snow and sleet; but we persisted indefatigably toward the south end of
Kosogol. As a guide our Tartar led us confidently over these trails well
marked by the feet of many cattle being run out of Urianhai to Mongolia.


CHAPTER XII

IN THE COUNTRY OF ETERNAL PEACE


The inhabitants of Urianhai, the Soyots, are proud of being the genuine
Buddhists and of retaining the pure doctrine of holy Rama and the deep
wisdom of Sakkia-Mouni. They are the eternal enemies of war and of the
shedding of blood. Away back in the thirteenth century they preferred to
move out from their native land and take refuge in the north rather than
fight or become a part of the empire of the bloody conqueror Jenghiz
Khan, who wanted to add to his forces these wonderful horsemen and
skilled archers. Three times in their history they have thus trekked
northward to avoid struggle and now no one can say that on the hands
of the Soyots there has ever been seen human blood. With their love of
peace they struggled against the evils of war. Even the severe Chinese
administrators could not apply here in this country of peace the
full measure of their implacable laws. In the same manner the Soyots
conducted themselves when the Russian people, mad with blood and crime,
brought this infection into their land. They avoided persistently
meetings and encounters with the Red troops and Partisans, trekking off
with their families and cattle southward into the distant principalities
of Kemchik and Soldjak. The eastern branch of this stream of emigration
passed through the valley of the Buret Hei, where we constantly
outstrode groups of them with their cattle and herds.