THE PEOPLE OF THE WILDERNESS 



519 



rapid pace when all of a sudden I saw his 

 horse with its head turned toward me, its 

 four feet in the air and its rider under- 

 most. 



"My guide was a large man and was 

 considerably crushed, though it is strange 

 he was not more hurt by so bad a fall. 

 Both his saddle girths were burst, but. 

 true to his Mongol instinct, he held fast 

 to the bridle. After a little while he re- 

 covered and set about repairing the 

 damage. 



"As we had no spare strings or straps 

 with us and were far away from human 

 habitations, I wondered how he would do 

 this. But without hesitation he took a 

 handful of hairs from the tail of his 

 pony, twisted and plaited them together, 

 and in a few minutes the straps were as 

 strong as ever. 



"Luckily for the careless Mongol horse- 

 man on a journey, who is apt to forget 

 anything that can be left behind, the tail 

 of his horse, which is never 'docked,' 

 makes up for all deficiencies.'' 



PONIES ARE GRADUALLY STARVED BEFORE 

 A RACE 



As is only natural among such con- 

 firmed horse lovers, races are a popular 

 amusement in Mongolia. But races on 

 the steppes are conducted quite differ- 

 ently from ours. Even the preliminary 

 training of the entries seems topsy-turvy 

 to us. 



Each competing pony is tied to a rope 

 picketed on the grass plain. This rope is 

 shortened every day by a certain number 

 of inches, thus reducing the circle in 

 which the animal can graze. Yet, strange 

 as it may seem, this method of gradual 

 starvation — tested by centuries — appears 

 to increase rather than diminish its en- 

 durance. 



On the day of the race fetlocks are 

 clipped and manes and tails tightly 

 plaited with varicolored ribbons, so as to 

 offer as little wind-resistance as possible. 

 The jockeys are children, and it is not 

 unusual to see lads of nine or ten start 

 on the exhausting stampede which a 

 Mongol race really is. 



Xo saddles are allowed, but each rider 

 is given a heavy whip and a handker- 

 chief. With the latter he leans over and 

 wipes the dust from the eyes and nostrils 



Photograph by Eugene Lee Stewart 

 A LAMA PAYING HIS CAB FARE IN A .MON- 

 GOLIAN BORDER TOWN 



His name is Yoongadoong. He belongs to the 

 Hkalka tribe, and is attired in new flaming- red 

 robes, cap, and black boots trimmed in green. 



