i8o SOURCES OF THE HOAXG-HO. 



lation whatever/ The Mongol name for this region 

 is ' gziressii-gadzir,' or ' country of wild beasts,' from 

 the abundance of animals which exist here in a state 

 of nature, and which we shall have occasion to speak 

 of presently. 



The group of the Urundushi mountains, from 

 which the Shuga range diverges, rises on the north 

 of the plain of Odon-tala^ famous for its springs, and 

 known to the Chinese under the name of Sing-su-hai 

 or ' Starry Sea.' Here are the sources of the cele- 

 brated Hoang-ho, only seven days' journey from the 

 point where we crossed the Shuga range, but unfor- 

 tunately our guide did not know the road. Every 

 year in the month of August the Mongols of 

 Tsaidam make pilgrimages to Odon-tala to offer 

 sacrifices and pray there. Their offerings consist of 

 seven white animals (a yak, a horse, and five sheep) 

 decked with red ribbons and let loose in the moun- 

 tains. What becomes of them afterwards is not 

 known, but it is not impossible that they are slain b)^ 

 Tangutans or devoured by wolves. About seventy 

 miles to the south of the Shuga range rises a third 

 chain of mountains, called by the Mongols Baian- 



' With the exception of 500 Tangutans encamped, as the Mongols 

 informed us, in the valley of the Murui-ussu (Blue River), six days' 

 journey from its confluence with the Napchitai-ulan-muren. \J\Iurui- 

 Usstt signifies in Mongol, according to Klaproth as well as Hue, 

 ' Tortuous River.' It is the Ihi-chii of the Tibetans, the Briusoi Marco 

 I'olo, and as already stated the upper stream of the Yangtse. — Y.] 



- This plain is two days' journey in length ; to the south lie the 

 Soloma mountains, forming the eastern part of the Baian-kara-ula 

 ranee. 



