212 RAVAGES OF nUAGANS. 



lived in these idols, but they have now flown to the 

 skies.' 



Beyond the temple of Karganti, ascending the 

 southern shore of the Hoang-ho, we met no more 

 inhabitants, and only passed two or three small 

 Mongol stations whose occupants were engaged 

 in obtaining liquorice-root. The reason this country 

 is so deserted is, as we have said, owing to the Dun- 

 gan insurrection, which laid waste Ordos two years 

 before our visit. The settled Chinese population on 

 the southern shore of the Hoang-ho, west of the 

 meridian of Munni-ula, was insignificant, however, 

 even before that time on account of the narrowness 

 of this part of the valley, and also because of the 

 poverty of the soil, which is saline and thickly 

 covered with shrubs of willow or tamarisk. Here 

 we saw ivild cattle — a very remarkable thing; about 

 which we had previously heard from the Mongols, 

 who accounted for their existence in the following 

 way : 



Before the Dungan disturbances, the Mongols of 

 Ordos kept large herds, and it sometimes hap- 

 pened that bulls or cows would stray, wander away 

 in the steppe, and become so wild that it was ex- 

 ceedingly difficult to capture them. These cattle 

 which had run wild were scattered over different 

 parts of Ordos. When the Dungans broke into 

 this country from the south-west and began des- 

 troying everything they met in their progress, many 

 of the inhabitants, panic-stricken, left all their 

 goods and chattels behind them and fled, only think- 

 ing (jf their own safet)'. The herds left unguarded 



