Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/224

, we wanted to change some lans (taëls) of silver into copper coin, in order to make a few purchases, and knowing by experience the obstacles we should encounter, increased by ignorance of the Chinese language, I engaged a Mongol to help me. We were certainly beset by difficulties. On entering Tsagan-chulutai we were met by the usual uproar and tumult; I waited till the caravan had passed out of the place, and then directed my steps to a shop where they pronounced my silver (of the finest quality) to be bad; at another, we were told that it contained bits of iron; at a third, they flatly refused to change it, and it was not till we tried a fourth that we were successful. Here the shopman examined the metal for some time, sounded it, smelt it, and at last, as a favour, offered 1,400 cash for a taël of it, which was exactly 400 less than its local value. Bargaining then commenced; my Mongol argued with the shopman with great spirit, pressed his fingers inside the other's sleeve, and finally concluded the transaction for 1,500 cash, which we received as an equivalent for a taël of our silver at the manchan rate of exchange, i.e. counting each copper coin as worth its intrinsic value, the dzelen or local reckoning being at the rate of sixty for a hundred — this being the fourth difference in the value of money we had experienced since our departure from Dolon-nor.

The splendid pasturage we had noticed throughout the country of the Chakhars terminated at the Suma-hada mountains, and the further we went the more scanty the fodder, and the thinner grew our