elf into the
saddle, and rode off into the gathering darkness to search for the
lost sheep. All agreed that he had an extra share of intelligence,
and he was evidently regarded as a capable and useful member of the
community.

'One of the sad sights seen was that of a sick Chinaman near his
end. He was one of a company of four, who went about dressing skins
of which the Mongols make garments. He had been an opium taker, and
an incurable diarrh[oe]a had seized him. At the time he was lodging
with the Mongol for whom the party had come to dress skins; but the
Mongol, seeing he would die, and fearing trouble and expense over
his death, ordered him off the premises. Borrowing an ox cart, his
companions had him conveyed away some five or ten miles, jolted in
the rude vehicle and suffering from the blazing sun, to a place
where some Chinese acquaintances were digging a well. They had a
tent of their own, most likely a poor ragged white cloth affair,
open to the winds and pervious to the rain; and in this the poor
man hoped he might be permitted to die. It was the dark side of the
picture. The glorious summer, the green and flowery plains, the
fattening flocks, the herds exulting in the deep pastures, the gay
Mongols riding about, the white tents bathed in the sunlight and
gleaming from afar. In the midst of all this, a feeble man, far
from home and kin, sick unto death, cast forth from his poor
lodging, and seeking for a place to lie down and die in. The
Mongols are a hospitable race, but pray ye that ye may not get sick
on their hands.

'On the whole I have been very well received everywhere, and have
been treated with great confidence. I have sometimes wondered at
the readiness with which they take medicine from the hand of an
utter stranger. One reason why they are ready to trust me,
doubtless, is that going among them, they can go round my tent and
see that there is nothing secret and terrible behind it; they enter
it and see all that is in it. They know and see that I am utterly
in their power, and, perhaps, reason that I am there with no intent
to harm, because if I made trouble I could not move another step
without their consent.

'In the shape of converts I have seen no result. I have not, as far
as I am aware, seen any one who even