"Look up there!" cried an old shepherd, pointing to the slope of the
cursed Zagastai. "That is no mountain. It is HE who lies in his red
mantle and awaits the day when he will rise again to begin the fight
with the good spirits."

And as he spoke I recalled the mystic picture of the noted painter
Vroubel. The same nude mountains with the violet and purple robes of
Satan, whose face is half covered by an approaching grey cloud. Mongolia
is a terrible land of mystery and demons. Therefore it is no wonder that
here every violation of the ancient order of life of the wandering nomad
tribes is transformed into streams of red blood and horror, ministering
to the demonic pleasure of Satan couched on the bare mountains and robed
in the grey cloak of dejection and sadness, or in the purple mantle of
war and vengeance.

After returning from the district of Koko Nor to Mongolia and resting a
few days at the Narabanchi Monastery, we went to live in Uliassutai, the
capital of Western Outer Mongolia. It is the last purely Mongolian town
to the west. In Mongolia there are but three purely Mongolian towns,
Urga, Uliassutai and Ulankom. The fourth town, Kobdo, has an essentially
Chinese character, being the center of Chinese administration in this
district inhabited by the wandering tribes only nominally recognizing
the influence of either Peking or Urga. In Uliassutai and Ulankom,
besides the unlawful Chinese commissioners and troops, there were
stationed Mongolian governors or "Saits," appointed by the decree of the
Living Buddha.

When we arrived in that town, we were at once in the sea of political
passions. The Mongols were protesting in great agitation against the