who were to take us on our +next stage did not impress us favourably, and we felt that our men +of yesterday had probably done their best to make things difficult +for us. The other people in the camp too, seemed truculent and surly, +begging for food from us in no too pleasant a manner. One of our new +men was indeed a formidable looking ruffian, six feet tall, and with +a scowl that never left his face. The others consisted of a “black +man,” two girls, and a lama of twenty or so. The younger girl was very +pretty. She obviously mistook me for a man, and all the time she was +off duty she rode alongside the tarantass making overtures to me for +sweets (we had laid in a good supply on finding a particularly pleasing +brand in a Russian shop in Urga), pins, flowers, or any other trifle +she espied and as promptly coveted. She was so coy and merry that I +felt quite sorry for my companion that all her attentions should thus +be squandered upon myself. It annoyed some one else too. The young +lama whose beloved, I gathered, she was, seemed distinctly uneasy, +and his head was much more frequently turned in our direction than to +his business of guiding the tarantass. At one halt he appeared to be +telling her plainly what he thought of her frivolous behaviour, but +although she pouted very prettily it was all to no avail, and her +swain tied up again, figuratively speaking, between the shafts of the +tarantass, the minx relapsed once more into her engaging little ways. + +At the end of the stage there was the fuss we had anticipated, and +our scowling outrider looked by no means a pleasant customer when he +began bullying argument for a double fare. We were, however, at this +time of day in no mood to be trifled with, and throwing the money on +the ground, waved our “huchao” in the face of the head man of the +settlement and demanded fresh horses without delay. Two can play at a +game of bluff, and we were the winning side this time. With a lively +crew of no less than eight youngish men--dare-devil scallywags they +looked--we were soon under way again. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +“When the mind is enlarged the body is at ease” + + --_Chinese proverb_ + + +The antiquity of our tarantass was a source of constant anxiety to +us, and minor mishaps, ropes wearing out, shafts slipping, and nuts +becoming loose, were of frequent occurrence. Two of our riders were +mere boys--one a lama, of fifteen or sixteen--who when they were +drawing us insisted on riding at a reckless pace over some very +rough country. I protested several times and finally, after they had +repeatedly disregarded my injunctions, succeeded in bringing them to +a halt. Things were soon again as bad as ever however, and we were +travelling at a tremendous rate when snap, scurrrr, scuff! our front +axle-tree had broken clean in two, and a wheel rolled clear away on +the near side. We were now in a sorry plight, and what we were going +to do we had not the slightest idea. The Mongols looked on helplessly, +and were quite subdued when I told the two young ruffians, who had +been so entirely responsible for the damage, in fluent English exactly +my sentiments regarding themselves at that moment. By the sheer +intervention of Providence we were saved from an uncommonly awkward +situation. In the dim distance, the forms of a couple of Russians +riding along were descried by one of our Mongols, and leaping into +his saddle he had galloped away to solicit their aid before we had +diagnosed what was passing in his mind. + +Of the resourcefulness, the kindness, and general _bon camaraderie_ +of those Russians I can hardly say enough. Our troubles were at an +end. Of the pair, we diagnosed one as being perhaps a cattle-dealer in +low-water--his shaggy and disreputable appearance maybe belied him: +the other man was a raw young soldier carrying despatches to Kiachta. +The first was a man of brains. He took in the situation at a glance +and immediately set the Mongols to work; one to cut down a sapling, +others to clear out some of the wreckage. Meanwhile he gave them such +a dressing down as did my heart good to hear. By transforming the +sapling into a sort of sleigh runner, he achieved what had seemed next +to impossible, a means of conveying the tarantass, which now had a +tremendous list to starboard, with our belongings inside to the next +stage of the journey. + +Thankful to have got even so far, we were preparing to pay off and +dismiss the Mongols who had been responsible for so much trouble, but +the Russian