9б LEGENDS. 



SO quiet a spot. I visited another small lake, called 

 Kosin, near the summit of Sodi-Soruksum, also 

 formed by springs ; but its situation is more ex- 

 posed, and it is not surrounded by the same mystery 

 as Gadjur. Kosin, however, is also held sacred 

 ever since the spirit (good or evil, I know not) drove 

 from the spot a Tangutan hunter, attacking him 

 under the form of a grey 3'ak ; ^ since which time 

 sport is strictly prohibited on this and the other 

 sacred mountains (Amneh). 



According to another tradition, Mount Gadjur 

 was sent hither by some Dalai-Lama to impress the 

 minds of the people with the wonders of the holy 

 country (i.e. Tibet). 



Its precipitous cliffs, composed of felspar, lime- 

 stone, and schistous clay, rise to about 1,000 feet 

 above Lake Demchuk ; it is, therefore, higher than 

 Sodi-Soruksum. However, I only saw a few patches 

 of melted snow in sheltered spots on the northern 

 side. 



On the south of the Tatung the Tangutan ^ popu- 

 lation is very thick in certain districts less exposed 

 to the marauding Dungans, as for instance, round 

 the temple of Chertinton, but in the northern range 

 towards Mount Gadjur not a human being could be 

 seen. Pillaging parties frequently passed here on 



* It is curious tliat in tlic popular legends of this people 'grey' 

 cows, yaks, &c. take as prominent a part as they do in the popular 

 legends of Russia. 



'^ Eight miles below Chertinton some agricultural Chinese have 

 settled in the valley of the Tatung ; this colony escaped the Dungan 



