Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/278

 sheep or horse is placed near the dead man, and by the morning it is all devoured.

The Mongols reckon that 650 years have elapsed since his death, leaving 150 to 350 years more before his coming resurrection. The same people assert that on the very day of the accomplishment of this miracle, some hero will be born in China with whom Chinghiz-Khan will do battle, subdue him, and lead his people from Ordos to what is now called the land of the Khalkas, the native country of the Mongols.

We could not discover the name of the temple where Chinghiz-Khan is said to be buried. The Mongols, for some reason or other, would not divulge it. Great numbers of pilgrims annually visit it.

After ten days' halt near Lake Tsaideming-nor we ascended the valley of the Hoang-ho. Our first march was to the Kurei-hundu, and the second to the Kurai-hundu, the last rivulet we saw in Ordos. Both these streams flow from the interior of that country; they are neither wide nor deep, but their current is very rapid and muddy; after a fall of rain the water is almost as thick as treacle. The Mongols have also invented an explanation of this. They say that owing to the muddiness of the Hoang-ho, it will not receive any clear streams as tributaries, and therefore the Tahilga flows into Lake Tsaideming-nor instead of into the main river, which rejects its transparent waters.

We remained three days on the river