120 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. A little before dark, the Mongols brought back their numerous camels from the pasture. They made them lie down, side by side, so as to form a kind of wall round the encampment. Then, according to custom, they set to w r ork to prepare the evening meal of tea, into which they put, by way of rendering it more sub- stantial, slices of fat sheep's tail or camel's hump, as well as butter and salt. Whilst the company were waiting until this Tartar soup had undergone its rather lengthy preparation, they were smoking Chinese to- bacco, and abandoning themselves to the pleasure of one of those interminable gossips, in which the children of the desert so much delight. " My brother," said the chief of the caravan, address- ing the French missionary, " these fine pastures, those lofty mountains that surround them, those sources of the river Onan, where we have just watered our camels, — all this country is for us, full of glorious and holy re- collections. Here was the cradle of the Mongol power. Our learned Lamas love to relate to us how our an- cestors, who were at first but a feeble tribe, became the masters of the world, and subjugated nations whose very names are unknown to us. In those ancient times, all Mongols were warriors, and their number was countless. Now, as you see, my brother, you meet nothing in all directions but immense solitudes, and the descendants of Tchinguiz and Timour are become wandering herds- men." The chief was not able to do justice in his description to the epic grandeur of the gigantic wars of his fore- fathers, and he had but a confused idea of the former power of his nation ; but it was perfectly true that on this very spot, where the Mongols were now lying indo-
