Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/239

 the side previously facing north was now turned towards the south, and vice versâ. The Mongols declare that on this account more trees grow on the southern than on the northern slopes, unlike the other ranges in Mongolia, where it is just the contrary. These peculiarities they attribute to their strange northern origin.

According to another tradition Chinghiz-Khan once lived in the Munni-ula while waging war with China. He took up his abode on Mount Shara-oroi, where the iron saucepan in which he cooked his food still exists, though hitherto no one has been able to discover it. During the summer religious services are performed here by the lamas of the neighbouring temple of Mirgin. The very name Munni-ula is said to have been given by Chinghiz-Khan, who liked the place on account of the quantity of game he found here.

The Mongols assert that on Mount Shara-oroi there is a fossil elephant, and that a quantity of ingot silver has been buried in some other part of the range, but that evil spirits guard the treasure and will not allow it to be removed. They say that the silver lies near the summit of a mountain in a great pit, the mouth of which is covered by an iron shutter, through an orifice in which the treasure may be espied, and that some daring fellows once tried to get hold of it by lowering into the pit in winter some pieces of raw meat and freezing the ingots to it; in