Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/107

 the construction of the sentences.  'Quickly thy master shoots,'  once said a comprador at Kalgan to me on seeing me shoot rock-pigeons on the wing.  'Thy food will not will?'  enquired the same individual, offering me at the same time something to eat. We met several such grammarians at Urga. One of them had the reputation of having formerly manufactured false Russian bank-notes, which he circulated among the Mongols. On asking him if he still continued this occupation, he replied: '' 'How is that possible now thy paper bad is? write write — (i.e. the text on the bank-note) — few few our people do can, but the face (i.e. the portrait) very wonderful is.' '' The Mongols, however, are not particular about the artistic merit of the bank-note; and we saw several false notes at Urga, the portraits on which were simply drawn by hand.

Another comprador thus expressed his opinion to me of foreigners residing in China: 'Thy people same as Pehling-Fanqui not; thy people our people odali good; Pehling-Fanqui bad are. I could not help being flattered at hearing such praise from a Chinaman, who thus assured me 'that we were not at all like the French and English, but the same as the Chinese who good are.'

However, this opinion, which may have been only that of the individual, does not free the Russian from the general hatred which the Chinese entertain