On the 31st of October, they turned their horses’ heads towards the south, and proceeded for eight days through a desert, where they beheld large droves of wild asses, which, like those seen by the Ten Thousand in Mesopotamia, were far too swift for the fleetest steeds. During the seventh day, they perceived on their right the glittering peaks of the Caucasus towering above the clouds, and arrived on the morrow at Kenkat, a Mohammedan town, where they tasted of wine, and that delicious liquor which the orientals extract from rice. At a city which Rubruquis calls _Egaius_, near Lake Baikal, he found traces of the Persian language; and shortly afterward entered the country of the Orrighers, an idolatrous, or at least a pagan race, who worshipped with their faces towards the north, while the east was at that period the _Kableh_, or praying-point of the Christians. Our traveller, though far from being intolerant for his age, had not attained that pitch of humanity which teaches us to do to others as we would they should do unto us; for upon entering a temple, which, from his description, we discover to have been dedicated to Buddha, and finding the priests engaged in their devotions, he irreverently disturbed them by asking questions, and endeavouring to enter into conversation with them. The Buddhists, consistently with the mildness of their religion, rebuked this intrusion by the most obstinate silence, or by continual repetitions of the words “Om, Om! hactavi!” which, as he was afterward informed, signified, “Lord, Lord! thou knowest it!” These priests, like the bonzes of China, Ava, and Siam, shaved their heads, and wore flowing yellow garments, probably to show their contempt for the Brahminical race, among whom yellow is the badge of the most degraded castes. They believed in one God, and, like their Hindoo forefathers, burned their dead, and erected pyramids over their ashes. Continuing their journey with their usual rapidity, they arrived on the last day of the year at the court of Mangou, who was encamped in a plain of immeasurable extent, and as level as the sea. Here, notwithstanding the rigour of the cold, Rubruquis, conformably to the rules of his order, went to court barefoot,—a piece of affectation for which he afterward suffered severely. Three or four days’ experience of the cold of Northern Tartary cured him of this folly, however; so that by the 4th of January, 1254, when he was admitted to an audience of Mangou, he was content to wear shoes like another person.