s Khan in the thirteenth century and made a
respectable fight against the Russians in the seventeenth. Since their
subjugation they have led a peaceful life and appear to have forgotten
all warlike propensities. Their features are essentially Mongolian,
and their manners and customs no less so.

Some of them live in houses after the Russian manner, but the yourt is
the favorite habitation. The Bouriats cling to the manners of their
race, and even when settled in villages are unwilling to live in
houses. At the first of their villages after we passed the mountains I
took opportunity to visit a yourt. It was a tent with a light frame of
trellis work covered with thick felt, and I estimated its diameter at
fifteen or eighteen feet. In the center the frame work has no
covering, in order to give the smoke free passage. A fire, sometimes
of wood and sometimes of dried cow-dung, burns in the middle of the
yourt during the day and is covered up at night. I think the tent was
not more than five and a half feet high. There was no place inside
where I could stand erect. The door is of several thicknesses of
stitched and quilted felt, and hangs like a curtain over the entrance.

[Illustration: BOURIAT YOURTS.]

The eyes of the Bouriats were nearly always red, a circumstance
explainable by the smoke that fills their habitations and in which
they appear to enjoy themselves. In sleeping they spread mats and
skins on the ground and pack very closely. Two or three times at the
stations in the middle of the night I approached their dwellings and
listened to the nasal chorus within. Tho people are early risers, if I
may judge by the hours when I used to find them out of floors.

As to furniture, they have mats and skins to sit upon by day and
convert into beds at night. There are few or no tables, and little
crockery or other household comforts. They have pots for boiling meat
and heating water, and a few jugs, bottles, and basins for holding
milk and other liquids. A wooden box contains the valuable clothing of
the family, and there are two or three bags for miscellaneous use. In
the first yourt I entered I found an altar that was doubtless hollow
and utilized as a place of storage. A few small cups containing grain,
oil, and other offerings were placed on this altar, and I was careful
not to disturb them.

Their religion is Bhudistic, and they have their lamas, who possess a
certain amount of sanctity from the Grand Lama of Thibet.