CHAPTER The
"
THE
VI
best riders have the hardest falls
'
—Chinese proverb
people in the neighbourhood of Ta-Bol
and I was frequently invited to go and have a chat in the various yourts. To persuade one inside and therefore to be at close enough quarters to enjoy a thorough inspection of the foreigner's clothes,
were quite a
hair,
friendly lot,
was a source of much the younger women, and
"light eyes," etc.,
enjoyment to some of
turning a blind eye, that sine qua non of
all
good
and disorder, I managed less normal conditions, which one seldom succeeds in doing when journeying with a definite goal and object. In some of the yourts, each one, it seemed to me, dirtier than the last, were delightful babies, confiding little creatures who had never known harshness, some of whom wore really beautiful charms of jade and lumps of amber round their brown necks, which nothing could induce the mothers to travellers,
upon the
dirt
to see the people under
sell,
little
more or
for fear of jeopardising the fortunes of their
ones.
From what
I
saw
of them, both in
the north as well as in the south, 85
I
came
to the