e is white with gilded cupolas, and smaller
pavilions at the side have roofs of green. The whole is surrounded
by an eight-foot stockade of white posts trimmed with red.

The Hutukhtu seldom leaves his palace now, for he is old and sick
and almost blind. Many strange stories are told of the mysterious
"Living God" which tend to show him "as of the earth earthy." It is
said that in former days he sometimes left his "heaven" to revel
with convivial foreigners in Urga; but all this is gossip and we are
discussing a very saintly person. His passion for Occidental
trinkets and inventions is well known, however, and his palace is a
veritable storehouse for gramophones, typewriters, microscopes,
sewing machines, and a host of other things sold to him by Russian
traders and illustrated in picture catalogues sent from the
uttermost corners of the world. But like a child he soon tires of
his toys and throws them aside. He has a motor car, but he never
rides in it. It has been reported that his chief use for the
automobile is to attach a wire to its batteries and give his
ministers an electric shock; for all Mongols love a practical joke,
and the Hutukhtu is no exception.

Now his palace is wired for electricity, and a great arc light
illuminates the courtyard. One evening Mr. Lucander and Mr. Mamen,
who sold the electric plant to the Hutukhtu, were summoned to the
palace to receive payment. They witnessed a scene which to-day could
be possible only in Mongolia. Several thousand dollars in silver
were brought outside to their motor car, and the lama, who paid the
bills, insisted that they count it in his presence.

A great crowd of Mongols had gathered near the palace and at last a
long rope was let out from one of the buildings. Kneeling, the
Mongols reverently touched the rope, which was gently waggled from
the other end, supposedly by the Hutukhtu. A barbaric monotone of
chanted prayers arose from the kneeling suppliants, and the rope was
waggled again. Then the Mongols rode away, silent with awe at having
been blessed by the Living God. All this under a blazing electric
light beside an automobile at the foot of the Bogdo-ol!

The Hutukhtu seemed to feel that it became his station as a ruling
monarch to have a foreign house with foreign furniture. Of course he
never intended to live in it, but other kings had useless palaces
and why shouldn't he? Therefore, a Russian atrocity of red brick was
erected a half mile or so from