SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
Chinese settlement composed mainly of squalid 
mud buildings, divided by filthy, slushy streets. 
Here and there are a few more pretentious houses 
of brick, though even these are badly built. 
There are a great many shops, which cater for 
the growing needs of the Mongols. The inhabi- 
tants are chiefly engaged in trading with the latter, 
exchanging grain and manufactured articles for 
such raw material as wool, skins, hides, and also 
horses and cattle. On the whole the town is very 
uninteresting. 
On the other hand, the temples situated about 
a mile from the town are well worth a visit. They 
differ but little from the Lama Temple in Peking, 
with their extensive courtyards and wide and 
lofty halls, decorated with rich tapestries and 
gaudily painted idols, and hung with drums, 
trumpets, cymbals and gongs. There in a corner 
stands the great prayer wheel, which reels off a 
hundred or more prayers a minute, according to 
the energy of him who adopts this method of 
supplication. At the doors of the courts sit blind 
lamas, who, for a small consideration of a cash 
or two, will save him even that trouble, by re- 
volving at a great speed miniature models of the 
great prayer wheel. 
We arrived in Lama Miao just in time to witness 
the annual devil-dance, a most important function 
of a religious nature, which draws crowds of 
Mongols from all the surrounding districts. It 
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