t
neighbours or visitors save the roving Mongol whom the Chinese look down
on with lofty contempt. Indeed, they have no use for him save as a bird
to be plucked, and plucked the poor nomad is, even to his last feather.
It is not the Chinese Government but the Chinese people that oppress the
Mongol, making him ready to seek relief anywhere. Playing upon his two
great weaknesses, lack of thrift and love of drink, the wandering trader
plies the Mongol with whiskey, and then, taking advantage of his
befuddled wits, gets him to take a lot of useless things at cut-throat
prices--but no bother about paying, that can be settled any time. Only
when pay-day comes the debts, grown like a rolling snowball, must be
met, and so horses and cattle, the few pitiful heirlooms, are swallowed
up, and the Mongol finds himself afoot and out of doors, another enemy
of Chinese rule.

Whenever we halted near yurts, the women turned out to see me, invading
my tent, handling my things. They seemed to hold silk in high esteem. My
silk blouses were much admired, and when they investigated far enough to
discover that I wore silk "knickers," their wonder knew no bounds. In
turn they were always keen to show their treasures, especially of course
their headdresses, which were sometimes very beautiful, costing fifty,
one hundred, or two hundred taels.

A wife comes high in Mongolia, and divorce must be paid for. A man's
parents buy him a wife, paying for her a good sum of money which is
spent in purchasing her headgear. If a husband is dissatisfied with his
bargain he may send his wife home, but she takes her dowry with her. I
am told the woman's lot is very hard, and that I can readily believe: it
generally is among poor and backward peoples; but she did not appear to
me the downtrodden slave she is often described. On the contrary, she
appeared as much a man as her husband, smoking, riding astride, managing
the camel trains with a dexterity equal to his. Her household cares
cannot be very burdensome, no garden to tend, no housecleaning, simple
cooking and sewing; but by contrast with the man she is hard-working.
Vanity is nowise extinct in the feminine Mongol, and, let all commercial
travellers take note, I was frequently asked for soap, and nothing
seemed to give so much pleasure as when I doled out a small piece.
Perhaps in time even the Mongol will look clean. Asiatics as a rule know
little about soap; they clean their clothes by pounding, and the