SPORT AND SCIENCE ON THE 
in disorder, afterwards learning that some religious 
function in connexion with the birth of a child 
was in progress, and the ringing of the bells 
within the confines of the farmstead would attract 
evil spirits. 
At one place we were refused admission on the 
ground that they were having a spring cleaning of 
devils, and if we entered we would assuredly bring 
some with us. Even at the place where we did 
secure quarters our baggage was left outside 
the enclosure long enough for the demons it 
contained to escape. 
Our hostess on finding a snake inside the mud 
wall very carefully carried it outside, and refused 
to let us have it for a specimen, saying that it 
would not do to offend the snake spirit. 
For the rest these people are Buddhists, one 
or more of the sons in each family becoming lamas. 
In physique the Ordos Mongols are superior to 
the Chinese. They are a tall well built race, ad- 
mirably fitted to wrest a living from the cruel 
desert in which they live. The women are good 
looking, some even beautiful, while their lives 
in the open give them a grace of carriage together 
with a strength and freedom of movement never 
seen inside the Wall. They can ride barebacked, 
and with the ease and grace of a cowboy, the shaggy 
and wicked little ponies that they rear upon the 
surrounding grasslands. 
They wear a peculiar headdress of silver-mounted 
22 
