1 1 14 
THROUGH ASIA 
lake in Tsaidam that contains salt water being called 
Davassun-nor (the Salt Lake). 
The following day our route inclined a little towards 
the north, so that the southern mountains grew fainter, 
whilst those in the opposite quarter became more distinct. 
The march lay across desert and steppe for seventeen 
and a quarter miles as far as Ova-togoruck, where I 
was as usual received in a friendly spirit by the in- 
habitants of the few Mongol tents. These people 
belonged to the important sept or tribe of the Tajehnur 
Mongols. I was able to get some useful craniological 
measurements from them. 
They wore a big sheepskin tunic, held together by 
a belt round the waist, but they pulled the tunic up 
through the girdle in such fashion that it bulged over 
at both sides like a couple of cushions. These hollow 
spaces they used as pockets, and on occasion as provision - 
bags. At their side they also carried in a smaller belt 
their knife, pipe, tobacco-pouch, and a pair of nippers, 
with which they pull out their beard if it threatens to 
grow too thick. Their boots were pointed at the toes. 
Their hats were pointed or rounded ; very often however 
their head-covering consisted of nothing more than a 
piece of felt, stretched across the forehead and tied at 
the back of the neck ; sometimes they even go bare- 
headed. As a rule, they wear the hair short and close, 
its usual colour being brown or black. Pigtails are much 
seldomer met with in Tsaidam than amongst the Khalkha 
Mongols in Mongolia proper. Owing to their constantly 
living in the open air, their skin is a copper-brown colour, 
though it must be admitted a good deal of the colouring 
is due to dirt. Their teeth are small and yellow, but 
appear to keep sound a long time. Their cheek-bones 
are high and prominent, their nose is rather flat and 
small, the head as round as a ball, flattened anteriorly, 
the beard slow of growth. It is not until a man is past 
thirty that the fine down develops into a beard, and then 
the'beard is excessively thin. 
At Ova-tdgdruck we managed to get two or three bags 
