f with useless trifles. He
amuses himself with artillery. A retired Russian officer presented him
with two old guns, for which the donor received the title of Tumbaiir
Hun, that is, "Prince Dear-to-my-Heart." On holidays these cannon were
fired to the great amusement of the blind man. Motorcars, gramophones,
telephones, crystals, porcelains, pictures, perfumes, musical
instruments, rare animals and birds; elephants, Himalayan bears,
monkeys, Indian snakes and parrots--all these were in the palace of "the
god" but all were soon cast aside and forgotten.
To Urga come pilgrims and presents from all the Lamaite and Buddhist
world. Once the treasurer of the palace, the Honorable Balma Dorji,
took me into the great hall where the presents were kept. It was a most
unique museum of precious articles. Here were gathered together rare
objects unknown to the museums of Europe. The treasurer, as he opened a
case with a silver lock, said to me:
"These are pure gold nuggets from Bei Kem; here are black sables from
Kemchick; these the miraculous deer horns; this a box sent by the
Orochons and filled with precious ginseng roots and fragrant musk; this
a bit of amber from the coast of the 'frozen sea' and it weighs 124 lans
(about ten pounds); these are precious stones from India, fragrant zebet
and carved ivory from China."
He showed the exhibits and talked of them for a long time and evidently
enjoyed the telling. And really it was wonderful! Before my eyes lay the
bundles of rare furs; white beaver, black sables, white, blue and black
fox and black panthers; small beautifully carved tortoise shell boxes
containing hatyks ten or fifteen yards long, woven from Indian silk as
fine as the webs of the spider; small bags made of golden thread
filled with pearls, the presents of Indian Rajahs; precious rings with
sapphires and rubies from China and India; big pieces of jade, rough
diamonds; ivory tusks ornamented with gold, pearls and precious stones;
bright clothes sewn with gold and silver thread; walrus tusks carved in
bas-relief by the primitive artists on the shores of the Behring Sea;
and much more that one cannot recall or recount. In a separate room
stood the cases with the statues of Buddha, made of gold, silver,
bronze, ivory, coral, mother of pearl and from a rare colored and
fragrant species of wood.
"You know when conquerors come into a country where the gods are
honored, they break the images and throw them down. So it
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