stopped us and gave us to understand that in consequence of +the smash it would be better to give them nothing, and we therefore +got rid of them by writing a letter on the spot to the Yamen at Urga, +setting forth our complaint and explaining that we had been obliged to +abandon the tarantass at the fourth stage of our journey. The headman +appeared to support the Russian’s judgment, and moreover cautioned the +new set of men who were to take us along in gingerly fashion in our +three-wheeled and almost disabled tarantass to our resting-place for +the night. Fortunately this turned out to be a very short stage, and we +walked almost all the way. + +Having travelled by a different, although, I presume, more or less +parallel road from Urga, we were agreeably surprised to find ourselves +when night fell at the little wooden shanty occupied by the young +Chinese whose eyes I had treated on the downward journey, but with +whose house my fellow-traveller had less pleasant associations. +His quarters, however, were taken up by Chinese travellers, and we +therefore put up with a family of Russians who occupied the adjoining +rooms. As regards cleanliness this was certainly no improvement on the +apartment next door, and I think Mr. Gull, who decided to sleep in the +tarantass, had the better part. I had quite anticipated sharing the +room with the Russian family who at supper time ate their meal in one +corner while we, with the soldier and our friend in need as guests, had +ours in the other. But they all dwindled away after their repast and I +felt somewhat nonplussed when, after I had retired to my plank bed, +they trooped in one by one to say their prayers in front of the icon +which decorated the corner of my abode. The men, of whom there seemed +to be a nondescript half-dozen, appeared to find sleeping accommodation +in odd carts and corners in the yard, and I heard next morning that the +compound had not been such a quiet place of repose after all; that the +cows lowed, the pigs grunted, that cocks crowed long before dawn, and +finally that snores were to be heard coming from every direction. + +From this time forward the two Russians, civilian and soldier, were as +our brothers. For the sake of their company and from sheer gratitude +for their helpfulness and resource we welcomed them gladly, and +willingly shared with them all that we had in the way of provisions. We +had every reason to believe that our “huchao” carried the cattle-dealer +through the remaining stages free of expense, and not once but many +times I gathered from an intelligible word here and there that he +described us to the Mongols as near relations of the Hut’ukt’u, and +therefore that there must be no further nonsense about overcharging us. +This must have been the explanation of the fact that at one stage the +Mongols refused payment altogether, and I am afraid it must ever remain +on our consciences that we were benefiting from what was in effect an +offering to the living God. + +[Illustration: A MONGOL ORTON] + +[Illustration: CONTINUING THE JOURNEY ON OX-CARTS DRAWN BY PONIES] + +The damage to our vehicle was examined by every man, woman, and +child within reach, and a general concensus of opinion was arrived at +to the effect that repair was impossible, and that the alternatives +available were either to continue our journey by ox-carts drawn by +ponies and to abandon our tarantass, or to remain where we were for a +very precarious fortnight while a new axle was made and sent down to us +from Kiachta. The latter course was out of the question, and we gaily +embarked upon a journey of some 120 miles on ox-carts, little recking +of the possibilities of discomfort that this means of transit involved. +On one cart, which we did our utmost to keep in sight and in front of +us, we packed the baggage, on the other we somewhat perilously perched +ourselves. There was no protection either at the back or sides of the +rough conveyance, and it was some time before we could learn to balance +ourselves with any degree of comfort or feeling of security. + +Arriving at the next stage about midday we were so tired with the +jolting and the strain of keeping our seats that we were literally too +exhausted to unpack our food, and merely stretched our cramped limbs +on the grass and dozed while the ponies were caught and put between +the shafts and a new relay of Mongols carried out their customary +pow-wow with the last lot. The stages were now of shorter duration, +and as the carts were the property of the Mongols at various