rom the remotest
antiquity. Its original purpose was to honour the moon with
superstitious rites. On this solemn day, all labour is suspended; the
workmen receive from their employers a present of money; every person
puts on his best clothes; and there is merrymaking in every family.
Relations and friends interchange cakes of various sizes, on which is
stamped the image of the moon; that is to say, a hare crouching amid a
small group of trees.

Since the fourteenth century, this festival has borne a political
character, little understood, apparently, by the Mongols; but the
tradition of which is carefully preserved by the Chinese. About the year
1368, the Chinese were desirous of shaking off the yoke of Tartar
dynasty, founded by Tcheng-Kis-Khan, and which had then swayed the empire
for nearly a hundred years. A vast conspiracy was formed throughout all
the provinces, which was simultaneously to develop itself, on the 15th
day of the eighth moon, by the massacre of the Mongol soldiers, who were
billeted upon each Chinese family, for the double purpose of maintaining
themselves and their conquest. The signal was given by a letter
concealed in the cakes which, as we have stated, are on that day,
mutually interchanged throughout the country. The massacre was effected,
and the Tartar army dispersed in the houses of the Chinese, utterly
annihilated. This catastrophe put an end to the Mongol domination; and
ever since, the Chinese, in celebrating the festival of _Yue-Ping_, have
been less intent upon the superstitious worship of the moon, than upon
the tragic event to which they owed the recovery of their national
independence.

The Mongols seem to have entirely lost all memory of the sanguinary
revolution; for every year they take their full part in the festival of
the Loaves of the Moon, and thus celebrate, without apparently knowing
it, the triumph which their enemies heretofore gained over their
ancestors.

At a gun-shot from the place where we were encamped, we perceived several
Mongol tents, the size and character of which indicated easiness of
circumstances in the proprietors. This indication was confirmed by the
large herds of cattle, sheep, and horses, which were pasturing around.
While we were reciting the Breviary in our tent, Samdadchiemba went to
pay a visit to these Mongols. Soon afterwards, we saw approaching an old
man with a long white beard, and whose features bespoke him a personage
of distinct