THE PEOPLE OF THE WILDERNESS 



551 



About sunset the host- 

 ess, glancing up at the 

 hole in the roof as if it 

 were a clock, will inquire, 

 "Shall I make dinner?" 

 and her lord and master, 

 nothing loath, will an- 

 swer, "Make it." Ac- 

 cordingly she proceeds to 

 the dog-proof cage out- 

 side the door and hews 

 off a piece of frozen 

 meat with an axe. This 

 is boiled with a kind of 

 millet, and, when pro- 

 nounced done, the mor- 

 sels are fished out with 

 the fire-tongs and served 

 in a rude basin or on a 

 board. 



TUCKED IN FOR THE 

 NIGHT 



Most Mongols retire 

 immediately after this 

 meal, and the servant's 

 last duty is to pile up the 

 fire and then tuck the 

 sheepskin coats snugly 

 around hosts and guests, 

 while the master of the 

 tent, in true Mongol 

 fashion, indicates by the 

 points of the compass the 

 places where the tucking 

 is deficient. 



Next morning, on leav- 

 ing, the traveler mounts 

 his horse at the tent. door 

 with a bow and a smile, 

 as the Mongols do not 

 have any customs equiva- 

 lent to our handshaking 

 and good-bye. A few 

 days later the village 

 itself will have perhaps 

 moved on. 



Like some of our 

 American Indians, whom they resemble, 

 the People of the Wilderness cannot en- 

 dure a settled life. All their belongings 

 pack easily on the back of a camel ; 

 the few calfskin bags with provisions, 

 the tent, the cooking pots, the grate, two 

 water-buckets, and a few odd pieces of 



Photograph by Eugene Lee Stewart 



A MONGOLIAN BOY AND GIRL WITH LITTLE BROTHER ON 

 BEHIND 



The wealth of Mongols is reckoned, not in real estate, but in 

 live stock and these children, as the heirs of an average yurta, in- 

 family, will possess fifty sheep, twenty-five horses, fifteen cows 

 and oxen, and ten camels. Next to cattle-breeding the most im- 

 portant occupation of this people is the transport of goods. It is 

 estimated that more than 1,200,000 camels and 300,000 ox-carts 

 are employed in the country's internal caravan trade. 



felt are all thev need- 



to 



-except space 

 journey in. 



What the Mongols most fear is the at- 

 tempt of the Chinese to colonize their 

 country, and they see with alarm how the 

 tilled fields of these thrifty agriculturists 

 are already encroaching on the steppe. 



