lves without
running risk of offending them by our seeming haughtiness. That
they should think us uncongenial and distant would have been an
obstacle to our success among them. So we made a virtue of
necessity, and kept open house in the literal sense of the word. At
our meals, our devotions, our ablutions, there they were--much
amused and interested, of course. It was sometimes annoying to have
them so much and so constantly about, but there was no help for it,
and soon we began to care little for them, and took their
presence not only as a matter of course, but without being
disturbed by it.

'One advantage of this sort of public life was that Mrs. Gilmour,
being almost constantly in the presence of the spoken language,
picked it up very accurately and very rapidly. It is hardly
possible to conceive a better plan of becoming easily and well
acquainted with any language than that of thus living where it is
impossible not to hear it in almost constant use.

'Another advantage of this sort of public life was that one gained
the friendship of the people. This perfect freedom of intercourse
pleased them much, and even conciliated those not very friendly
inclined. It was quite common to hear visitors remark that, while
other foreigners in Mongolia are distant and harsh, these people
were gentle and accessible, and that such friendly people did a
great deal to remove the unfavourable impressions made by other
less considerate travellers.

'Our sojourn extended to the end of August, giving us a little over
four months at a stretch of tent life. In that time we had
experience of many kinds of weather. At first it was cold. Even in
May ice was to be seen in the mornings. Then came heat, premature
and burning, and all the more trying for ourselves and cattle on
account of the lack of rain. Then we had a furious tempest, which
raged for about thirty-six hours, overturning our covered cart and
threatening to sweep ourselves and our tents away. We had to load
down our tent ropes with bags of earth, stones, sod, the bodies of
our carts, wheels, boxes, and anything we could find, and even then
we had but a precarious existence. Every now and then, by day and
by night, there would arise a shout from the one tent or the other,
and amid the roar of the