MONGOLIA.*

IF it is worth while to write a book, it is worth while to write it as well as you easily can. That seems a simple rule, and one which does not bear very hardly upon the weaknesses of human- ity, but it is one which travellers find it apparently impossible to obey. Here is Mr. Alexander Michie, with a most interesting story to tell and much greater power of telling it than ordinarily falls to the lot of travellers, and he must injure a fine book for want of, say, a week's steady labour in revisal. He had the enterprise, the perseverance, and the pluck to travel overland across Northern Asia, journeying from Pekin to St. Petersburg, * The Siberian Overland Route By A. Midas. London : John Murray.

as only Tartars and Russians journey; but he had neither the patience to turn an itinerary into a connected record of travel, the self-confidence to confine his story to what his eyes saw, or the courage to excise remorselessly everything not beating directly upon his avowed subject. He has to describe an almost =trodden region, and must worry his readers with disquisitions upon the policy to be followed in dealing with Asiatic; who always "take an ell if you give them an inch," little morsels out of all manner of half-forgotten historians, and disquisitions on the course we are pursuing and have pursued in China. As if this were not exasperating enough, Mr. Miobie does not choose to employ power of the kind indicated in the following extract, but must write every now and then in the London half-serious, half-slangy style. He is describing the impression made upon the mind of Englishmen by the endless steppe, the mode in which the absence of landmarks gradually affects one's sense of distance and of time, and, so to speak, stifles impatience by suggesting infinity :—

" We had now been twenty-two days in Mongolia, and had become strongly imbued with the habits of the people we were living amongst. To have imagined that we were travelling at such a slow pace would have been misery. But there was nothing to make us believe we were travelling. Now and then a vague idea would cross our minds that some day we ought to see Kiachta, but that was of short duration, and our daily routine all went to keep up the illusion that we were dwellers in the desert. There was nothing to mark our daily stages, no church spires or road-side inns, not even a mile post. Those fine euphonious names of places I have given indicate nothing. They might with as much propriety be given to various parts of the ocean. We had entirely identified ourselves with the wandering Tartars, and were content to live in the desert with much the same feeling that the Israelites must have experienced during their desert journeyings, that there was a promised land dimly figured out to them—that is to say, their apprehension of the reality of it was dim ; but the thought of ever arriving there had but slight influence on their daily life. The regular supply of manna was to their minds much more important than the bright future to which their leaders looked forward."

And then the man who can write like that, who can convey one of the most subtle of impressions distinctly to his reader's mind, must use slang in every third page, talk about the wind beginning to "pipe up," and call St. Petersburg in the exuber- ance of his spirits the " Czarieh capital!" Cannot men like Mr. Michie realize that in literature as in commerce there is such a thing as fidelity to one's work, that an author who can write well and writes badly is as false to the public as the salesman who can sell and does not is to his employer,—that it is a duty to give readers the very best in the author's power to offer? He will allege that he apologizes for all such lapse in his preface, which announces that but for persuasion he should not have considered his notes worthy of publication, but the excuse can- not be accepted. Having resolved to publish them, he should have perfected them, and sa given us instead of a disjointed though striking itinerary, the very best book of travels published this year. Who in Western Europe knows anything about Urge, the camp-capital of the Kalkas, or true Mongols? Yet, Mr. Michie, who has lived in it, though only en route, must put us off with three pages of carelessly general description, as if Urga after all were not a very interesting subject, and give up his space to accounts of nomads whose habits are as well known as those of London Arabs, and refutations of Mr. Cobdea's theory of Chinese trade which read like newspaper articles.

With this necessary protest we can heartily commend Mr.

Michie's book to all who's care to know more of Mongolia and Siberia, of the vast steppes which separate Pekin from the dominions fully organized under the Russian sceptre. Possessed of observant eyes, a clear style, and a sympathetic mind, the traveller enables us really to see the Mongols, these greatest of nomads, who have three times alarmed the world with their conquests, yet have always been, and still are, amongst the most peaceful, not to say apathetic, of mankind. Mr. Michie and his companion, a young Frenchman, wishing to return home from China, adopted the overland route. purely out of love of ad- venture, and they crossed the endless prairie like Mongols,

living in their own tent, travelling generally by night in covered carts, and burning the dried dung which is scattered profusely over all routes throughout these vast regions. They left Pekin,

