Across the Roof of ihc World. 



lumps of salt and periodically stirred. Cleaning and washing out 

 appeared unnecessary details, so that the edges all round the 

 cauldron were lined with scum and filth, which were duly merged 

 into the contents of the pot from the vigorous stirring by an 

 unwashed lama. The other end of the room was furnished with 

 a similar fireplace, over which another large cauldron for making 

 tea was secured. Water was brought in in wooden buckets 

 and poured into the cauldron, brick tea was then reduced to 

 chips and cast into the murky liquid and salt added. The 

 mixture was then allowed to boil, when a bucketful of milk 

 was added and the tea thus concocted ladled out into the 

 wooden buckets and taken away by fatigue parties of lamas. 

 The chef was not particular as to a little flavour from the 

 floor being added to the tea, for now and again he would put 

 down the ladle on the dung-covered ground and move to the 

 further end to stir the Irish stew in course of preparation there. 

 Presently he would return to take up the ladle with its coating of 

 dirt and undesirables and plunge it into the cauldron, to the com- 

 plete indifference of those for whom the beverage was intended. 



The morning after arrival in Wong I went to call on the young 

 chief, and he received me at the door of his house, surrounded by 

 his retinue, ushering me into the one apartment, which had a 

 brickwork stove built in one corner. The nomadic instincts 

 M-ere strong within him, for inside the courtyard were pitched 

 two large auls, wherein the primitive Mongol is much more at 

 home than when surrounded by four walls. The young chief 

 served tea in glasses, and was very polite and attentive, 

 prominent traits in the Mongolian character. He told me there 

 were wild sheep in the hills to the north, but that it would be 

 impossible to hunt them now owing to the depth of snow and 

 intense cold in the valleys. 



He enquired as to how many days' journey it would be to 

 England if one went on horseback, a question that was a poser, 

 but which I answered by replying it would take at least one 

 hundred, which seemed to astonish him considerably. I therefore 



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