Illustration: Our Base Camp at the Edge of the Forest]

[Illustration: The Mongol Village of the Terelche Valley]

With a joyful shout Madame Tserin Dorchy rode toward her husband. He
was an oldish man, of fifty-five years perhaps, with a face as dried
and weather-beaten as the leather beneath his saddle. He may have
been glad to see her but his only sign of greeting was a "_sai_" and
a nod to include us both. Her pleasure was undisguised, however, and
as we rode down the valley she chattered volubly between the
business of driving in half a dozen horses and a herd of sheep. The
monosyllabic replies of the hunter were delivered in a voice which
seemed to come from a long way off or from out of the earth beneath
his pony's feet. I was interested to see what greeting there would
be upon his arrival at the _yurt_. His two daughters and his infant
son were waiting at the door but he had not even a word for them and
only a pat upon the head for the baby.

All Mongols are independent but Tserin Dorchy was an extreme in
every way. He ruled the half dozen families in the valley like an
autocrat. What he commanded was done without a question. I was
anxious to get away and announced that we would start the day after
his arrival. "No," said he, "we will go two days from now." Argument
was of no avail. So far as he was concerned, the matter was closed.
When it came to arranging wages he stated his terms, which were
exorbitant. I could accept them or not as I pleased; he would not
reduce his demands by a single copper.

As a matter of fact, offers of money make little impression upon the
ordinary Mongols. They produce well-nigh everything they need for
they dress in sheepskins during the winter and eat little else than
mutton. When they want cloth, tea, or ammunition, they simply sell a
sheep or a pony or barter with the Chinese merchants.

We found that the personal equation enters very largely into any
dealings with a Mongol. If he likes you, remuneration is an
incident. If he is not interested, money does not tempt him His
independence is a product of the wild, free life upon the plains. He
relies entirely upon himself for he has learned that in the struggle
for existence, it is he himself that counts. Of the Chinaman, the
opposite is true. His life is one of the community and he depends
upon his family and his village. He is gregarious above all else and
he hates to live alone. In this dependence upon his fellow men he
kno