where they lived at an inn, and fed at a restaurant among drinking loquacious students, as they might have done in Paris, and plunged into the "land of grass," the boundless prairie which is in some sense Chinese, but which is really owned by forty-eight kings (of whom Sankolinsin, the man who fought us, is one), who are held in obedience partly by bribes, partly by the traditionary authority of the Manchu dynasty, partly by care- ful intrigues tending to divide the tribes, aud partly by the forma- tion of immense monasteries near Pekin filled with priests attracted from all corners of the desert. The Enperors of China play the kings off against one another, and Mr. Michie, relying partly on De Guigues, partly on his own observation, declares that the authority of the Dalai Lama of Thibet, supreme head of Budd- hism and nominal Lord of all the Mongolian tribes, is now purely theoretical. The great Lama of the Kalkas, for example, whose seat is at Urge, only some 400 miles south-east of Irkutsk, is quite independent. Mr. Michie found at this spot, the very centre of the North Asiatic plains, 800 miles north-west of Pekin, N. L. 48, a vast encampment or town, called by the Mongols Ta Kuren. It stands on a wide plain, sheltered by a mountain range, and is really a great camp clustered round the monasteries where dwell 30,000 Lamas or priests, under their Lama King, who is Lord of all the Kalkas.

"The nucleus of the Mongol settlement at Urge is the Great Lamasery of the Guison-tamba, or Lama King of the Mongols. In this monastery, and in the minor ones round it, it has been said that 30,000 lamas reside, which estimate, however, must be received with caution. The two great lamaseries of Dobodorsha and Daichenalon are built in an indentation of the mountains that form the northern valley which opens into the valley of the Tolle at Urge. As our route from Urge lay on the slope of the opposite side of the valley, and our time was ex- hausted, we had not the chance of visiting these temples. The buildings are of vast extent, as plain almost as if they were barracks ; but what ornamentation there is about them is quiet and in good taste. They differ considerably from the Chinese style of architecture, and are no doubt Thibetan. An inscription in the Thibetan language has been placed on the slope of the hill above the monasteries. The cha- racters are formed by means of white stones, and the size of them is such as to render the writing perfectly legible at the distance of a mile."

This is the place where Ung-Khan, the Prester John of the thirteenth century, lived, a great Mongol sovereign, who may or may not have been a Christian, but who employed Genghis Khan as his commander-in-chief, and to this spot the Kalka Mongols still esteem it holy to make a pilgrimage. These people form the centre of the three great Mongol tribes, into which the nomad subjects of Timour may now be considered divided,—the Kalkas, who dwell north of the Great Desert, and are the true Mongols, of whom Europe thinks as subjects of China, and whose capital is Urga; the Kalmuks, whose central habitat is Astrakhan; and the Bouriats, or true Siberian Mongols, whose proper capital may be said to be Irkutsk. Among them the Kalkas are the most manly, and Mr. Michie believes that they would even now be able to conquer China unless she were aided by some civilized power. They are all horsemen, and nearly all bowlegged, a peculiarity observed in their youngest children, and attributed by Mr. Michie to the use of the saddle continued for generations. They live in tents, always filled with the acrid smoke of the dried dung which is their only fuel, and move in huge caravans of beasts and sheep and mounted men at the bidding of their Lamas, or priests, the real aristocracy of the desert. Any man of any class can become a Lama on shaving his head and taking the vows of celibacy and poverty, both of which they break of course, and as a rule the second son of each household is vowed by his mother to the priestly office. Nominally the order expounds Buddhism and keeps up the routine of prayers which compose Buddhist worship, practically they rule the consciences and the conduct of their people, no power existing in the desert which could con- travene the decrees of the Lamas, if only they happened to be united.

"The adoration they are taught to pay to their Dalai Lama is such as to give that personage a power over them greater, probably, than is exercised by any crowned head over his people. The Dalai Lama is the Pope of the Mongols, He is a valuable ally to the Chinese Emperor, and would be a dangerous enemy. When Russia comes to carry out any aggressive design in Mongolia, the Great Lama of the Kalkas will be the instrument used, and the Consular establishment at Urge, if it succeeds in gaining over the Lama King to the Russian views, will not have been kept up in vain. To conciliate this dignitary the Chinese Emperors liberally endow monasteries, and support and en- courage Lamaism in every way possible ;—but the Russian Emperors 'will find no difficulty in securing the attachment of the Lama when their plans are matured. The Mongol people, though in a sense slaves

• or serfs to their chiefs, really enjoy every liberty. They pay tithes to their lords of the produce of their herds, but there is no exaction, and no apparent discontent. The forty-eight chieftains enjoy the Chinese

title of wang, prince or king, and though tributary to the Emperor, they receive from him more than they pay. Their allegiance is, in reality, purehased by the Chinese Court, and they are certainly faithful to their salt."

