40 OPPOSITION. 



our departure, and prophesied all sorts of misfortunes 

 if we went. The same ruse was tried last year with 

 the view of discovering who we really were, and 

 they threatened, if we persisted in our refusal to 

 enlighten them, to find out through the Gigens ; but 

 all these artifices signally failed, owing to our deter- 

 mination not to submit to anything of the sort. We 

 were then told that the Tangutans would travel very 

 rapidly — thirty miles a day, or even more, and that 

 Ave could not endure the fatigue of such long marches, 

 especially as we should have to travel a good deal 

 by night. To this we begged Sordji to mind his 

 own business, and not trouble himself about our com- 

 forts on the road, of which we were the best judges. 

 Finding that our resolution was still unshaken, he 

 drew an alarming picture of the difficulties of the 

 road, of the lofty mountains which we must cross on 

 the way to Chobsen, and which were almost if not 

 quite impassable for camels. ' We had better wait a 

 month,' he added, ' and then the Amban (governor) 

 would give us guides to Koko-nor.' But having 

 been assured a few days before by the same indivi- 

 dual that no guides for Koko-nor could be procured 

 at any price in the whole of Ala-shan, and that not 

 even the threat of capital punishment in case of 

 refusal would induce them to go, so afraid were they 

 of the Dungans, we put no faith in his promises. 

 To make this bait more tempting, a Mongol officer 

 called on us, of course at the bidding of Sordji, and 

 related as a profound secret how the prince had that 

 day given orders in the.yamen (i.e. public office) for 



