SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
waits till he fancies his victims are not in a position 
to produce the necessary silver and then comes 
down upon them demanding payment. The un- 
sophisticated Mongols, being unable to meet their 
ereditor’s demands, allow him to pick from their 
herds. Needless to say, the trader takes the 
fullest advantage of this offer, and gets away with 
the pick of the herds at far below their worth, 
and the poor Mongols find themselves left with- 
out their best breeding stock, which they are 
unable to replace. 
The same thing happens, only on a much larger 
scale, with regard to the land. In this case it is 
the princes and chieftains who sell their heritage 
for a mess of pottage. Thus there has sprung 
up between the Mongols and the Chinese a bitter 
hatred, which can only be wiped out with blood. 
On the one hand the Mongols preserve a sullen 
demeanour towards the Chinese, refusing them 
even the commonest civilities, treating them with 
overbearing hauteur and disdaining to hold any 
but the most necessary intercourse with them. 
The Chinese retaliate by driving harder bargains 
and getting the Mongols deeper into the toils of 
their usurious schemes, while amongst themselves 
they save face by heaping opprobrious epithets 
and vile names upon their victims. 
The following day our road bore still more to 
the east. Shortly after leaving Dahmun Nor 
we saw some antelopes and at once set about 
143, 
