Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/149

Rh immediately followed by a wholesale butchery of the vanquished; no prisoners were made, no quarter given.

The bands of Dungans who made plundering incursions into Kan-su and on the borders of Mongolia, were composed of every kind of vagabonds, half of whom were often unarmed; the remainder carried spears or swords, and a few matchlocks. Old men and women followed to collect booty, and bring it home under cover of their companions' escort. To give a correct idea of the absurd nature of the military operations of the Dungans, I will describe the siege of the temple of Chobsen, which happened three years before our arrival in Kan-su, as it was related to us by some of its defenders.

The temple is surrounded by a mud wall, 20 feet high and 280 feet square. In the centre of each face and at the four corners stand small towers, each capable of containing fifteen or twenty men. The wall has a wooden roof, sloping on either side, and at a short distance from it, about 100 houses are scattered about, each standing in its own enclosure. There is no well inside the temple, and water is obtained from a spring in the immediate vicinity.

In the summer of 1868 several thousand