Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/184

162 where he had met Russians. He was an excellent fellow, and in return for our present to him sent us a small yurta, which was afterwards of great service to us in Tibet. But the greatest kindness he showed us was in forbidding his subjects from entering our tent except on special business; so that for the first and only time during the expedition we lived near the natives without being disturbed by them.

We have more than once alluded to the inconvenience we suffered from the curiosity and impudence of the inhabitants during the whole journey. They were especially intrusive and tiresome on our departure from Koko-nor, when the report spread that four strangers had appeared, and that one of them was a great saint of the West, on his way to Lhassa to see the Dalai-Lama, the great saint of the East. My promotion to the rank of demi-god might be attributed to several causes: first, our safe journey through Kan-su at a time when it was as full as it could be of robbers; secondly, our new-fashioned guns which killed animals at unheard-of distances and birds on the wing; and, lastly, our mode of preparing skins, and the secrecy observed as to the objects of our journey: all these combined to induce the belief among the people that we were mysterious beings. Whenever a person of consequence, such as a Gigen or the Tibetan envoy, paid us a visit, they were more than ever convinced that I must be a great kubilgan or saint. This circumstance favoured us to a certain extent, because my reputation for sanctity lessened the difficulties of the road, and