endured cheerfully always, and joyfully
when the good-nature of the Tartars was
brought out by pressure of circumstances.
One day, they were in great delight,
at entering thickets of fir and birch, on a
mountain side: but lo! before them, in
attitude of attack, were three enormous
wolves. S. wrung the noses of the camels,
which were pierced to hold the bridle pegs:
the camels sent forth horrible screechings,
which scared the wolves: and M. Gabet,
rushing after them, to save the dog, made so
brave a hubbub as to put the foe to flight.
Great was their joy one day at meeting a
hunter, who carried behind him a fine roebuck.
They were tired of oatmeal and mutton-fat,
and their stomachs were out of order for
want of better food. They bought the
roebuck for two shillings and a penny, which is
a third of the price of a sheep. With glee,
they stopped at noon, at a grassy spot, beside
a fountain of sweet water; and there, under
the scattered pine trees, set up their tent,
determined to make holiday; and there
did S. cut up the deer, and cook some
delectable venison steaks. Down sat the
three on the grass, with the boiler-lid for
their dish, in the middle, hungry and happy,
when they heard a prodigious noise overhead,
and a swooping eagle pounced upon
their meat, and carried it off, dealing a smart
box on the ear to S. as a final insult. S. was
furious: but, happily, there was plenty more
venison hanging on a tree behind them.

At the great city called Blue Town, they
lodged at the hotel of the Three Perfections,
which they did not relish so well as the hotel
of Providence, as they themselves named a
cavern which they discovered when in extreme
danger of being destroyed by a hurricane.
They carried so little money—vowed to
poverty as they were—that there was
occasion, for all their shrewdness, and for all
their contentment and cheerfulness, when
their safety—to say nothing of their comfort
—depended on their making purchases by the
way. They went forth from the Hotel of
the Three Perfections, to buy winter clothing,
and there is something charming in the
merriment with which they tell of their
sheepskin garments, greasy, ill-fitting, and
sordid, and their fox-skin caps, which were
all that they could afford themselves as a
defence against the wintry storms that they
were about to encounter. The landlord of
this triply-perfect hotel was proud of his
guests, and made a merely nominal charge,
stipulating only for their good word on behalf
of his new establishment.

When they had travelled above a month,
Arsalan, the great dog, was missing. This
was a terrible loss. S. could account for it
only by saying that Arsalan was Chinese,
and that therefore it was natural to him to
sneak out of hardship. The priests comforted
each other with the consideration that Arsalan
was so heavy a sleeper at night that he might
not be so good a protection as he appeared:
but they long missed his companionship by
day, though the loss of his excellent appetite
afforded each of them a better meal.

On they went, to the great Yellow River,
which was in a state of overflow, but which
must be crossed now, and again further on—
for it makes a vast loop here—  a great scoop
into the heart of Tartary. They found a
broad sea where the river should have been.
Having vowed to reach Lla-Ssa, the centre of
Buddhism, and set up the cross there, they
would not go back. Going round was out of the
question; and they had not funds to enable
them to pause. So they prayed, and resolved
to commit themselves to mud and marsh.
They bought fodder, and rolls fried in mutton-
fat, and plunged into the slime. That evening
they told their beads on a dike which they
had managed to reach; and they had eyes
and hearts for the beauty of the broad
moonshine on the vast river on which their lives
were to be in peril on the morrow. Instead
of sleeping, they were shivering with cold all
night; and, in the morning, they found the
marshes sheeted with ice. They reached a
pasturage at last; but so exhausted, half-
drowned, and plastered with mud, that they
could not proceed for several days. They
spent their time in freeing their clothes from
swarms of lice, which had been to them a far
severer trial than wolves and hurricanes,
hunger or cold, fatigue or frequent terror of
death. The inhabitants of the country,
believing that the meanest insect may contain
the soul of the greatest man, kill nothing that
they can leave alive; and this imposes a
terrible amount of vermin-killing on travellers
who are not Buddhists. When this was done
by our priests, and they saw their linen drying
on the grass, they looked at each other,
"radiant with satisfaction." They took some
sleep at noon, for midnight was so beautiful
that they could not tear themselves from the
observation of it. By day all was hushed in
these desert solitudes. By night, a concourse
of aquatic birds arrived from all parts of the
heavens, and, as they descended upon the moon-
lit pools, " tilled the air with wild harmony."
Some would have found only discord in the
shrill cries of these passionate creatures,
battling for the tufts of marsh grass; but
wherever there was harmony, however latent,
these missionaries were sure to hear it. It is
observable too, that they tell us as much
about these birds as if they were only
naturalists, and had nothing but birds to attend to.

And now came the cold. The camels licked
the ice on the river, when no water could be
had. The men would have been frozen with
their clothes into statues, if one had not
watched while the others slept, to keep up a
great fire. The tent-nails snapped like glass;
the sand of the desert had suddenly become
sandstone, and would not receive the pegs, or,
when in, let them out, without the application