points, +their capacity for comfort presented a pleasing variety. None of them, +however, would in our luxurious and extravagant country, I am sure, be +considered worthy of carrying manure from the farmyard to the field. +The description of ox-carts which cross the Gobi and which I constantly +met in Inner Mongolia applies equally to those of this region. + +A further stage was rendered lively and really interesting by the +discovery of the most remarkable one-year-old boy it has ever been +my lot to meet. To say that the child could walk and talk like a +four-year-old is to mention the least striking of his accomplishments. +Mr. Gull, at the appearance of the baby in his mother’s arms, was +smoking a cigarette, and by unmistakable signs, to say nothing of +sounds which were apparently intelligible to the surrounding Mongols, +he expressed his desire for one too. He was forthwith presented with a +cigarette, and we quite expected him to do what all normal children of +his age would have done, pull it to pieces. But not so this child. He +put it in his mouth most carefully, and looking round gravely to watch +the effect he had produced, he allowed it to be lighted, when he puffed +it for a moment or two before struggling to his feet and toddling off +to the yourt to show his trophy to a doting grandfather. It was quite +evident that that baby, as certain other babies of my acquaintance, +ruled not only the yourt of his parents, but his various kith and kin +in the camp to boot. + +[Illustration: A REMARKABLE ONE-YEAR-OLD BOY] + +The settlement thus dominated appeared to us to be of a somewhat +more wealthy character than others at which we had rested--at least, +it produced a slightly superior cart, larger, and with a plank +upon which to sit, while the harness had the high Russian arc-like +arrangement attached to the shafts. Between this and the next stage we +again crossed the Hara-Gol (at a point higher up the river than last +time) and found it almost unrecognisable, so greatly had its volume +decreased. That the Mongols do not devote the pick of their herds to +supplying the traveller with horse-flesh for the journey between Urga +and Kiachta goes without saying. As a rule, however, the ponies that +were available were more or less docile, and on two stages only did we +seem in peril of never reaching our destination at all; once on account +of too great a pace, on another on account of no pace at all. + +Starting at 5 o’clock on the morning after we had re-crossed the +Hara-Gol, and with a very good-looking and pleasant young priest as +outrider--it should be mentioned that to each cart was attached one +pony only and that this was led by a mounted Mongol--we seemed likely +to take a short cut across the Great Divide. The wheeler was hopeless, +beginning with a tremendous tussle on being put between the shafts; and +it was more than probable that this was his first experience of such +encumbrances as cart and harness. The Mongol, whose own steed was in +none too good a temper, held him up short against his bridle, and from +time to time seemed likely to be pulled from his saddle by the jerks +and tugs with which the little brute tried to free himself. + +Our Russian friend and the soldier had ridden ahead, and there seemed +every likelihood that we were in for a lively time. After a while, +however, the pony appeared to have come to terms and to settle down +to the fact that he had met his master. The strain, however, had been +too much for the harness, and a piece of the raw hide that formed it, +parting company from the rest, gave the animal his chance. Without +an instant’s warning he was off, helter-skelter, over the prairie. +Our lama, taken off his guard by the fracture, was left behind for a +moment, but, recovering himself, darted away at a little distance, +and instead of trying to catch us up did his best to head the pony up +the hill, instead of allowing us to be dragged to certain destruction +along a narrow road which wound up with a steep incline down to the +dried-up bed of a river. There was nothing for it but to sit tight and +hope for the best, and holding on to one another like grim death, we +danced about like parched peas on a drum head. Sitting tight seemed to +suggest relative security for a moment or two, but in front of us was +a bank, and heaven knows what beyond it. “The bank will stop him,” I +cried; but no such luck. Up he went, and to our breathless amazement +we found we had leapt, cart, pony, ourselves, and all, not only the +bank but the gully that was on