172 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



sight of us, and made a circle round us, examining 

 us closely, fingering- our clothes, and paying special 

 attention above all things to my wife's riding crop. 

 We had to rely entirely on our pantomimic powers to 

 explain the use of the different articles they were 

 interested in. Needless to say that we shortened our 

 visit, especially as we understood from their signs 

 that the head official was about to come and greet 

 the distinguished white foreigners. Our tents were 

 hardly up, when we saw the procession approach. 

 At the head of it walked the Kha in his Chinese 

 uniform, with the traditional peacock feather in 

 his cap as an emblem of his governorship. By his 

 side came a small boy (who turned out to be his 

 interpreter), carrying his pipe and tobacco ; the 

 followers, in whom we recognised our old friends 

 who had been sent to meet us, marched behind. 

 The sight promised quite an imposing interview. 

 After the preliminary bows and tacit expressions 

 of friendship we found that, with regard to conversa- 

 tion between his interpreter and ours, there was a 

 missing link, viz. from Kalmuk to Chinese. Luckily 

 this gap was soon filled by a Kalmuk who happened 

 to be at the karaoul at the time, and who was 

 acquainted with both languages, having had frequent 

 dealings with the Kobdo merchants. His name 



