will make a little tea, and we
will talk this matter over again."

Samdadchiemba was no longer with us; his thoughts had flown to his native
land. We were obliged to remind him of his real
position,--"Samdadchiemba, you need not make any tea; and just now,
instead of talking, we must fold up our tent, load the camels, and
proceed on our way. Look; the sun is already high in the heavens: if we
do not get on, we shall never reach the Three Valleys." "True," cried
he; and springing up he set himself busily about making preparations for
our departure.

On resuming our route, we abandoned the direction towards the west, which
we had strictly followed during our journey, and diverged a little to the
south. After having continued our march for half the day, we sat down
for a while under a rock to take our repast. As usual, we dined on bread
and water; and what bread and water! Dough half baked, and brackish
water, which we had to draw up with the sweat of our brow, and to carry
about with us during our journey.

Towards the conclusion of our repast, while we were trying to scrape
together a few grains of tobacco in our snuff phials, by way of desert,
we saw coming towards us a Tartar on a camel; he seated himself beside
us. After having wished each other peace, we let him smell at our empty
snuff phial, and then offered him a little loaf baked in the ashes. In
an instant he had swallowed the bread, and taken three sniffs of snuff.

We questioned him about the route; he told us that if we followed the
same direction we should arrive in two days at the Yellow River, on
crossing which, we should enter the Chinese territory. This information
gave us great satisfaction, for it perfectly agreed with our map. We
asked him if water was far off. "Yes," answered he, "the wells are
distant. If you encamp again to-day, you will find a cistern on the way;
but there is little water, and that is very bad. Formerly it was an
excellent well, but it is now abandoned, for a tchutgour (demon) has
corrupted its waters."

This information induced us to proceed at once, for we had no time to
lose, if we desired to arrive before night. The Mongol mounted his
camel, which bounded across the desert, while our little caravan
continued slowly its uniform and monotonous march.

Before sunset, we arrived at the indicated cistern, when we pitched our
tent, as there was no hope of finding further on better water; besides,
we fancied the