they, thinking that the horoscope
was to be given, galloped once more to the tent. 'My Mongol brothers,'
said Samdadchiemba, 'in future be more careful: watch your herds well,
and you won't be robbed. Retain these words of mine in your memory:
they are worth all the horoscopes in the world.'

Samdad--the reader will perhaps thank us for the abbreviation--gravely
returned to the tent; and the Tartars did not dismount and whip him,
as two horsemen of any other nation under the sun would have done, but
quietly resumed their journey. It appeared that Samdad had once acted
as diviner on a similar occasion. The missing valuable was a bull, and
the sage having called for eleven stones, counted, arranged and
rearranged them with great gravity, and then appeared to meditate. 'If
you would find your bull, go seek him in the north,' said the
magician; and without querulously inquiring, like Shakspeare's
Richard, what Taurus did in that region, the Mongols pursued a
northern course, and by mere chance actually discovered the animal.
Samdad was entertained for a week, and took his departure laden with
butter and tea. He hinted his regret that 'his attachment to Mother
Church' prevented him from playing the soothsayer to the two horsemen.

A peculiarity in Tartar manners, regarding stolen horses when
abstracted near caravans, is likely to prove of more service than
casting horoscopes. Some time after the occurrence mentioned, the
missionaries lost a horse and mule. 'We each mounted a camel, and made
a circuit in search of the animals. Our search being futile, we
resolved to proceed to the Mongol encampment, and inform them that our
loss had taken place near their habitation. _By a law among the
Tartars_, when animals are lost from a caravan, the persons occupying
the nearest encampment are bound either to find them or replace
them.... This it is which has contributed to render the Mongols so
skilful in tracking. A mere glance at the slight traces left by an
animal on the grass, suffices to inform the Mongol pursuer how long it
is since it passed, and whether or not it bore a rider; and the track
once found, they follow it throughout all its meanderings, however
complicated.

'We had no sooner explained our loss to the Mongol chief, than he said
to us cheerfully: "Sirs Lamas, do not permit sorrow to invade your
hearts. Your animals cannot be lost; in these plains there are neither
robbers nor associates of robbers. I will send in