eys and ox-carts;
but I think that that morning for the first time had they seen a
foreigner, with all his belongings hung about him, tramping the
country after the manner of their own begging lamas. There were few
people to meet on the road, but those I did meet asked the
customary questions in tones of great surprise, received my answers
with evident incredulity, and, for the most part rode away
muttering to themselves, _You eldib eem_, which may be translated
to mean, "Strange affair." My feet, through want of practice, I
suppose, soon showed symptoms of thinking this style of travelling
as strange as the Mongols did, and were badly blistered long before
the journey was over.

[Illustration: JAMES GILMOUR EQUIPPED FOR HIS WALKING EXPEDITION IN
MONGOLIA IN FEBRUARY 1884]

'An occasional rest and a bite of snow varied the painful monotony
of the few last long miles; the river was reached at last, and,
crossing it, I was soon in front of the cluster of huts I had come
to visit, and on looking up I was agreeably astonished to find that
the first man to come out to meet me was the mandarin of the
district. He was soon joined by others, and, rescued from the dogs,
I was escorted to his tent, seated before the fire, and supplied
with a cup and full tea-pot. I had intended to drink tea in his
tent only for form's sake; but his tea was good, the snow seemed
only to have increased my thirst, the man himself was sincerely
friendly; under the circumstances my stoicism broke down, and the
mandarin's tea-pot was soon all but empty. Meanwhile, his tent had
been filling with friends and neighbours, to whom the news of my
arrival had spread, and in a little while I had round me a
representative from nearly every family in the village. Among the
others came my two servants--the priest and the layman who had
driven my ox-carts for me. Escorted by these I went to another
tent, rested there awhile, and then moved into a mud-built house.
The priest I had come to visit was busy lighting a fire which would
do nothing but smoke, and the room was soon full. Finding him
alone, I told him that I had come to speak to him and my other
friends about the salvation of their souls, and was pressing him to
accept Christ, when a layman I also knew entered. Without waiting
for me