the other side as well. It said much for +the stability of our cart no less than for our nerves. But there were +limits to the little beast’s powers, and the sharply ascending ground +to which he turned to avoid his master was too much for him, and, +completely played out, he allowed himself to be caught. By this time +our Russian friend, not understanding our delayed appearance, had very +thoughtfully ridden back, and, practical man that he was, mended the +harness, swearing volubly at the lama meantime. That we were alive to +tell the tale seemed to us a miracle indeed. + +Our next experience was a great contrast, for on the north bank of +the Iro-Gol where we again changed horses, we picked up the slowest +brute I met during the whole time I was in the East. So slow it was +that the Russian lent me his whip in order that I might urge it on a +bit from the cart. This and the fact that on one occasion I touched it +gently on the back with the toe of my boot rather annoyed the Mongol +who led it, and turning round he informed us in Chinese that his horse +was “li h’ai” (terrible). Once and once only did it suggest the least +justification of the statement, and that was when nearing camp it +appeared suddenly to call its traditions, and made a very respectable +entry, dashing up to the travellers’ yourt in fine style. + +This proved to be a very friendly settlement, and the people crowded +round the yourt to bid us welcome. I dare say friendliness was mingled +with curiosity. Seeing me pour a drop or two of eau-de-Cologne on a +handkerchief and pass it over my face, they were keenly desirous of +paying me the compliment of imitation, and held out their hands for the +bottle. Mongols are not backward in asking for what they want, and are +quite of the belief that to him who asks shall be given. “Ai-iaa” they +ejaculated delightedly. Most of them liked the scent, but one woman who +sniffed it up too hard from the palm of her hand was greatly annoyed +when it stung her nose, shaking her head like a dog, and walking off +in high dudgeon when the others roared with laughter at her. They all +copied my method of using it, and were smearing their faces over with +their dirty hands, when our Russian took a rise out of a new-comer who +had not been present at the first operation. Seeing every one rubbing +their cheeks he wished of course to take part in the game, and the +Russian pouring the questionable dregs of a water bottle into his +outstretched palms, the trusting lama applied it to his face. The rest +keenly appreciated the joke and the man himself took it in good part +when he found that they were fooling him. As consolation I administered +a lump of sugar dipped in tea, and this was much relished. They were +a cheery lot of people here who played with us and each other like so +many children. + +We woke up next morning to make the acquaintance of a learned professor +from the University of Tomsk, who had arrived during the night, coming +in so quietly that he had disturbed no one. We learnt that he was on a +surveying expedition to Ulliasutai and Kobdo. We left him planting his +theodolite on the top of a hillock near the camp, the Mongols regarding +his movements with the greatest suspicion and dislike. Another couple +of stages brought us near the end of our journey, and as we jogged +along within sight of Kiachta we reviewed our experiences during the +weeks in wild Mongolia, with, to quote my fellow-traveller, “at all +events this result--that at the end of the journey we both wished we +were back again at the beginning”. + +Kiachta looked picturesque enough as we approached its +quasi-civilisation once more. Still, we had no desire to remain there +an hour longer than was necessary, and now that Mongolia was for the +time being a thing of the past--a veritable castle in Spain which this +time at any rate had materialised--I looked forward with pleasure to +the--to me--unknown capital of Russia. The journey down the Selenga +River contrasted pleasantly as regards duration with the up-river +trip, and arriving once more at dusty Werkne-Udinsk, we lost no time +in embarking upon the express train to Chelyabinsk, passing through +Transbaikalia in rainy gloom. At Chelyabinsk we changed and boarded a +very inferior train for St. Petersburg, the first-class carriages of +which were small and less comfortable than the average second class in +any other country. Petersburg in late summer was quiet enough to be +restful after our wanderings, while the cleanliness and comfort that +attends sightseeing