AMONG THE MONGOLIAN LAKES 1121 
fell captive to its glamorous spell. Why is it those silent 
Asiatic lakes, with their lone desolate shores, produced such 
a feeling of familiar strangeness, of mystery, of melancholy 
in my mind ? I know the reason, I know it well. It was 
because the soft lapping of their waves was the only thing 
in all that far-off land which echoed the memories of other 
waves on other shores. But why was it those waves ' 
MY MONGOL GUIDE, LOPPSEN 
rocked my mind in the cradle of dreams, and why was it 
they awakened memories of other shores ? I know the 
reason well. It was because the capricious spirits that 
sing the songs of eternity through the voices of the winds 
— it was because they sang there, in the lonely heart of 
Asia, the same melodies that they have sung for thousands 
of years among the skerry isles of Sweden, which have not 
their like on all the earth ! 
The next day we followed the shore northwards for a 
