CHAPTER XCIX. 
WANG-YEH-FU AND NING-SHA 
W E gave the camels a day’s rest. I had also other 
business to do in the little town. Pirst I sent 
back the two men who had escorted me from Ching-fan : 
for two others were to accompany me from Wang-yeh-fu 
to Ning-.sha. Then I replenished my stock of provisions, 
and bought some specimens of Mongol jewellery. Lastly 
I paid a visit to the Mongol prince Norvo, who was 
at the time chief of the town, and dwelt m an ordinary 
Chinese yamen (official residence) inside the walls. He 
was a wang or vassal prince under the Emperor of China. 
He received me in a very friendly manner in a large plain 
room with bare walls, in the midst of a group of Mongol 
notables, dressed in the Chinese manner and wearing 
pigtails. Norvo was an old man, with a white mous- 
tache, and wore a light grey blouse. We had an 
animated talk together, for I managed to get along pretty 
well without an interpreter. He was particularly anxious 
to know what country I came from ; and to satisfy him 
I drew on a large sheet of paper a map showing how 
Sweden lay with regard to China, whilst one of his 
secretaries wrote down on the map all the names that 
were essential to give the true position of my mother-land. 
But the geographical knowledge of these Mongols was 
not very extensive. They were only acquainted with the 
names of two places at a distance, Lhasa and Khotan ; 
and none of those who were present had been to either 
place, though most of them had paid visits to Kum-bum 
and Urga. Norvo wondered if the King of Sweden 
was as powerful as the Tsagan Khan (White Tsar). He 
1239 
