veniences of ordinary Mongol life he rapidly acquired the
colloquial, and he also made an indelible impression upon the minds and
hearts of the natives, who ever afterwards spoke of him as 'Our
Gilmour.' He saw Mongol life as it was, free from all the illusion and
romance sometimes thrown around it. He became intimately acquainted with
the various Mongol types, and he began to enter into the native habits
of thought. His diary contains many a scene like the following:--

'I gave the lama a book on Saturday, and when I came back on
Tuesday I found he had read it through twice. He set upon me with
questions, getting me to admit premises, and then reasoned from
them. Christ being at the right hand of God was a great point with
him. If God has no form, how can anyone be at His right hand? Then,
again, if God is everywhere, Christ is everywhere right and left of
God, and how can that be?

'The omnipresence was a staggerer. Was God in that pot, in the
tent, in his boot? Did he tread upon God? Then was God inside the
kettle? Did the hot tea not scald Him? Again, if God was inside the
kettle, the kettle was living! And so he held it up to the laughing
circle as a new species of animal. I asked him if a fly were inside
the kettle, would the kettle be alive? "No," he said; "but a fly
does not fill the space as God must do." "Well, then," said I, "is
my coat alive because I fill it?" This settled the question.'

In March 1871 he visited Selenginsk and Onagen Dome, the scene of the
labours of Stallybrass and Swan from 1817 to 1841, and then he took a
run into Siberia, crossing Lake Baikal and visiting Irkutsk. At the
latter place he reviews the past few months:--

'Another week has passed over my head with many hopes and fears.
This day, a week ago, I was nearing Ana in doubt as to many things;
now I am in Irkutsk, having my path marked with mercies. In many
points of my journey I expected difficulties which might have
stopped me short in my path, but all these have disappeared, and I
am here, having succeeded beyond expectations. One thing is not
right: my readiness to forget the ways in which God has helped me.
Sometimes for weeks and months I look forward to some crisis which
is coming; it comes off well, and in two days I am as if I had
forgotten that to which I had looked forward with so much
app