Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/158

136 indifferent to death, and walks to the scaffold like an animal without reason.

Having celebrated the marriage of the Emperor, the Chinese troops recommenced military operations and soon took Si-ning. Then commenced a wholesale butchery of the vanquished. We were told by eye-witnesses that the Chinese soldiers, wearied with slaying the people with cold steel, collected them into bands, without distinction of age or sex, and drove them to the mountains, where they pitched them down precipices; in this way 10,000 were put to death.

After the capture of Si-ning, its Chinese governor was reinstated, and in the course of the winter three more towns were re-captured: Seng-kwan, Yunan- chen, and Tatung. Here they only spared those of the rebels who would abjure Mahommedanism and embrace Buddhism. Numbers of Dungans fled to join their co-religionists in the west.

After receiving further reinforcements from Peking, the Chinese continued their advance westwards, and in the summer of 1873 captured the important rebel position of Suh-chau. No authentic news of the recent operations of the Chinese has been received. They have now, at all events, a more difficult task before them, in their struggle with Yakub Beg of Kashgar.

Here is the list of Tangut words which I made:

Mountain. . Ri-i i River .... Chsiúchen(g) Range. . . Khika | Rivulet. . . Siúbchen(g)