Excerpt from Old Tartar Trails

When I was in Kalgan I never failed to ride out of the Great Gate - the Kalga, from which the place takes its name to watch the caravans and the little groups Of horsemen filing down the rocky pass or striking out into the wilderness after a brief sojourn among the Chinese, and to clothe them with some of the majesty Of their history and tradition. The seeming confusion and chaos about the camel camps Of new arrivals, the struggles Of entangled beasts, the oaths and imprecations that were hurled at unhappy animals, the gut teral conversations all about me, the feverish repairs upon saddles and camel carts and the occasional exhibits of master ful horsemanship, all served to feed my imagination and fire me to a pitch of interest which made the thought of a journey through the land from which all the Tartar races have moved in their locust-like migrations, an overwhelming desire. When I was last at Kalgan and about to return to Europe, an opportunity presented itself which enabled me to realize my long cherished hopes of travelling among the Mongols, and I thereupon settled down to a business-like consideration of routes and equipment, which put me very shortly upon the long trail.

It may still puzzle some readers to know why I entered with such enthusiasm upon a long journey through a notorious ly arid, fruitless and thinly populated country, and why I write with no little zest in the following chapters of my experiences among a people palpably ignorant, uncouth and squalid. In attempting to explain, one must first appeal to the people who know something Of the picturesqueness of nomadic tribes in other lands and Of grazing countries the world over. In spite of their very apparent ugliness, such lands and such peoples have a charm which one must have felt to understand, and which no amount of description will adequately convey. Mongolia has this charm; it is the same charm that draws us irresistibly to the wandering tribes Of Africa and Arabia but it has, in addition, a setting Of history and tradition, majestic.

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