in the orthodox manner were, I am bound to admit, +distinctly refreshing. But the essence of life lies in its contrasts, +and after returning to London by means of the luxurious boats which +ply from point to point among the beautiful islands of the Baltic, it +was not many weeks before one looked back with longing to the simple +life, the simple customs of a primitive people--veritably a call to the +wild. Mongolia fascinated me in anticipation; in materialisation; in +retrospect; and most of all in the prospect of going back again--some +day. + + + + +INDEX + + + Altai Berg, summit of, 144. + + Archers, meeting of, 183. + + Architecture at Mai-mai-ch’eng, 159. + + + Baltic Provinces, 192. + + Bogdo, compound, structure of his, 177; + Mongolia, ruler of, 152. + + Bogdo N’or, 146, 201; + sacred mountain of, 146. + + Bohea, Fukien hills of, 77. + + British Legation at Peking, 99. + + -- perturbation at Mrs. Gull’s intentions, vii. + + Buriats, Mongols, Russian nationalised tribe of, 114. + + Burmah frontier, Chinese and, ix. + + + Cemetery, Chinese, at Mai-mai-ch’eng, 160. + + Chang Chia K’ou, 34. + + Ch’angch’un, 102, 103. + + Chelyabinsk, author’s departure for, 233. + + Ch’en Lung, pictures, collection of, 102. + + Chihli, 7, 33, 43. + + China, 64, 70, 72, 76, 82, 89, 92, 95, 101, 102, 159. + + -- economic possibilities of, viii. + + -- foreign policy of, ix. + + -- form of salutation in, 25. + + -- Mongolian petition to, xiii. + + -- North, inns of, 36, 95. + + -- Revolution in, xi. + + -- unsettled political state of, 207. + + -- war between, and Mongolia, xi. + + Chinese at Urga, vii. + + -- banquet in honour of baby, 24. + + -- Foreign Office, 33. + + -- Inner Mongolia, gradual invasion of, by, 40. + + Choi Gin Lama, the residence of, 178. + + Consortium, banking, for China, xiv. + + + Dance of the Gods, 185. + + Dassak Da Lama, 4. + + Dol-na-Gashi, horse-farm at, 89. + + Dolo N’or, 30, 95, 153. + + + Empress of China, death of, in Peking, 84. + + + Foochow, 77. + + Fukien, Bohea hills of, 77. + + + Gen Dung Geng, General, 199. + + Gobi, viii, 17, 33, 48, 51, 89, 100, 101, 228. + + Gold-mining, Mongolore Co. at Urga, 159. + + Grant, Mr., murder of, at Ta-Bol, 207. + + Great Divide, 229. + + -- Wall, 2, 10, 23, 47. + + + Haarlem, 184. + + Hankarawa, Inner Mongolia, largest temple of, 77. + + Hankow, 57. + + Han-o-pa Pass, 34, 39, 40, 95. + + -- village of, 36. + + Hara-Gol, 134, 138, 229. + + Haraossu, 47. + + Harbin, 102, 103, 104, 171. + + Holy City of Mongolia, 145. + + Horse-breeding at Dol-na-Gashi, 89. + + Hsu Shu-cheng, General, xiii. + + Hut’ukt’u, the ruler of the Mongols, 158, 175, 176, 180. + + + Inner Mongolia, 51, 73, 76, 77, 89, 99, 164, 228. + + -- -- Chinese gradual invasion to, 40. + + -- -- fuel of, 37. + + -- -- headdress of, 162. + + -- -- Northern Mongols of, 161. + + Iro-gol, 231. + + + Japan and Mongolia, xiv. + + -- future of, xiv. + + -- troops of, in Siberia, xii. + + Japanese-Russo War, effect of, ix. + + + Kalgan, 13, 2, 3, 6, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 30, + 32, 34, 51, 58, 89, 90, 91, 100, 101, 145, 146, 207, 208. + + -- consignment of wool and hides to, 41. + + -- departure for, 5. + + -- descent from heights north of, 97. + + -- inhabitants, number of, 75,000, 13. + + -- journey continued to, 10. + + -- Pass, 97. + + -- plunder of, by band of Hung-hu-tzes, 99. + + -- Valley, road along, 97. + + Kiachta, 118, 121, 211, 213, 220, 224, 227, 233. + + -- convention of, xi. + + -- cosmopolitan inhabitants, 116; + problem of departure from, 117. + + -- Selenga River to, 111; + Troitze-Casavsk, division of, 115. + + Kobdo, 199, 233. + + Kolchak, Admiral, xii. + + + Llassa, occupation of, by Chinese, x. + + + Mai-mai-ch’eng, architecture of, 159, 160, 116, 156, 197, 199. + + -- Chinese township of, 115. + + -- halt at, 121. + + -- situation of, 145. + + Manchu dynasty, xi, 74. + + Manchuli, settlement of, 104. + + Manchuria, 64, 101, 102, 107. + + Mission compound, life in, 17. + + Mongol family, visit to, 54. + + -- State, suggested creation of, xii. + + Mongolia, 13, 17, 31, 33, 37, 40, 41, 56, 57, 67, 71, 73, 75, 77, + 81, 82, 83, 97, 104, 107, 115, 144, 146, 147, 153, 158, + 161, 162, 171, 172, 176, 177, 181, 184, 193, 201, 202, + 208, 212, 233, 234. + + -- Chinese policy in, viii. + + -- departure for, 30. + + -- Independence of, xi. + + Mongolia, Inner, 51, 73, 76, 77, 89, 99, 164, 228. + + -- -- fuel of, 37. + + -- -- gradual invasion of Chinese to, 40. + + -- -- headdress of, 162. + + -- -- Northern Mongols of, 161. + + -- Japan