CHAPTER XII.

Hotel of Justice and Mercy--Province of 262 Kan-Sou--Agriculture--Great Works for the Irrigation of the Fields--Manner of Living in Inns--Great Confusion in a Town caused by our Camels--Chinese Lifeguard--Mandarin Inspector of the Public Works--Ning-Hia--Historical and Topographical Details--Inn of the Five Felicities--Contest with a Mandarin, Tchong-Wei--Immense Mountains of Sand--Road to Ili--Unfavourable aspect of Kao-Tan-Dze--Glance at the Great Wall--Inquiry after the Passports--Tartars travelling in China--Dreadful Hurricane--Origin and Manners of the Inhabitants of Kan-Sou--The Dchiahours--Interview with a Living Buddha--Hotel of the Temperate Climates--Family of Samdadchiemba--Mountain of Ping-Keou--Fight between an Innkeeper and his Wife--Water-mills--Knitting--Si-Ning-Fou--House of Rest--Arrival at Tang-Keou-Eul

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE Frontispiece, Chinese and Tartar Costumes Title-page, Portraits of MM. Gabet and Huc View of the City of Peking 9 The Travellers setting out on their Journey 15 Kang of a Tartar-Chinese Inn 17 The Missionaries in their Lamanesque Costumes 19 Portrait of Samdadchiemba 20 Mountain of Sain-Oula 21 First Encampment 23 Buddhist Monuments 25 Military Mandarin 28 Chinese Idol 32 View of the City of Tolon-Noor 33 Bell and Idol Foundry 36 The Queen of Mourguevan 40 The Emperor Tao-Kouang 44 Tartar Encampment 48 Interior of a Tartar Tent 50 Russian Convent at Peking 61 Lamasery of the Five Towers 79 Lamasery of Tchortchi 85 Buddhist Temple 87 Interior of Buddhist Temple 89 Tartar Agriculturist 98 Chinese Soldier 100 Chinese Money-changers 109 The Camel Market 121 Vagabond Lamas 124 View of Tchagan-Kouren 128 Caravan crossing the Desert 132 Navigation of the Yellow River 139 Camel of Tartary 146 Water-fowl and Birds of Passage 147 A Fishing Party 155 Election of a Living Buddha 165 The Steppes of Ortous 168 Caves of the Ortous 180 Barbarous Lamanesque Ceremony 188 Lamasery of Rache-Tchurin 201 Turning Prayers 203 Mongol Butcher 210 Encampment at the Hundred Wells 222 Grand Ceremony at the Ancestral Temple 227 Chinese Idol 236 Chinese and Tartar Arms 237 Chinese Princess 253 Chinese Caricature 261 Irrigation of the Fields 262 Root of the Jin-Seng 293

[Picture: Peking]