ISO TANGUTAN MARAUDERS. 



rebelled against China. The Kara-Tangutans are 

 only nominally subject to the Chinese governor of 

 Kan-su ; they regard the Dalai-Lama of Tibet as 

 their lawful sovereign, and are under their own 

 officers, refusing to submit to the chiefs of the 

 Mongol banners in whose districts they are living. 



The Kara-Tangutans of Koko-nor live by rapine 

 and plunder, and the Mongols of the province are 

 their habitual prey. Not only are the cattle driven 

 off, but the people are mercilessly put to death or 

 carried off into captivity. The Mongols, besides 

 being arrant cowards, are powerless to defend them- 

 selves against their better-armed enemies, and if by 

 chance in self-defence a Mongol happen to kill a 

 Tangutan robber, he must pay the family of the 

 slain man a heavy fine or, in the event of his being 

 too poor to pay, the whole koshung or banner to 

 which he belongs is mulcted on his account. If pay- 

 ment be refused, the Tangutans assemble a force of 

 several hundred men and make war. As their ma- 

 rauding expeditions are unpunished, the numbers of 

 the Mongols diminish year by year, and, unless the 

 Chinese Government take decisive measures to pro- 

 tect them, they will be exterminated before long. 

 Not content with plundering the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, the Tangutans extend their raids to some 

 distance, as, for instance, to Western Tsaidam. For 

 these expeditions they organise small bands of ten 

 men, each of whom leads a spare horse or two in 

 case the one he is riding should die on the road.' 



' To lead spare horses with them on their expeditions of plunder 



