HUNTING IN CHINESE TARTARY. 171 



TARTARS. 



the village below ! The chief told him he should, when Buctoo 

 drew out the glass, on which all the Tartars moved off to a 

 very respectable distance. After looking at the village, he 

 described certain parts of it so correctly that they were asto- 

 nished. (I must here mention that neither myself nor any 

 of my servants had been allowed to enter the village.) The 

 Tartars at first could hardly credit it ; but after sundry ques- 

 tions as to the description of houses on the northern side, and 

 again on the southern, which Buctoo, on carefully examining, 

 correctly described, they became sadly perplexed. Buctoo 

 once more endeavored to persuade them to take a look them- 

 selves, and, after much coaxing and a little brandy, one of 

 the head men was induced to take the telescope into his hand. 

 The figure he cut on doing so, I shall not easily forget. 

 He held it out at arm's length, grinned at it most horribly, 

 and chattered some abominable gibberish in Tartaree, that no 