and, xiv. + + -- North, 17, 161, 193. + + -- -- bird and animal life in, 193. + + -- Northern, headdress of, 162. + + -- proper, arrival in, 52. + + -- re-incarnation, believed in, 205. + + -- Russia and, xi. + + -- unsettled state of, 207. + + -- Urga, capital of, 145. + + -- -- religious centre of, 151. + + -- war, rumours of, 16. + + -- wolf hunt in, 64. + + -- women’s position in, 173. + + Mongolian frontier, war, rumours of, 3. + + -- Government, order issued to Chinese by, 158. + + Mongolians and Chinese, movements of, 43. + + -- character of, ix, 165. + + -- dress of the, 164. + + -- Europeans, friendliness to, 192. + + -- food of, 169. + + Mongolore Gold-mining Co., headquarters of, at Urga, 159. + + Moscow, 108. + + Moukden, tombs of the Manchu Sovereigns, 102, 103. + + + Nank’ou Pass, 2, 6, 10. + + North China, inns of, 36; 95. + + + Ost-Kiachta, 114. + + Outer Mongolia, 171. + + + Pa-yen-chi-erh-ko-la, 4. + + Peking, 4, 5, 10, 24, 43, 62, 66, 70, 79, 83, 87, 101, 102, 105, + 117, 181, 185. + + -- British Legation at, 99. + + -- Chinese in, 3. + + -- death of Manchu Empress in, 84. + + -- departure from, 104. + + -- first Parliament, inauguration of, 76. + + -- to Kalgan, journey from, 6. + + -- preparations for return to, 89. + + -- return to, 99. + + Peking-Suiyuan Railway, xv. + + Punishment, barbarous methods of, 170. + + + Re-incarnation, belief of, Mongolians in, 205. + + Republican cause, Shang Chodba, supporter of, 4. + + Russia, 64, 115, 118. + + -- alarm of, at Chinese policy, x. + + -- and Mongolia, xi. + + -- establishment of barracks on neutral front, 116. + + -- treaties with, recognised by China, xi. + + Russian Consulate in Urga, 158. + + -- post, between Kalgan and Urga, 19. + + -- retail trade of Urga, 155. + + Russo-Japanese War, effects of, ix. + + + St. Petersburg, 108, 234. + + Selenga River, journey down, 233; 111, 112. + + Selenginsk, 114. + + Semenov, General, xii. + + Shang, Chia Hut’ukt’u, 4. + + Shang Chodba, supporter of Republican cause, 4. + + Shin Chi Men, 5. + + -- -- -- Station, departure for, 5. + + Shih Erh Chia, Shansi merchants, headquarters of, 159. + + Siberia, 89, 101, 114, 119, 211. + + -- Japanese troops in, xii. + + Siberian Railway, viii, 103. + + South Manchurian Railway, 102. + + + Ta-Bol, departure from, 90. + + -- journey towards, 59. + + -- meaning of, 76. + + -- rumours of war, 88. + + -- Mr. Grant, murder of, at, 207. + + -- visiting at, 85; 61, 77, 89, 99. + + Tartar City, 5. + + Temple of the Gods, position of, 179. + + -- -- -- -- main entrance to, 180. + + -- -- -- -- procession to, 182. + + Thibet, Chinese invasion of, x. + + -- Independence of, suggested, xi. + + To-la River, 145, 146, 177, 183, 212. + + Transbaikalia, 233. + + Trans-Siberian Railway, 2. + + Troitze-Casavsk, 115. + + Ts’am Haren, arrangements for, 178. + + -- race meeting at, 190. + + + Ulliasutai, 233. + + Ura Gol, crossing the, 125; 124. + + Urga, 3, 17, 19, 43, 60, 62, 100, 104, 118, 121, 135, 141, 144, + 145, 146, 147, 165, 167, 169, 174, 176, 183, 187, 190, 193, + 195, 199, 201, 202, 204, 205, 206, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212, + 214, 216, 221, 225. + + -- capital of Mongolia, 145. + + -- Chinese rule in, 156. + + -- -- troops in, xiii. + + -- departure for, 120. + + -- -- from, 213. + + -- division of main part of, 157. + + -- headquarters of Mongolore Gold-mining Co., at, 159. + + -- mixed alliances in, 173. + + -- Pass, ascent of, 143; 217. + + -- prison at, 194. + + -- proximity to, 142. + + -- punishments in, 170. + + -- religious centre of Mongolia, 151. + + -- Russian Consulate in, 158. + + -- -- quarter of, 155. + + -- -- retail trade of, 155. + + -- Russians at, xi. + + -- Ts’am Haren, sacred dance at, 175. + + -- University buildings of, 151. + + -- visit to heart of, 150. + + -- West, 148; 156, 179. + + -- wool from, 18. + + + Verkne-Oudinsk, 101, 107, 110, 113, 115, 117, 207. + + -- main features of, 112. + + -- remainder of journey to, 106. + + -- scenery of, 144. + + Volga, 105. + + + Wang Ch’ang Shan, flour mill of, 139. + + Werkne-Udinsk, arrival at, 233. + + West Urga, 148; 156, 179. + + Wolf hunt in Mongolia, 64. + + Women’s position in Mongolia, 173. + + + Yang River, 14. + + +PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, ABERDEEN + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + + Italics are shown thus: _sloping_. + + Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained. + + Perceived typographical errors have been changed. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76610 *** |