This Dalai Lama, it must be understood, is the man who rules at Urga, not the Dalai Lama of Thibet.

Mr. Michie travelled through Siberia, but here he is upon ground which has been better trodden. We can therefore only give his con- clusions, which are generally those, we imagine, of Mr. Edwin Bis- hop, a gentleman who has resided many years in Siberia. He gives an account of the Baikal Lake, which Russians call the Holy Sea, and which, though 300 miles long by 30 broad, is in winter frozen

so hard that regular roads, stations, and inns are maintained upon its surface ; of the " society " of Siberia, that strange mélange of

highly educated officials, polished and gentlemanly prisoners, merchants with great incomes and the manners of hucksters, and peasants only just rising into freedom ; and of the Siberian gold and silver mines. These, he says, so far from being a source of profit to the Government, are a constant expense, and the Czar is now anxious to farm them all out to men of capital. The gold mines seem to be somewhat shallow, the buildings are expensive, and labour very dear,—five pounds a month with rations,—but in • one instance, at least, a private owner has gained immense sums from a silver mine in the steppes :

"In the Kirghis steppe there is one very rich silver mine, called the Zmeiewskoi, the property of a private family in Tomsk, the descendants of the first discoverer of gold in Siberia. This gentleman turned his discovery to good account. He was the first who worked gold-diggings in Siberia, and obtained many immunities from the Government, who have always eagerly promoted the working of that metal. In his life- time, he amassed a colossal fortune, and at his death left mining property of enormous value. His successors, however, contrived to dissipate their inheritance by various means ; but the silver mine in the Kirghis steppe has once more raised them to affluence,"

It is probable that Siberia contains some of the grandest mineral properties in the world, but they are scarcely worked, and cannot be until the population is thicker or the Government constructs a railway across Northern Asia, a vast work, which it will probably one day undertake. Mr. Michie of course passed through Ekaterinburg, the most westerly city in Siberia, a town of great size, with some handsome buildings, many English and German residents, and 19,000 people. Just beyond this place is the celebrated boundary stone, a plain block with " Europe " on one side and " Asia " on the other, the only official boundary ever put up between two continents.

The author has a thoughtful chapter on the condition and future of Siberia, of both of which he thinks well. The peasantry, to begin with, are externally well off, the Russian Government relaxing its system in order to tempt settlers. Every peasant pays a tax of from 3/. to 4/. per annum, but in return he receives land, the right of wood-cutting, and generally his freedom from all other taxes, from the conscription, and from all control except that of the Government. The lower orders of exiles enjoy these privileges also, and, Mr. Michie thinks, are much better oirthan at home.

"The amenities of free life enjoyed by the peasants of Siberia have produced the unmistakeable effect of, in some measure, eradicating the impress of slavish degradation which centuries of servility had stamped on the whole race of moujiks. The hereditary marks of the yoke are still too plainly to be seen, and many generations will probably pass from the scene before even the Siberian Russians can clahn to be really civilized. But it is a great thing to have made such a good start on the road to improvement. The progress made is not likely to be lost; each stage of advancement rather becomes a guarantee for still greater and more rapid progress in the future. The feeling of independence has taken deep root in the minds of these freemen, and it wonld be no longer possible to enslave them without causing a revolution. Their ideas have been enlarged. Industry and economy are seen to have their full reward. The security of life and property, and the liberation from the arbitrary dictates of a superior will, give the people encouragement to cultivate their talents in the full faith that their labours shall not be in vain. Unlimited wealth is open to all who have the energy to seek it. Great numbers of the Siberian peasants have amassed fortunes already. Other tastes naturally flow from worldly prosperity, and already among the merchants who have enriched themselves from the ranks of the peasants education is beginning to attract attention."

So great and visible is the difference between these men and the Russians, that it was one cause of the emancipation, which Mr. Michie believes will ultimately civilize Russia, though it might have produced a revolution, but for the explosion of patrio- tic feeling caused by the last Polish revolt. That movement brought all classes so heartily to the side of the Emperor that the disaffection of the minor noblesse who had been ruined by the change ceased to be of importance, and the freedom of the peasants is now absolutely secure.