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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Adam Warwick 



MONGOLIAN WOMEN IN GALA ATTIRK 



On ordinary occasions the chief article of apparel for both men and women is a wide, 

 roomy coat of plain material, but on holidays the women wear elaborately embroidered gowns. 

 Note the headgear with curtains of red coral, turquoise, and pearl. 



successor," but the common people, per- 

 haps even the majority of the monks, be- 

 lieve the hoax most implicitly. 



The crowd that makes its way to the 

 monastery after the races gives abundant 

 proof of the part religion plays in Mongol 

 e very-day life. Many a man will be say- 

 ing his prayers or counting his beads as 

 he rides along. Follow him to the temple 

 itself and you will find him, as soon as 

 he dismounts, joining a company with 

 dust-marked foreheads to make the 

 rounds of the sacred places, visiting at 

 every shrine, bowing before every idol, 

 prostrating himself on sloping wooden 

 platforms. 



Fanatical devotees may be met per- 

 forming the "falling worship" — that is to 

 say, throwing themselves flat on their 

 faces and marking the place of their next 

 prostration by their foreheads — a very 

 exhausting form of piety, which soon 

 wears out hands and clothes unless (as 

 generally happens) wooden sandals are 

 fitted to the hands and sheepskin pads to 

 the knees. 



Even little children may be seen turn- 

 ing prayer-wheels filled with written 

 prayers, the idea being that any devout 

 believer who turns the wheel acquires as 

 much merit by so doing as if he had re- 

 peated all the prayers thus set in motion. 



