SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 



waits till he fancies his victims are not in a position 

 to produce the necessary silver and then comes 

 down upon them demanding payment. The un- 

 sophisticated Mongols, being unable to meet their 

 creditor's demands, allow him to pick from their 

 herds. Needless to say, the trader takes the 

 fullest advantage of this offer, and gets away with 

 the pick of the herds at far below their worth, 

 and the poor IMongols find themselves left with- 

 out their best breeding stock, which they are 

 unable to replace. 



The same thing happens, only on a much larger 

 scale, with regard to the land. In this case it is 

 the princes and chieftains who sell their heritage 

 for a mess of pottage. Thus there has sprung 

 up between the Mongols and the Chinese a bitter 

 hatred, which can only be wiped out with blood. 

 On the one hand the Mongols preserve a sullen 

 demeanour towards the Chinese, refusing them 

 even the commonest civilities, treating them with 

 overbearing hauteur and disdaining to hold any 

 but the most necessary intercourse with them. 

 The Chinese retaliate by driving harder bargains 

 and getting the Mongols deeper into the toils of 

 their usurious schemes, while amongst themselves 

 they save face by heaping opprobrious epithets 

 and vile names upon their victims. 



The following day our road bore still more to 

 the east. Shortly after leaving Dahmun Nor 

 we saw some antelopes and at once set about 



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