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[[underlined]] Chapter XI. [[/underlined]]  241.

type of historical Chinese pottery with which we were familiar. This vessel, together with the accompanying skull, we extricated from the sand and gravel in which we found them, and tied up in our handkerchiefs, for concealment. Then through the gathering dusk we rode north, past the eas[[t?]] side of Ta T'ung and so back to our inn.
    The same evening Mr. Ch'iu and Mr. Tung returned from their ride to the Fang Shan plateau. On it they reported having found some large tumul[[i?]] said to be those of members of the North Wei ruling family, and well wort[[h?]] our examining. Mr. Tung informed me, however, that a shepherd lad with whom they had talked had said that we would never be able to dig into them, for they were guarded by a huge [[underlined]] mang-shê [[/underlined]] [[2 Chinese characters]] (a mythical serpent), which would frighten or drive us away. This was a variant of a type of folktale very widely distributed both in time and in space; to find it alive today, in the hills of northern Shansi, was therefore not without interest.
    We spent the rest of the evening reviewing and discussing our investigations of the past few days. All of us agreed that they had shown the region about Ta T'ung to be one of importance archaeologically. Of the spots that we had examined, the great grave-mounds on the Fang Shan and the fallen façades at Yün Kang seemed particularly likely to yield significant results. All depended, however, on our obtaining Gov. Yen Hsi-shan's permission to conduct excavations there.
    The following morning we left by train for Peking. We paused for a day at Kalgan (that gateway to Mongolia), to examine a Buddhist grotto that had been described to us as "earlier than T'ang". We found it small but still locally noted as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Crowded with tawdry modern or recent Buddhist statues, votive hangings, and other objects, and the air heavy with incense, exploratory work on our part was of course out of the question. Nevertheless the finding here of a Bud-

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Needs Chinese characters