Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/228

 Dalai-nor, a Mongol prince on his way to pray here. He had a large quantity of goods and chattels, and was followed by a train of several hundred sheep, to supply him with provisions on the road; they told us that he only ate the fat kurdiuk, leaving the remainder of the sheep to his suite.

The entire staff of lamas at Bathar Sheilun is supported by the voluntary contributions of devotees; an extensive tract of land is also reserved for the pasturage of the herds of cattle which supply the monks with milk and butter. The lamas manufacture clay idols which are sold to the pilgrims, and there is a school for training boys for the religious profession.

The lofty cliffs which surround this temple are the favourite haunts of the mountain antelope (Antilope caudata?); but it is forbidden to hunt them, it being considered wrong to destroy life within so short a distance of the sacred edifice. However, the temptation of procuring a skin of one of these animals was too great to be resisted, and on the evening of the second day after our arrival, I went into the mountains, where I passed the night in the open air, and shot a young buck early the following morning. As we found this little animal nowhere else except in the In-shan, I will say a few words on its habits and mode of life.

Like other kinds of mountain antelopes, this