mselves
by rubbing; but sometimes they put an exaggerated value upon it. A
Kashmir woman, seeing herself in a mirror side by side with the fair
face of an English friend of mine, sighed, "If I had such good soap as
yours I too would be white."

But there is a good deal to be said against washing, at least one's
face, when crossing Gobi. The dry, scorching winds burn and blister the
skin, and washing makes things worse, and besides you are sometimes
short of water; so for a fortnight my face was washed by the rains of
heaven (if at all), and my hair certainly looked as though it were
combed by the wind, for between the rough riding and the stiff breezes
that sweep over the plateau, it was impossible to keep tidy. But, thanks
to Wang, I could always maintain a certain air of respectability in
putting on each morning freshly polished shoes.

Of wild life I saw little; occasionally we passed a few antelope, and
twice we spied wolves not far off. These Mongolian wolves are big and
savage, often attacking the herds, and one alone will pull down a good
horse or steer. The people wage more or less unsuccessful war upon them
and at times they organize a sort of battue. Men, armed with lassoes,
are stationed at strategic points, while others, routing the wolves
from their lair, drive them within reach. Sand grouse were plentiful,
half running, half flying before us as we advanced, and when we were
well in the desert we saw eagles in large numbers, and farther north the
marmots abounded, in appearance and ways much like prairie dogs.

At first there were herds on every side. I was struck by the number of
white and grey ponies, and was told that horses are bred chiefly for the
market in China, and this is the Chinese preference. Cattle and sheep
are numbered by thousands, but I believe these fine pasture lands could
maintain many more. Occasionally we saw camels turned loose for the
summer grazing; they are all of the two-humped Bactrian sort, and can
endure the most intense winter cold, but the heat of the summer tells
upon them severely, and when used in the hot season, it is generally
only at night.

From time to time we passed long baggage trains, a hundred or more
two-wheeled carts, each drawn by a bullock attached to the tail of the
wagon in front. They move at snail's pace, perhaps two miles an hour,
and take maybe eight weeks to make the trip across the desert. Once we
met the Russian parcels-post, a huge heavily laden