THE SACRED CITY OF THE LIVING BUDDHA 75 



the body from which the spirit has fled and they consider 

 it a most undesirable thing to have about the house. The 

 stigma is imposed even upon the dying. In Urga a 

 family of Mongols had erected their yurt in the court- 

 yard of one of our friends. During the summer the 

 young wife became very ill, and when her husband was 

 convinced that she was about to die he moved the poor 

 creature bodily out of the yurt. She could die if she 

 wished, but it must not be inside his house. 



The corpse itself is considered unclean and the abode 

 of evil spirits, and as such must be disposed of as quickly 

 as possible. Sometimes the whole family will pack up 

 their yurt and decamp at once, leaving the body where it 

 lies. More usually the corpse is loaded upon a cart 

 which is driven at high speed over a bit of rough ground. 

 The body drops off at some time during the journey, but 

 the driver does not dare look back until he is sure that 

 the unwelcome burden is no longer with him; otherwise 

 he might anger the spirit following the corpse and 

 thereby cause himself and his family unending trouble. 

 Unlike the Chinese, who treat their dead with the great- 

 est respect and go to enormous expense in the burial, 

 every Mongol knows that his coffin will be the stomachs 

 of dogs, wolves, or birds. Indeed, the Chinese name for 

 the raven is the "Mongol's coffin." 



The first day we camped in Urga, my wife and Mrs. 

 MacCallie were walking beside the river. Only a short 

 distance from our tent they discovered a dead Mongol 

 who had just been dragged out of the city. A pack of 



