a good deal of favour among them. It seems to me that the presence of Buddhists, Buriats and Torgut-Kalmuks within the frontiers of Russia contributes towards this in a considerable degree, perhaps too a secret dissatisfaction with Chinese suzerainty, however lightly this may appear to press upon the liberty-loving Mongols as a whole. It need scarcely be added that the settlement policy introduced here is not likely to act in the
opposite direction.
The land, on which Kweihwa ting stands, is looked upon by the Thumitha Mongols as their own. They consider their frontiers to extend in the E to Chahar, the land of the Mongols in the W to Ordos, in the S to Shahuko and the Great Wall and in the N to the Chalcha Mongols. They maintain that they are as ancient as the Ordos Mongolians. The Chalcha and Chahar tribes came much later, during the present reigning Tsin dynasty, the former from the W, the latter from Sjehor, not far from Shanghai Kuan. Thumitha is supposed to be the real name of the district. Their former prince (princes?) before the days of Chinese rule were called »Kegeni alteng>. Tumytgun, which is marked on the Russian 40 verst map, is the residence of a petty prince. They have about 20-30 lamaseries. Among these they mentioned: Pu hoi sy 15o li N of Kweihwa ting (6o li from Kököilikung); Yungan sui 30 li N; Kuang shu sui 30 li NNW; and Yenching sui 30 li NE, all reckoned from Kweihwa ting. These lamaseries are all subordinated to the foy in the Shöli (Sire) to chow monastery at Kweihwa ting that I have described. During my visit there the foy happened to be away at one of the other monasteries. The Thumitha tribe is divided into 6o summuns of 20—zoo yurts, altogether about 2,000 tja. Now they are subordinated directly to the Dzian Dziun at Kweihwa ting.
This potentate's sphere of action extends in addition to the following 13 Mongolian tribes: Ordos 7 princes; Durbut wang of the Chalcha tribe in the N about 28 summuns with a population of 1-2,000 tja; Peiling wang with about i,000 yurts SW of the latter and also SW of Tumytgun, mentioned above; Mominga wang with about too yurts still further to the SW close to the Hwang ho; to the west of these three tribes there is a long and narrow area (about c,000 li in length), running NE—SW called Sankung, as it belongs to three »kungs» (counts), Tung kung on a level with Peiling wang, Tsung kung further SW and Hsi kung still further in the same direction. They are said to be at the head of a populous Mongol tribe of about 30-40,000 tja. Their district reaches as far as Alisia wang (obviously Ala shan) which is subordinated to the Dzian Dziun of Ning sia-fu. The residence of the latter lies about zoo li W of Shytsuiza on the Hwang ho. This numerous tribe is considered to be as old as the Ordos tribes and their wang is said to be the highest in rank among the Mongolian princes. — Of the Ordos princes only the Djungar wang and Hangin wang are privileged to visit the Imperial palace at Peiping on horseback.
The Chahar tribe is subordinated to the Tutung at Kalgan and is said to be obliged to render military service for special pay, whereas the tribes subordinated to Kweihwa ting are said to have no responsibilities in this respect. This does not accord with the actual facts, however, and is probably based on the fact that no drill is done. Ordos Mongols told me that in case of war every tja was liable to provide one soldier. He has to provide his own arms, which affords an idea of the equipment the troops they constitute are likely
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IIIFカラー高解像度
