ARRIVAL THERE. 241 



some of the summits of the mountahis at this season, 

 although none of them attain the level of perpetual 

 snow. 



On September 26th we arrived at the town of 

 Din-yuan-ing, and for the first time during the expe- 

 dition received a hospitable welcome from its prince, 

 by whose order three officials came to meet us, and 

 led us to a house previously prepared for our use. 

 I should mention, however, that while we were still 

 a whole day's march from the town, three other 

 officials met us, sent by the prince to know who we 

 were. One of their first questions was, ' Were we 

 missionaries?' and only after receiving an answer 

 in the negative would they shake hands with us. 

 They said that if we had been missionaries the 

 prince would not have allowed us to enter the town. 

 Indeed, one of the chief elements of our success was 

 the resolution we formed not to trouble anyone with 

 our religious opinions. 



The town of Din-yuan-ing, as we have stated, is 

 the place of residence of the ruling prince of Ala- 

 shan. It is 10 miles from the central part of the 

 Ala-shan mountains, and 53 miles to the north-west 

 of the large Chinese town of Ning-hia-fu/ in the pro- 



' The Mongols call this town Irgai. [This is an interesting fact, 

 and shows (what I have questioned in ' Marco Polo,' 2nd ed., i. 273), 

 that Klaproth was right in deducing from a statement of Rashiduddin, 

 in his Persian History of the Mongols, that Irghai was identical with 

 Ning-hia-fu, the capital of the king whose wife Chinghiz appropriated 

 {supra, p. 203). There remains some difficulty in identifying topogra- 

 phically Ninghia with either the Egrigaya of Marco Polo (Book I. 

 ch. Iviii.), or his Ergui-ul (ch. Ivii.), though Ave can hardly doubt that 

 the natne Irghai lies hid in one or other of these. And there seems 

 little doubt that in the principality of Ala-shan we have substantially 



VOL. I. R 



