REMINISCENCES OF CENTRAL ASIA. 459 



vitality like travel.' 'Very true,' he answered, 'if it 

 does not kill at the outset. For my part, I keep my 

 health everywhere, like yourself. During five years in 

 South America and the West Indies, I passed through 

 the midst of black vomit and yellow fever untouched.' 



" I spoke of my projected visit to Russia, and my de- 

 sire to traverse the Russian Tartar provinces of Central 

 Asia. The Kirghiz steppes, he said, were very mono- 

 tonous : fifty miles gave you the picture of a thousand ; 

 but the people were exceedingly interesting. If I de- 

 sired to go there, I would have no difficulty in passing 

 through them to the Chinese frontier ; but the southern 

 provinces of Siberia, he thought, would best repay me. 

 The scenery among the Altai mountains was very grand. 

 From his window in one of the Siberian towns, he had 

 counted eleven peaks covered with eternal snow. The 

 Kirghizes, he added, were among the few races whose 

 habits had remained unchanged for thousands of j^ears, 

 and they had the remarkable peculiarity of combining a 

 monastic with a nomadic life. They were partly Bud- 

 dist and partly Musselman, and their monkish sects fol- 

 lowed the different clans in their wanderings, carrying 

 on their devotions in the encampments, inside of a sacred 

 circle marked out by spears. He had seen their cere- 

 monies, and was struck with their resemblance to those 

 of the Catholic church. 



" Humboldt's recollections of the Altai Mountains 

 naturally led him to speak of the Andes. l You have 

 travelled in Mexico,' said he: 'do you not agree with 

 me in the opinion that the finest mountains in the world 

 are those single cones of perpetual snow rising out of the 

 splendid vegetation of the tropics? The Himalayas, 



