Marshes--Camels dislike water--Chinese caravan--Travellers' tales--Taryagi--Looking for cattle in the dark-- Butyn-tala--An addition to our party--Russian courier-- Water-fowl--Bad water--Kicking camel--Pass of Ulin-dhabha-- Mongols shifting quarters--Slip 'tween the cup and the lip--Mountains--The north wind--Guntu-gulu--An accident-- Medical treatment--Protuberant ears--Marmots--Ice--Dark night--Bain-ula--Living, not travelling--Charm of desert life--Young pilgrim--Grand scenery--Steep descent--Obon-- Horror of evil spirits--Mongol and Chinese notions of devils--Dread of rain--A wet encampment--Snow--The White Mountains--The Bactrian camel--Capability of enduring cold-- Job's comforters--Woods appear--The yak--Change of fuel 122 CHAPTER IX. URGA TO KIACHTA. Maimachin in sight--A snow storm--Hasty encampment--Tolla in flood--Delay--Intercourse with Mongols--The night watches--Tellig's family--Rough night--Scene at the Tolla-- Crossing the river--the "Kitat" redivivus--His hospitality--How Mongols clean their cups--Maimachin--The Russian consulate--Russian ambition--Its prospects--The Urga, or camp--Kuren--Fine situation--Buildings-- Horse-shoeing--Hawkers--The lamaseries--An ascetic--The Lama-king--Relations between Chinese emperors and the Lama power--Urga and Kara Korum--Historical associations--Prester John and Genghis Khan--Leave Urga--Slippery paths-- More delays--The pass--A snow storm--Fine scenery--Rich country--Another bugbear--The Boro valley--Cultivation-- Khara-gol--The pass--Lama courier--Shara-gol--Winter quarters--The transmigration--Iro-gol--Forced march-- Kiachta in sight 141 CHAPTER X. MONGOLS--HISTORICAL NOTES. Early history of Huns--Wars with China--Dispersion--Appear in Europe--Attila--His career--And death--Turks--Mixture of races--Consanguinity of Huns and Mongols--Genghis--His conquests--Divisions of his empire--Timour--A Mahommedan-- His wars--And cruelties--Baber--The Great Mogul in India-- Dispersion of tribes--Modern divisions of the Mongols-- Warlike habits--Religions--The causes of their success in war considered--Their heroes--Their characters--And military talents--Superstition--Use of omens-- Destructiveness and butcheries of the Huns and Mongols-- Antagonistic traits of character--Depraved moral instincts--Necessity of culture to develop human feelings--Flesh-eating not brutalising--Dehumanising tendency of war--Military qualities of pastoral peoples-- Dormant enthusiasm of the Mongols 166 CHAPTER XI. MONGOLS--PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.