MONGOLS AT HOME 151 



ground consumed just four minutes. But this instance 

 was an exception for usually a Mongol is the very 

 essence of good nature and is ready to assist whenever 

 a traveler is in difficulty. 



Tserin Dorchy's independence kept us in a constant 

 state of irritation for it was manifested in a dozen 

 different ways. We would gladly have dispensed with 

 his services but his word was law in the community 

 and, if he had issued a "bull" against us, we could not 

 have obtained another man. For all his age, he was 

 an excellent hunter and we came to be good friends. 



The old man's independence once led him into seri- 

 ous trouble. He had often looked at the Bogdo-ol 

 with longing eyes and had made short excursions, with- 

 out his gun, into its sacred forests. On one of these 

 trips he saw a magnificent elk with antlers such as he 

 had never dreamed were carried by any living animal. 

 He could not forget that deer. Its memory was a 

 thorn that pricked him wherever else he hunted. Fi- 

 nally he determined to have it, even if Mongolian law 

 and the Lama Church had proclaimed it sacred. 



Toward the end of July, when he deemed the antlers 

 just ripe for plucking, he slipped into the forest dur- 

 ing the night and climbed the mountain. After two 

 days he killed the elk. But the lamas who patrol 

 "God's Mountain" had heard the shot and drove him 

 into a great rock-strewn gorge where they lost his 

 trail. Believing that he was still within hearing dis- 

 tance, they shouted to one another that it was useless 

 to hunt longer and that they had best return. Then 



