IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Among the Celestials : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. vII.] A RUSSIAN TRADER. 151
a Chinaman, who spoke Mongol. The Russian
spoke to him in Mongol and this was trans-
lated to me in Chinese, and I replied in
Chinese which the Chinaman rendered into
Mongol for the benefit of the Russian. This
Russian lived in a Chinese house, in Chinese
fashion, but was dressed in European clothes.
He sold chiefly cotton goods and ironware,
such as pails, basins, knives, etc., but trading
was not profitable. There had been five
Russian merchants here, but two had gone
to Kobdo, and two were engaged in hunting
down Chinese mandarins to try and get money
which was owing to them.
The next evening I invited the Russian
round to my inn to dinner. Conversation was
difficult, but we managed to spend a very
pleasant evening, and drank to the health of
our respective sovereigns. I held up my glass
and said " Czar," and we drank together. Then
I held it up again and said " Skobeleff," and so
on through every Russian I had ever heard of.
My guest, I am sorry to say, knew very few
Englishmen, but he had grasped the fact that
we had a Queen, so at five-minute intervals he
would drink to her Majesty.
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