AN ADVENTURE IN THE LAMA CITY 139 



fore the lamas. Therefore, he told them that we were 

 casting a spell over the great temple by means of the 

 motion picture camera which I was swinging up and 

 down and from side to side. This may not be the true 

 explanation of the trouble but at least it was the one 

 which sounded most logical to us. 



Our lama had been caught in the city, and it was 

 with difficulty that we were able to obtain his release. 

 The police charged that he tried to escape when they 

 ordered him to stop. He related how they had slapped 

 his face and puUed his ears before they allowed him to 

 leave the jail, and he was a very much frightened young 

 man when he appeared at Andersen, Meyer's com- 

 pound. However, he was delighted to have escaped so 

 easily, as he had had excellent prospects of spending a 

 week or two in one of the prison coffins. 



The whole performance had the gravest possibilities, 

 and we were exceedingly fortunate in not having been 

 seriously injured or killed. By playing upon their su- 

 perstitions, the black Mongol had so inflamed the lamas 

 that they were ready for anything. I should never have 

 allowed them to separate me from my wife and, to pre- 

 vent it, probably would have had to use my pistol. Had 

 I begun to shoot, death for both of us would have been 

 inevitable. 



The day that we arrived in Urga from the plains we 

 found the city flooded. The great square in front of 

 the horse market was a chocolate-colored lake ; a brown 

 torrent was rushing down the main street; and every 

 alley was two feet deep in water, or a mass of liquid 



