io86 
THROUGH ASIA 
milk they were perfectly delighted with a present of 
a small supply of tea and bread. Whilst we were 
trafficking beside my tent, a voice called out “A bear!” 
Off went Islam with his rifle and Dorcheh with his 
long clumsy flint-lock musket. But Bruin was too 
quick for them; he turned and disappeared into the 
mountains. 
I was however most diverted by my first lessons in 
Mongolian. Dorcheh, who taught me, was very amusing 
in his efforts to understand my gesture-speech. I first 
learned the numerals, by holding up one, two, three 
fingers, and so on in succession,- — naga, hoyyer, gorva, 
dorvo, tavo, surkha, dolo, nayma, yessu, arva, arva- 
liaga, and so on. It was equally easy to learn the 
names of such objects as stood round about us, 
the tent and its several appurtenances, colours, parts of 
the human body, geographical features, and so forth. 
By this means 1 acquired a tolerable vocabulary relating 
to the commonest objects of daily life ; and after my 
first lesson was able to talk to Dorcheh about simple 
matters. For instance, “Gorva temen baneh ” (We have 
three camels) ; “ Bamburchi mo ” (The bear is an evil 
beast) ; and so on in a similar parrot-hke fashion, remind- 
ing me of the old-fashioned way of teaching Latin 
“ Columba est timida,” “ Mensa est rotunda.” 
The verbs were difficult to get hold of ; but I somehow 
managed to pick up the most essential the first evening, 
such Is the words for “to go,” “beat,” “ride,” “look for,” 
“fall,” “snow,” “rain,” “find,” and several others. The 
picking up of these verbs entailed several feats of 
gymnastics. Dorcheh looked perfectly amazed when I 
thumped him on the back, to find out what that action 
was called in Mongolian. 
For a full fortnight Dorcheh was our guide ; and during 
that time my every spare moment was given to lessons in 
Mono-olian. By closely studying his pronunciation and his 
conversation with other people, I picked up the language 
remarkably fast. After the first difficulties were overcome, 
and you have advanced so far that you can put together 
