Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/172

150 rebelled against China. The Kara-Tangutans are only nominally subject to the Chinese governor of Kan-su; they regard the Dalai-Lama of Tibet as their lawful sovereign, and are under their own officers, refusing to submit to the chiefs of the Mongol banners in whose districts they are living.

The Kara-Tangutans of Koko-nor live by rapine and plunder, and the Mongols of the province are their habitual prey. Not only are the cattle driven off, but the people are mercilessly put to death or carried off into captivity. The Mongols, besides being arrant cowards, are powerless to defend themselves against their better-armed enemies, and if by chance in self-defence a Mongol happen to kill a Tangutan robber, he must pay the family of the slain man a heavy fine or, in the event of his being too poor to pay, the whole koshung or banner to which he belongs is mulcted on his account. If payment be refused, the Tangutans assemble a force of several hundred men and make war. As their marauding expeditions are unpunished, the numbers of the Mongols diminish year by year, and, unless the Chinese Government take decisive measures to protect them, they will be exterminated before long. Not content with plundering the immediate neighbourhood, the Tangutans extend their raids to some distance, as, for instance, to Western Tsaidam. For these expeditions they organise small bands of ten men, each of whom leads a spare horse or two in case the one he is riding should die on the road.