15б THE MOUNTAIN ANTELOPE. 



Da!ai-nor, a Mongol prince on his way to pray 

 here. He had a large quantity of goods and chattels, 

 and was followed by a train of several hundred 

 sheep, to supply him with provisions on the road ; 

 they told us that he only ate the fat hirdiuk, 

 leaving the remainder of the sheep to his suite. 



The entire staff of lamas at Bathar Sheilun is 

 supported by the voluntary contributions of devotees ; 

 an extensive tract of land is also reserved for the 

 pasturage of the herds of cattle ^ which supply the 

 monks with milk and butter. The lamas manu- 

 facture clay idols which are sold to the pilgrims, and 

 there is a school for training boys for the religious 

 profession. 



The lofty cliffs which surround this temple are 

 the favourite haunts of the mountain antelope {Anti- 

 lope caitdata ?) ; but it is forbidden to hunt them, it 

 being considered wrong to destroy life within so 

 short a distance of the sacred edifice.^ However, 

 the temptation of procuring a skin of one of these 

 animals was too great to be resisted, and on the 

 evening of the second day after our arrival, I went 

 into the mountains, where I passed the night in the 

 open air, and shot a young buck early the following 

 morning. As we found this little animal nowhere 

 else except in the In-shan, I will say a few words 

 on its habits and mode of life. 



Like other kinds of mountain antelopes, this 



' ли the large temples of Mongolia own such lands. 

 * We met with similar prohibitions to hunt near the temples i 

 other parts of Mongolia. 



