the larger half of the male population are
lamas or Buddhist priests. 'Meet a Mongol on the road, and the
probability is that he is saying his prayers and counting his beads as
he rides along. Ask him where he is going, and on what errand, as the
custom is, and likely he will tell you he is going to some shrine to
worship. Follow him to the temple, and there you will find him one of a
company with dust-marked forehead, moving lips, and the never absent
beads, going the rounds of the sacred place, prostrating himself at
every shrine, bowing before every idol, and striking pious attitudes at
every new object of reverence that meets his eye. Go to Mongolia itself,
and probably one of the first great sights that meet your eye will be a
temple of imposing grandeur, resplendent from afar in colours and gold.'

'The Mongol's religion marks out for him certain seemingly indifferent
actions as good or bad, meritorious or sinful. There is scarcely one
single step in life, however insignificant, which he can take without
first consulting his religion through his priest. Not only does his
religion insist on moulding his soul, and colouring his whole spiritual
existence, but it determines for him the colour and cut of his coat. It
would be difficult to find another instance in which any religion has
grasped a country so universally and completely as Buddhism has
Mongolia.'[1]

[1] _Among the Mongols_, p. 211.

It was to the herculean task of attempting single-handed to evangelise a
region and a people like this that James Gilmour addressed himself. His
early journeys are fully set forth in _Among the Mongols_, and we do not
propose to repeat them here. Our object rather is to depict, so far as
possible, the inner life of James Gilmour, and the real nature of the
work he accomplished. He left Peking on August 5, and reached Kalgan
four days later. On August 27 he started for his first trip across the
great plain of Mongolia to Kiachta. A Russian postmaster was to be his
companion, but, to avoid travelling on Sunday, Gilmour started a day
ahead, and then waited for the Russian to come up. Here is his first
view of scenes he was so often in later life to visit.

'_Sabbath, August 28._--Awoke about 5 A.M. just as it was drawing
towards light, and saw that we were right out into the Plain.

'I am writing up my diary, with a lot of people looking into my
cart. I have just given them a Mongol Catechism, and I hope i