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Soon the meadow began to swarm with Soyots, stripping the fallen, dividing the spoils and recapturing their horses. In some forms of warfare it is never safe to leave any of the enemy to renew hostilities later with overwhelming forces. After an hour of very difficult road we began to ascend the mountain and soon arrived on a high plateau covered with trees.
Passing Soyots and Mongols pay tribute to the spirits by hanging on the branches of the trees in the obo hatyk, long streamers of blue silk, shreds torn from the lining of their coats or simply tufts of hair cut from their horses' manes; or by placing on the stones lumps of meat or cups of tea and salt. "Look at it," said the Soyot. "The hatyks are torn off.
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.
Urianhai long ago became the scene of administrative attempts by Russians, Mongols and Chinese, all of whom claimed sovereignty over the region whose unfortunate inhabitants, the Soyots, had to pay tribute to all three of these overlords. It was due to this that the land was not an entirely safe refuge for us.
"All right," I answered, "but let us talk a little, in order that they may think we are parleying." After a moment I shook the hand of the Soyot and returned to the soldiers. "All right," I exclaimed, "we can continue our journey. No hindrance will come from the Soyots."
As we were passing along the narrow edge of a precipice, the Soyot stopped and attentively examined the trail. "Today many shod horses have passed here!" he cried through the roar of the storm. "Yonder on the snow the lash of a whip has been dragged. These are not Soyots." The solution of this enigma appeared instantly. A volley rang out.
It appeared that the Red Partisans, moving from the mountains Tannu Ola, occupied with their outposts all the border of Mongolia to stop and seize the peasants and Soyots driving out their cattle. To pass the Tannu Ola now would be impossible.
"After all, Soyots are not a too peaceful people," I remarked, approaching the Governor. He looked at me very sharply and replied: "It was not Soyots who did the killing." He was right. It was the Abakan Tartars in Soyot clothes who killed the Bolsheviki. These Tartars were running their herds of cattle and horses down out of Russia through Urianhai to Mongolia.
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.
We presented to these Soyots a brick of tea and saw them depart happy and sure that we were "Tzagan," a "good people." While our horses rested and grazed on the well-preserved grass, we sat by the fire and deliberated upon our further progress.
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