Unknown Mongolia : a record of travel and exploration in north-west Mongolia and Dzungaria . duringfatigue, cold, and hunger ; so far, indeed, as physiquegoes, the Mongol of to-day is probably the equal of themen Jenghis Khan led to battle. They appear to livethe same kind of life under the same physical conditions ;but a most significant difference is to be noticed in thesocial and economic welfare of the people. Instead ofbeing turbulent tribesmen held by military allegianceto their chieftains, instead of being a people who repre-sented as a whole a great brotherhood with both ideasand wealt
Unknown Mongolia : a record of travel and exploration in north-west Mongolia and Dzungaria . duringfatigue, cold, and hunger ; so far, indeed, as physiquegoes, the Mongol of to-day is probably the equal of themen Jenghis Khan led to battle. They appear to livethe same kind of life under the same physical conditions ;but a most significant difference is to be noticed in thesocial and economic welfare of the people. Instead ofbeing turbulent tribesmen held by military allegianceto their chieftains, instead of being a people who repre-sented as a whole a great brotherhood with both ideasand wealth in common, they are now the serfs of theirrulers, downtrodden, overtaxed, and bereft of thatenergy, fearlessness, and warlike spirit with which oncethey astonished the world. Another fact of the greatest importance is that theMongol has changed his religion, whilst the alterationwhich has taken place in the social conditions of theMongols during the last six hundred years, has broughtabout a transformation which results in an economicexhaustion of the country. In studying these changes. A DURBET MONGOL. 306] MONGOLIA, PAST AND PRESENT 307 which have taken place we are faced by the ever-recurringquestion as to the cause of the Mongol influences seem to be at work, such as a changefor the worse in climate, the innovation of a new religion,and the burden of a foreign yoke. Each of these wewill consider, for they best show the present state of theMongols, in comparison with their past. A deterioration in the pastoral wealth of Mongolia,owing to a change in its climatic conditions, is a pos-sible reason for the exhaustion of the Mongol from Professor Huntingtons observations inChinese Turkestan, which prove the greater aridityCentral Asia experiences now, than in the past, it wouldbe reasonable to suppose that the same conditionsextend farther across Asia into Mongolia. We our-selves noted, in a significant manner, an obviouslydiminished rainfall as
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecthunting, bookyear1914
