P OP ULAR MIS CELLAXT. 



141 



the elaborate svstem of prayers and washing 

 inculcated by the Koran. They are polyg- 

 amous, and have wives, or rather slaves, each 

 having her separate occupation in the family 

 life — one minding camels, another the flocks, 

 another the tent arrangements, etc. They 

 have regular communication with the outer 

 ■world. Greeks from the towns lend money 

 to start them in flocks by what is called an 

 " immortal contract." Merchants for wool 

 and cattle pay regular visits to the different 

 encampments. Tinkers, the public circum- 

 ciser, and other periodical visitors go among 

 them spring, summer, and winter. Their 

 utensils are principally of wood — wooden 

 mortars, wooden gloves for reaping, wooden 

 musical instruments, etc., are used. They 

 are clever at getting food from mountain 

 plants and herbs. An excellent substitute 

 for cofiee is produced by a species of thistle ; 

 and a sweet, somewhat like chocolate cream, 

 is made out of the cone of a juniper tree. 

 Formerly they were very clever in making 

 dyes from mountain herbs, but the introduc- 

 tion of aniline dyes has greatly destroyed 

 their taste. 



Animals in the Desert of Gobi. — In re- 

 spect to its fauna, the Desert of Gobi con- 

 stitutes a zoological district by itself, with- 

 out its animal world being rich in species. 

 Animals may be found in considerable groups 

 in certain places, as in the mountains and 

 along the rivers and lakes, but they are com- 

 paratively rare in the desert itself, where one 

 meets hardly anj-thing but innumerable hz- 

 ards gliding under his feet- Birds as well 

 as quadrupeds lead a nomadic life, being 

 forced to seek food at places a considerable 

 distance apart. The animals of the desert 

 are, however, not very particular, especially 

 with respect to drink, and some of the small 

 mammals probably do not drink, but satisfy 

 themselves with succulent plants, or the lit- 

 tle snow that falls in winter. Among the 

 mammals the wild horse and camel and the 

 argali sheep are worthy of mention. Preje- 

 valsky discovered in Zungaria the horse which 

 has been called by his name, the Kirghiz 

 kantaff, the Mongol make. It lives in the 

 most inhospitable regions, in groups of five 

 or six individuals. While the existence of 

 a wild horse in central Asia was unknown 

 till the present time, it has been understood 



from the days of Marco Polo that a wild 

 camel lived there ; but none of the authors 

 who have mentioned it, on the authority of 

 the Chinese, had ever seen it, and its exist- 

 ence was doubted by Cuvicr It also was 

 seen by the Russian explorer in the neigh- 

 borhood of Lake Lob and the Desert of Zun- 

 garia. The camel prefers sandy spots more 

 or less inaccessible to man. It spreads over 

 a considerably larger area than the wild 

 horse ; for, while the latter is cantoned in a 

 single locality of Zungaria, it inhabits the 

 lower Tarrin, the country of Lake Lob, Kha- 

 mi, and the Thibetan Desert of Zaidam. 

 Prejevalsky calls this animal the wild Bac- 

 trian camel. While the domestic camel is 

 usually timid, stupid, and indolent, the Gobi 

 camel is distinguished by its vigilance and 

 the extraordinary development of its senses 

 of sight, hearing, and smell. It can run a 

 hundred kilometres without stopping a mo- 

 ment, and can climb mountains with an agil- 

 ity comparable to that of the chamois. Its 

 voice is rarely heard, but is more like that 

 of the bull than that of the domestic camel. 

 The argali sheep is common in the mount- 

 ainous parts of the Gobi, whence it descends 

 in the spring to feed on the herbage. It ad- 

 heres to the places it has once chosen, and a 

 mountain spur is often the permanent abode 

 of a whole flock. As it is not troubled by 

 the natives, it has not yet become afraid of 

 man, and passes indifferently by the Mongol 

 camps on its way to water. Among the car- 

 nivorous animals of the Gobi are the tiger 

 and the wolf, but the bear has not been seen 

 there, although it is found in the Thian Shan 

 Mountains. 



Stolidness of Eskimos. — One of the most 

 remarkable peculiarities of the Eskimos of 

 Cape Prince of Wales, as described by Mr. 

 n. r. Payne, of the Meteorological Office, 

 Toronto, is their sensitiveness to ridicule. 

 It is necessary to put on the gravest expres- 

 sion in dealing with them, else they will 

 refuse to work for or with you, and sulk. 

 While, as a rule, the Eskimo looks upon the 

 white man as born to do him favors, those 

 the author met would sometimes offer pay- 

 ment for their services. If an Eskimo was 

 given an unusually valuable present, he would 

 immediately turn round and ask for the 

 most impossible things, as though he thought 



