coats outside and crowned
with the regulation coonskin caps; armed from head to foot. They rode
with wild shouts and cheers, very greedily eyeing the Chinese shops and
the houses of the Russian colonists. At their head rode the one-eyed
hunghutze chief with three horsemen behind him in white overcoats,
who carried waving banners and blew what may have been meant for music
through great conch shells. One of the Chahars could not resist and so
jumped out of his saddle and made for a Chinese shop along the street.
Immediately the anxious cries of the Chinese merchants came from the
shop. The hunghutze swung round, noticed the horse at the door of the
shop and realized what was happening. Immediately he reined his horse
and made for the spot. With his raucous voice he called the Chahar out.
As he came, he struck him full in the face with his whip and with all
his strength. Blood flowed from the slashed cheek. But the Chahar was in
the saddle in a second without a murmur and galloped to his place in
the file. During this exit of the Chahars all the people were hidden
in their houses, anxiously peeping through cracks and corners of the
windows. But the Chahars passed peacefully out and only when they met a
caravan carrying Chinese wine about six miles from town did their
native tendency display itself again in pillaging and emptying several
containers. Somewhere in the vicinity of Hargana they were ambushed by
Tushegoun Lama and so treated that never again will the plains of Chahar
welcome the return of these warrior sons who were sent out to conquer
the Soyot descendants of the ancient Tuba.

The day the column left Uliassutai a heavy snow fell, so that the road
became impassable. The horses first were up to their knees, tired out
and stopped. Some Mongol horsemen reached Uliassutai the following day
after great hardship and exertion, having made only twenty-five miles in
forty-eight hours. Caravans were compelled to stop along the routes. The
Mongols would not consent even to attempt journeys with oxen and yaks
which made but ten or twelve miles a day. Only camels could be used but
there were too few and their drivers did not feel that they could make
the first railway station of Kuku-Hoto, which was about fourteen hundred
miles away. We were forced again to wait: for which? Death or salvation?
Only our own energy and force could save us. Consequently my friend
and I started out, supplied with a tent, stove and food, for a n