THROUGH ASIA 
1 148 
business. Without being impertinent, they examined 
several of my belongings, and were agreeable and 
talkative. My revolver inspired them with the pro- 
foundest respect after they learned that it was charged 
with six cartridges at once. 
I was anxious to engage a Tangut guide ; but they 
answered that one man could not go with me alone. Nor 
were they satisfied to take twelve liang each for the 
journey to Si-ning-fu ; they demanded sixteen liang (about 
£2 lOi'.). After I at length agreed to this, they went 
on to say that they had no horses. This however was 
a palpable excuse. The fact was, they were suspicious of 
us, and were afraid to travel in our company. Fortunately 
Loppsen had an intimate knowledge of the country, and 
was moreover the best and most trustworthy guide 1 ever 
had. 
The valley rose gradually towards the east, between 
rounded hills covered with soft soil. Half-way up, the 
slopes were thickly planted with Coniferce, and occasionally 
the bare rock cropped out above the girdle of forest. 
The end of every side-valley was occupied by the black 
tents of the Tanguts, standing scattered about, and 
wearing a forbidding aspect — ideal lurking-places for 
robbers and bandits. We counted twenty-five such tents, 
or, including those at Dulan-yung, some forty in all. Had 
the inhabitants been so inclined, it would have been an 
easy matter for them to have stopped our way and over- 
powered us. But we rode on unmolested, although at 
every tent the people came out to stare at us. 
At last I caught sight of a curious pyramidal object 
standing in the middle of the valley. It was a cube 
supporting a cylinder, both made of clay. Loppsen ex- 
plained that it was a sovurga, or sign to indicate that 
there was a temple, close by, and the next Instant I caught 
sight of the walls of Dulan-kitt, the first walled town 
since we left Kopa. It was a place of a very few houses, 
but with some tents. The lower parts of the houses were 
built of stone, the upper parts of clay. The inhabitants 
were Banga Mongols, a sept in ill-repute for thievery. 
