the felt of the tent. I took my Mauser and struck the
wall. A sharp scream was followed by the sound of quick running over the
pebbles. In the morning we discovered the tracks of wolves approaching
our tent from the side opposite to the fire and followed them to where
they had begun to dig under the tent wall; but evidently one of the
would-be robbers was forced to retreat with a bruise on his head from
the handle of the Mauser.

Wolves and eagles are the servants of Jagasstai, the Mongol very
seriously instructed us. However, this does not prevent the Mongols from
hunting them. Once in the camp of Prince Baysei I witnessed such a hunt.
The Mongol horsemen on the best of his steeds overtook the wolves on the
open plain and killed them with heavy bamboo sticks or tashur. A Russian
veterinary surgeon taught the Mongols to poison wolves with strychnine
but the Mongols soon abandoned this method because of its danger to
the dogs, the faithful friends and allies of the nomad. They do not,
however, touch the eagles and hawks but even feed them. When the Mongols
are slaughtering animals they often cast bits of meat up into the air
for the hawks and eagles to catch in flight, just as we throw a bit of
meat to a dog. Eagles and hawks fight and drive away the magpies and
crows, which are very dangerous for cattle and horses, because they
scratch and peck at the smallest wound or abrasion on the backs of the
animals until they make them into uncurable areas which they continue to
harass.

CHAPTER XXI

THE NEST OF DEATH

Our camels were trudging to a slow but steady measure on toward the
north. We were making twenty-five to thirty miles a day as we approached
a small monastery that lay to the left of our route. It was in the
form of a square of large buildings surrounded by a high fence of
thick poles. Each side had an opening in the middle leading to the four
entrances of the temple in the center of the square. The temple was
built with the red lacquered columns and the Chinese style roofs and
dominated the surrounding low dwellings of the Lamas. On the opposite
side of the road lay what appeared to be a Chinese fortress but which
was in reality a trading compound or dugun, which the Chinese always
build in the form of a fortress with double walls a few feet apart,
within which they place their houses and shops and usually have twenty
or thirty traders fully armed for any emergency. In case of need these
duguns can be use