defend all the
officers of Uliassutai, maintaining that one must not trust only the
reports of Domojiroff. When our conversation was finished, the Captain
stood up and offered his apologies for detaining me in my journey.
Afterwards he presented me a fine Mauser with silver mountings on the
handle and said:

"Your pride greatly pleased me. I beg you to receive this weapon as a
memento of me."

The following morning I set out anew from Zain Shabi, having in my
pocket the laissez-passer of Bezrodnoff for his outposts.

CHAPTER XXXI

TRAVELING BY "URGA"

Once more we traveled along the now known places, the mountain from
which I espied the detachment of Bezrodnoff, the stream into which I had
thrown my weapon, and soon all this lay behind us. At the first ourton
we were disappointed because we did not find horses there. In the yurtas
were only the host with two of his sons. I showed him my document and he
exclaimed:

"Noyon has the right of 'urga.' Horses will be brought very soon."

He jumped into his saddle, took two of my Mongols with him, providing
them and himself with long thin poles, four or five metres in length,
and fitted at the end with a loop of rope, and galloped away. My cart
moved behind them. We left the road, crossed the plain for an hour and
came upon a big herd of horses grazing there. The Mongol began to catch
a quota of them for us with his pole and noose or urga, when out of the
mountains nearby came galloping the owners of the herds. When the
old Mongol showed my papers to them, they submissively acquiesced and
substituted four of their men for those who had come with me thus far.
In this manner the Mongols travel, not along the ourton or station road
but directly from one herd to another, where the fresh horses are caught
and saddled and the new owners substituted for those of the last herd.
All the Mongols so effected by the right of urga try to finish their
task as rapidly as possible and gallop like mad for the nearest herd
in your general direction of travel to turn over their task to their
neighbor. Any traveler having this right of urga can catch horses
himself and, if there are no owners, can force the former ones to carry
on and leave the animals in the next herd he requisitions. But this
happens very rarely because the Mongol never likes to seek out his
animals in another's herd, as it always gives so many chances for
controversy.

It was from this custom, according to one e