[Aexdev-implement] d followed them to where they had begun

[Bayton W. <col...@k7...>]

 to indulge himself with useless trifles.

He amuses himself with artillery. A retired Russian officer presented
him with two old guns, for
which the donor
received the title of Tumbaiir Hun, that is, "Prince Dear-to-my-Heart."
On holidays these cannon were fired to the great amusement of the
blind man. Motorcars, gramophones, telephones, crystals, porcelains,
pictures, perfumes, musical instruments, rare animals and birds;
elephants, Himalayan bears, monkeys, Indian snakes and parrots--all
these were in
the palace of "the god" but all were
soon cast aside and forgotten. To Urga come pilgrims
and presents from all the Lamaite and Buddhist world.

Once the treasurer of the palace, the Honorable Balma Dorji,
took me into the great

hall where the presents were kept. It was a most unique museum of
precious articles. Here were gathered

together rare objects unknown to the museums of Europe. The treasurer,
as he opened a case with a silver lock, said to me: "These are pure gold
nuggets from Bei Kem; here are black sables

from Kemchick; these the miraculous deer horns; this a box sent by the
Orochons and filled with precious
ginseng roots and fragrant musk; this a bit of amber from the coast of
the 'frozen sea' and it weighs 124 lans (about ten pounds); these are
precious stones from India, fragrant zebet and carved ivory from China."
He showed the exhibits and talked of them for a long time and evidently
enjoyed the telling. And really it was wonderful! Before my eyes lay the
bundles of
rare furs; white beaver, black sables, white, blue and black fox and
black panthers; small beautifully
carved tortoise shell boxes containing hatyks ten or fifteen

yards long, woven
from Indian silk as fine as the webs of the spider; small bags made of
golden thread
filled with pearls, the presents of Indian Rajahs; precious rings with
sapphires and rubies from China and India; big pieces of jade, rough
diamonds; ivory
tusks ornamented with gold, pearls and precious stones; bright clothes
sewn with gold and silver

thread; walrus tusks carved in bas-relief by the primitive artists on
the shores of the Behring Sea; and m