Saturday Morning.
It got too dark to write last night and it was bitterly cold,
because Inner Mongolia is nearly 4000 feet high, somewhat higher than Snowdon.
Prince Otcheroff, our host,
has gone off to catch horses and we are waiting till he comes back before going
to call back on Diluwa. He has a
motorcar and we shall travel together to visit some Mongol princes. I am presently sitting on a box covered with
a very bright, small Mongol carpet. The
nine yurts of the Buriat settlement, our tent and the tents of some Russian
traders (from Kalgan and Tientsin) are behind me. As we are breaking camp, we shall say good-bye to Prince
Otcheroff and then off we go in search of the Living Buddha again.
Sunday, July 21st,
one o’clock. “On the track of the Living Buddha” - we
have been following his motorcar track across the Steppes, but cannot find
him. We followed his tracks last night
till dark and then pitched our tent near a spring about one mile from a Mongol
camp. I am afraid we cannot find the
High Lama, so we will have to make our way southwards.
Six o’clock.
Hurray! We have tracked
Diluwa like Boy Scouts from one prince’s camp to another. We are going to spend the night in the camp
(seven yurts, and about 20 camels) of the Prince of East Sunnit and we leave
tomorrow morning for Larsen’s Camp, the Living Buddha leading us in his
car. There are black clouds and it has
become very dark and overcast. If it
rains, we may be stuck here for days. The Prince of this Banner has returned and offered us his yurt.
I am very glad because the tent is
cold. It is hot during the day and very
cold at night – so Nos Da. [Good night.]
Tuesday, July 23rd.
We came 150 miles yesterday, Monday, to Larsen’s Camp. We have just left Larsen’s Camp where we saw
Sir Charles Bell and our Military Attaché. We are going through bandit country to Dolonor.
I am told they are very pleasant bandits and
do not attack foreigners. Dr Müller
knows the bandit leader quite well and we may call to see him. I don’t think there is any danger, because
35 bandits were seen on the road yesterday and they were driven off into the
mountains. We were stuck in the mud for
three hours; got stuck again later. I
am afraid we will have to camp out tonight. Dolonor is on the map but the other places are not.