lo BRICK-TEA. 



covered with votive offerings, amongst which I 

 noticed a common glass stopper. Numbers of other 

 lesser deities (biirkhans) are ranged round the walls, 

 which are also adorned with a variety of pictures of 

 sacred subjects. 



Besides the temples and a few Chinese houses, 

 the remaining habitations of the Mongolian town con- 

 sist of felt tents (yurtas) and little Chinese houses, 

 each standing in its own plot of land, surrounded by 

 a lio-ht fence. Some of these small enclosures stand 



о 



in rows, so as to form a kind of street, others are 

 grouped together without any apparent order or 

 regularity. The market square occupies a central 

 position ; here four or five Russian merchants have 

 opened shops and ply a retail trade, and are also 

 engaged in the transport of tea. 



The standard of value most current in Urga, as 

 well as throughout Northern Mongolia, is brick-tea, 

 Avhich, for this purpose, is often sawn up into small 

 lumps. The value of goods sold in the market and 

 shops is reckoned by the number of bricks of tea : 

 for instance, a sheep is worth from 12 to 15 bricks; 

 a camel 120 to 150; a Chinese pipe from 2 to 5, 

 and so on. Russian banknotes and silver rubles 

 are accepted in payment by the people of Urga, and 

 usually by all the natives of Northern Mongolia; but 

 Chinese lans are preferred, and brick-tea is by far 

 the most acceptable, especially among the poorer 

 classes. Anyone, therefore, desirous of making pur- 

 chases in the market, must lug about with him a 

 sackful or cartload of heavy tea-bricks. 



