VI.] THE SOUTHERN MONGOLS. 179 



best in the world. The public conscience, however, is saved by 

 a few extra turns of the prayer-wheel at such repasts, and by the 

 general contempt in which is held the hereditary caste of butchers, 

 who like the Jews in mediaeval times are still confined to a 

 "ghetto " of their own in all the large towns. 



These remarks apply more particularly to the settled southern 

 communities living in districts where a little agriculture is possible. 

 Elsewhere the religious cloak is worn very loosely, and the nomad 

 Horsoks of the northern steppes, although all nomi- 



i T* i 11 i 11 The Horsoks. 



nal Buddhists, pay but scant respect to the decrees 

 supposed to emanate from the Dalai Lama enshrined in Lhasa. 

 Horsok is an almost unique ethnical term 1 , being a curious com- 

 pound of the two names applied by the Tibetans to the Hor-pa 

 and the Sok-pa who divide the steppe between them. The Hor-pa, 

 who occupy the western parts, are of Turki stock, and are the 

 only group of that race known to me who profess Buddhism 2 , all 

 the rest being Muhammadans with some Shamanists (Yakuts) in 

 the Lena basin. The Sok-pa, who roam the eastern plains and 

 valleys, although commonly called Mongols, are true Tibetans or 

 more strictly speaking Tanguts, of whom there are here two 

 branches, the Goliki and the Yegrai, all, like the Hor-pa, of 

 Tibetan speech. The Yegrai, as described by Prjevalsky, closely 

 resemble the other North Tibetan tribes, with their 

 long, matted locks falling on their shoulders, their 

 scanty whiskers and beard, angular head, dark complexion and 

 dirty garb 3 . 



Besides stock-breeding and predatory warfare, all these groups 

 follow the hunt, armed with darts, bows, and matchlock guns ; 

 the musk-deer is ensnared, and the only animal spared is the stag, 

 " Buddha's horse." The taste of these rude nomads for liquid 

 blood is insatiable, and the surveyor, Nain Singh, often saw them 

 fall prone on the ground to lick up the blood flowing from a 

 wounded beast. As soon as weaned, the very children and even 

 the horses are fed on a diet of cheese, butter, and blood, kneaded 



1 With it may be compared the Chinese province of Kan-su, so named from 

 its two chief towns Atf;z-chau and .Sw-chau (Yule's Marco Polo, I. p. 222). 



2 "Buddhist Turks," says Sir H. H. Howorth (Geogr. Journ., 1887, p. 230). 



3 E. Delmar Morgan, Geogr. Journ., 1887, p. 226. 



12 2 



