1136 
THROUGH ASIA 
Fanguts’ intention to attack us unawares was thus 
thwarted. They did not succeed in stealing a single horse 
from us. 
In this way we made our entry into the country of the 
Khara Tanguts, with a sharp reminder that we should 
have to be on the alert. The Tanguts are notorious 
robbers and thieves, who love to plunder their more 
peacefully disposed neighbours, the Mongols. When the 
latter go to the temple-feasts at the monastery of Kum- 
bum, they always ride in large well-armed companies, 
for their only road lies through the country of the 
Tanguts. 
I am inclined to think it was fear rather than vieilance 
o 
which kept my men awake. They were instructed to 
wake me if the Tanguts began to shoot. Once or twice 
I woke up of my own accord, and on each occasion heard 
their incessant cries of “Khabardar? Khabardar ? ” and 
in the intervals between their challenges to one another 
came the weird melancholy howls of the Tanguts. 
At sunrise the Tanguts drew back to a respectful 
distance. But no sooner did our caravan make a start 
than they made a rush for the spot where we had 
encamped the night. The empty match-boxes, ends of 
candles, and pieces of torn newspaper would prove to 
them, that they had not simply Mongols to deal with, 
and that would probably deter them from further pursuit. 
On November 2nd we rode almost due east across 
spacious steppes, between two mountain-chains on north 
and south, and accomplished no less than twenty-six and 
three-quarter miles. In several places we crossed the 
winding tracks of the Tanguts, and my men believed 
there were several of the robbers lurking in the entrances 
of the glens that pierced the mountains. The ground 
was level and easy riding, and we travelled at a good 
pace, notwithstanding that the strength of some of our 
horses was beginning to give out. On three separate 
occasions we saw a large troop of khulans (wild asses), 
but they all fled up into the mountains. The configura- 
tion of the surface was similar to that of Northern Tibet, 
