EXPLORATIONS IN MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 663 



sions. Here I remained two days and was most hospitably enter- 

 tained by the bishop and fatliers of the mission. Tliis locality is in 

 the domains of the Mongol prince of Alashan, colloquially designated 

 by the Chinese as Hsi Wang or Western Prince, His people, so 

 Ts'aidam Mongols have told me, inhabited in old times the country 

 west of Hsi-ning Fu in western Kan-su, and are of the same stock as 

 the Ts'aidam Mongols. This agrees with what Timskowski tells us, 

 who says this tribe of the Eleuts came to the country they now inhabit 

 in 1686.* 



Following the course of the Yellow River in a southerly direction, 

 I passed successively through Shih-tsui (Hotun Jeli in Mongol), the 

 first town on our route in the Province ot Kan-su, Ning-hsia Fu, 

 Chung-Avei Ilsien, and finally reached Lau-chou Fu, the ca])ital of the 

 Province of Kan-su, on the 31st of January, where I joined the route I 

 had followed in lS88-'89 when on my way to Tibet for the first time. 



Xing-hsia Fu was the most important town we traversed before reach- 

 ing Lan-chou, but it has greatly fallen from its ancient importance, 

 having suffered terribly during the late Mohammedan rebellion.! 



Father Gerbillon, while journeying with the Emperor K'ang-hsi in 

 1697, visited this city. He says it was then one of the largest and 

 most famous along the whole length of the Great Wall. It was 

 densely x)opulated, the houses built so closely together that there was 

 no room even for court-yards. He also noted that '-building timber is 

 here very cheap, because they go to get it in that chain of mountains 

 which is to the northwest, some 60 or 70 lys from the city,| where it is 

 so abundant that from the neighboring localities, more than 400 or "lOO 

 lys away, they come to buy it at ]Sring-hia."§ At the present time not 

 a forest tree is to be seen, only a few poplars recently planted along the 

 irrigation ditches. 



The father says further on (p. 372) : " Tliey presented also to his 

 majesty several foot rugs, resembling enough our Turkey carj^ets, but 

 coarser; they are made here, and the emperor had the curiosity to 

 have the work done in his presence, as also i)aper which is made at 

 Ning-hsia, with hemp beaten and mixed with lime water." 



Now the town is, for half of its area, a desert of brick-bats, but rugs 

 and paper making are still the chief— or rather the only — industries of 

 the place. 



I arrived at Lan-chou the day after Chinese New Year and on 

 the fifth of the first moon. I witnessed the ying.ch'un festivities, in 



"Op. cit., II, 279. See also Du Halde, op. cit., iv, 375, where we learn that the first 

 Eleiit prince of Alashan had only the rank of Beileh and was named Batiiru Ts'o- 

 nam. A Beileh is a prince of the third order, a Wanj; tiio second, and a ciiin Wang 

 of the first. 



tThis city is called Irgd hotun by the Mongols, and is the Irghai of Mi)Ii.uiiinedan 

 writers and the Kgrigaia of Marco Polo. 



t This range is called Hsi slian l)y the Chinese, Imt on our maps it is usually desig- 

 nated liy the name of Alashan Mountains. 



§ Du Halde, op. cit., iv, 370. 



