14 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 



To add to all this, crowds of starvino- be2f2fars 

 assemble on the market-place ; some of them (mostly 

 poor old women) make it their final resting place. 

 It would be difficult to picture to oneself anything 

 more revolting. The decrepid or crippled hag lies 

 on the ground in the centre of the bazaar with a 

 covering of old pieces of felt thrown to her by way 

 of charity. Here she will remain, too weak to move, 

 covered Avith vermin and filth, imploring alms from 

 the passer-by. In winter the cold winds cover her 

 den with the snowdrift, beneath which she drags out 

 her miserable existence. Her very death is of an 

 awful nature ; eye-witnesses have told us how, when 

 her last moments are approaching, a pack of dogs 

 gather round and wait patiently for their victim to 

 breathe her last, when they devour her corpse, and 

 the vacant den soon finds another such occupant. 

 In the cold winter nights the stronger beggars drag 

 the feeble old women out into the snow, where they 



Ml 



are frozen to death, crawling themselves into their 

 holes to avoid that fate. 



But these sights are not the only ones of the 

 sacred city. More sickening scenes await the tra- 

 veller if he resort to the cemetery, which is situated 

 close to Urga. Here the dead bodies, instead of 

 being interred, are flung to the dogs and birds of 

 prey. An awful impression is produced on the mind 

 by such a place as this, littered with heaps of bones, 

 through which packs of dogs prowl, like ghosts, to 

 seek their daily repast of human flesh. 



No sooner is a fresh corpse thrown in than the 



