Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/218

 or other, and the silver is weighed out. But even now the master of the sheep tries to make something more out of it, and asks for the entrails, which are usually peremptorily refused.

The whole process as we have described it occupies about two hours, and we always had to go through it whenever we had occasion to purchase a sheep during our three years' wanderings. The average price of one of these animals in South-eastern Mongolia is from two to three lans (11s. to 16s. 6d.); but their quality is excellent, especially in the Khalka country, where a full-grown fat sheep yields from fifty-five to seventy pounds of meat or even more, the rump fat (kurdiuk) alone weighing from eight to twelve pounds. The difficulties in buying milk are also very considerable, and nothing will induce them to sell it in cloudy weather. We were sometimes successful in overcoming the scruples of one of the fair sex by a present of needles or red beads, but in such case she always begged us to cover the vessel over when removing it from the yurta, in order that the heavens should not witness the wicked deed. I may add that Mongols keep milk in the dirtiest way imaginable. It frequently happened that one of them would ride up to our tent with a jugful for sale, the lid and spout of the vessel having been smeared with fresh cow dung to prevent the liquid splashing out on the road. Cows' teats are never washed before milking, nor are the vessels into which the milk is poured. The price is high; and we usually paid 1½d. or 3d. a bottle for it; butter averaged 1s. 6d. a pound.