THE KHAN'S MOTHER. 197 



lot the poor ponies scarcely able to move ; but 

 they warmed up gradually as we got lower down, 

 and the sun made itself felt. Had I continued, 

 it would have been a difficult matter to have kept 

 them alive : the old stagers would eat snow in 

 default of water, but the others did not understand 

 it. What a treat a fire was that night, to be sure, 

 after being half perished with cold, and not much 

 food to help one to resist it ! 



We retraced our steps much in the same direc- 

 tion as that by which we had come, making for 

 the places where dead wood was lying in abun- 

 dance, and using it with no sparing hand. When 

 within five miles of Kalmuk I met the mother of 

 the Khan, who was going into camp for a change, 

 and was very pleased to have the chance of mak- 

 ing her acquaintance, having heard much about 

 her. During the minority and absence of her son 

 in Shaza, she had governed the country ; and so 

 well had she fulfilled the task, that the people 

 were very sorry when the Khan returned. She 

 was an active woman of about fifty years of age, 

 good-looking, and with plenty of character in her 

 expression, quite European in type, and not a 

 trace of the Mongol about her excepting in her 

 dress, which consisted of a loose choga dressing- 



