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[[underline]] Chapter XIII. [[/underline]] 262.

with fur; the women, elaborate headdresses and ornaments, with their hair braided in plaits.  It occurred to me that perhaps the bright colors in the clothing both of the Mongols and of the peasant population of northwestern China might be a survival from the time of "^[[R]]ed" and the "White" Ti, generally believed to have been so called by the ancient Chinese from the hues predominant in their respective tribal costumes.
  The genuflexions, guttural intoning of chants, measured beating of drums, and burning of incense-sticks, carried on by the visitors in the gloom of the sculptured grottoes, made an impressive picture.  It seems possible, indeed, from what we learned later at the Fang Shan ([[underline]] cf. [[/underline]] page 303), that among the Mongols some tradition of sanctity attaching to the cave-temples of Yün Kang has persisted from the time of the Toba Tartars (the North Wei Dynasty) who executed the grottoes.  Should such prove the case, it might tend to confirm the existence of a proto-Mongol strain among the Tobas, already mentioned as suspected ( [[underline]] cf. [[/underline]] page 219).
  We returned to Ta T'ung on the afternoon of the 24th.  On our ride back, Mr. Wenley was seized with severe pains and chills, which caused us no little apprehension; for illness anywhere in the interior of China, far from adequate medical care, may be a serious matter.  Fortunately, we found living not far from our inn a young English medical missionary and his wife, Dr. and Mrs. Giles A. M. Hall, who took Mr. Wenley into their home and reassured us by saying that a few days in bed should restore him to his normal health.

[[underline]] Awaiting Gov. Yen's Permission to Dig.  [[/underline]]
  The next few days, while awaiting Gov. Yen Hsi-shan's promised permission to excavate, I devoted to riding with Kuang-lien over the open country about Ta T'ung and along both banks of the Yü Ho.  In this way I succeeded in locating numerous artificial mounds of fair though not con-