Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 145 (Color Image)

0145	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. vi.] A CHEERY MONGOL. 117

a mouthful of scrub here and there, where they

can, and consequently range over a consider-

able extent of ground. He would come into

camp for a short time for his dinner, and then

go off again, and gradually drive the camels up

to be ready for the start ; then he would have

to help to load them, and start off on the

march. This seemed to me fearfully hard

work for him, but he never appeared any the

worse for it, and was always bright and cheery.

I gave him a mount one day on one of my

camels, but he would never get up again, as he

said the guide would give him no wages if

he did.

There were eight camels. I rode one my-

self, four others carried my baggage and stores,

and my servant rode on the top of one of the

baggage camels ; of the remaining three, one

carried the water, one was laden with brick tea,

which is used in place of money for buying

things from the Mongols, and the third was

loaded with the men's kit. The total weight

of my baggage, with the two months' stores,

servant's cooking things, camp equipage, etc.,

was 1 416 lbs.

We left Kwei hwa-cheng by the north gate

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