ENTERING THE LAND OF MYSTERY 9 



The back of a pony is his real home, and he will do won- 

 derfully well any work which keeps him in the saddle. 

 As Mr. F. A. Larsen in Urga once said, "A Mongol 

 would make a splendid cook if you could give him a 

 horse to ride about on in the kitchen." So he leaves to 

 the plodding Chinaman the cultivation of his bouiidless 

 plains, while he herds his fat-tailed sheep and goats and 

 cattle. 



About two hours after leaving the mission station we 

 passed the limit of cultivation and were riding toward 

 the Tabool hills. There Mr. Larsen, the best known 

 foreigner in all Mongolia, has a home, and as we 

 swung past the trail which leads to his house we saw one 

 of his great herds of horses grazing in the distance. 



All the land in this region has long, rich grass in 

 summer, and water is by no means scarce. There are 

 frequent well's and streams along the road, and in the 

 distance we often caught a glint of silver from the sur- 

 face of a pond or lake. Flocks of goats and fat-tailed 

 sheep drifted up the valley, and now and then a herd 

 of cattle massed themselves in moving patches on the 

 hillsides. But they are only a fraction of the numbers 

 which this land could easily support. 



Not far from Tabool is a Mongol village. I jumped 

 out of the car to take a photograph but scrambled in 

 again almost as quickly, for as soon as the motor had 

 stopped a dozen dogs dashed from the houses snarling 

 and barking like a pack of wolves. They are huge 

 brutes, these Mongol dogs, and as fierce as they are big. 

 Every family and every caravan owns one or more, and 



