THE MONGOLS OF TSAIDAM 1097 
with which two months previously we started from Dalai- 
kurgan. 
We stayed over the i ith October with the Mongol com- 
munity at Yikeh - tsohan - gol, and the rest was not 
beneficial merely, it was indispensable. At their own 
request I there dismissed Hamdan Bai and all the 
Taghliks. They proposed to return home the nearest 
way, which lay over the Chimen-tagh and the Tokkuz- 
davan. As a reward for the labours they had undergone, 
and for their irreproachable service, I gave them double 
the wages agreed upon, as well as a large supply of 
provisions, some sheep, and our worn-out animals ; but 
these last were to be allowed to recover their strength 
a little before they started back. 
In their place I set about organizing an entirely 
fresh caravan. And no sooner did the Mongols realize 
that we wanted horses than every day, nay every hour 
of the day, the entrance to my tent was besieged by 
one or more of them offering horses for sale ; nor were 
the prices they asked at all extravagant. When 1 
resumed my journey towards the east, it was as lord 
and master over a caravan of twenty first-rate animals. 
But before we could start, new saddles had to be made 
for most of them ; for the greater part of the old ones 
had of course been lost along with the animals that died 
by the way in Northern Tibet. Parpi Bai was a skilful 
hand at the business. The Mongols provided him with 
all the materials he required ; and the open space in 
front of the men’s tent was converted into a saddle- 
maker’s workshop. 
For my own part I was hard at work every day learning' 
Mongolian, and “pumping” the Mongolians as to their 
knowledge of all that region, its geography and climate, 
their own ways of life, their religion, and so forth. Most 
of the men had been to Lhasa (Lassa), and had many 
interesting things to tell me about that provoking city, and 
the road to it. As soon as they found out that I took an 
interest in their burkhans (images of Buddha made of 
terra-cotta and w'orn round the neck in a small gavo or 
11.-28 
