к A RA - ТА NG UTA NS. LANGUAGE. 1 1 1 



Such is the outward appearance of the Tangutans 

 of Kan-su. Those of another branch known as 

 Kara- (or black) Tangutans, inhabiting the basin of 

 Koko-nor, Eastern Tsaidam, and the sources of the 

 Yellow River, are distinguished by a greater stature, 

 darker complexion, and especially by their predatory 

 habits ; these again wear no pigtails, shaving the 

 head clean. 



Our studies in the language were pursued under 

 extraordinary difficulties, owing to the want of an 

 interpreter, and the suspicious character of the 

 people. If we had written down a word while 

 conversing with one of them we should never have 

 learned anything again ; the report of our hav- 

 ing done it would soon have been circulated in the 

 neighbourhood and would have excited endless sus- 

 picions. My Cossack interpreter, at the best a very 

 indifferent dragoman, did not know a syllable of 

 Tangutan, being able only to hold a conversation with 

 such natives as understood Mongol, and these are 

 met with rarely.^ There was more chance of finding 

 a Mongol who spoke Tangutan, and such a one we 

 succeeded in obtaining for our summer trip to the 

 mountains. But to carry on conversation through 

 the medium of two interpreters is a tedious and 

 irksome business. I usually spoke in Russian to 

 the Cossack, who interpreted into Mongol, the Mon- 

 gol in his turn rendering the meaning into Tangutan. 



Ladakh ; at least if the custom here referred to is the same which 

 Hue describes (ii. 254) at Lhassa, where he says the women rub their 

 faces with ' a sort of black sticky varnish much like grape jam.' — Y. 

 ^ Nearly all Tangutans in Kan-su speak Chinese. 



