The Red Cloud chief., 1889-05-24
RAG BAGS.
What MI. KEENAN, Saw While lsidIn:
Through the Trans lsaikal.

through the Trans ISistkat.
All day Wednesday We rode south
ward through a rather dreary and desc
late region OF sandy pine barrens or
wide stretches of short. dead grass.
broken here and there by low hillscOv-
cred with birches, larchcs and ever-
greens. Now and then We met Il train
of small, One-hOrse wagons loaded with
tea that had come overland across Mon
golia from Pekin. or two or three
mounted Buriats (BoOr-yats) in dish
p~anshaped hats and long brown kaftans
Ckaf-tans(. upon the breasts OF whicE
had been sewn ziszags of red cloth that
suggested a rude Mongolian imitation
of the Puritan '.Scarle, Letter" As n
rule. however. the road seemed to be but
little travelled and ~scantily settled. and
in a ride of nearly fifty miles We saw
nothing Of interest except here and
there on SUBMITS OF hills, small sacred
piles of stones, which Mr.. Frost called
'.Buriat shrines." All over Siberia it
is the custom of the natives when they
cross the top OF Il high hill or noun
tain to make a prOpitiatOry Offering to
the spirits of tOrm and tempest. In
the extreme northeastern part OF Sibe-
ria these offerings consis: generally of
tobacco. and are thrown out on the
ground in front of some prominent and
noticeable rock: but in the Trans-Baikal
the Buriats and MOngols arc accus-
custOmed to pile a heap of stones be-
side the road. erect thereon half q
dozen rods or poles, and suspend from
the latter small pieces of their cloth
ing. Every pious traveller who passes
a shrine of this sort on the summit OF
a mountain is expected to alight from
his vehicle or dismount from his
horse. tear OFF q little piece of his kat
tan Or shirt, hang it upon one of these
poles and say a prayer. As a result of
this ceremonial. every shrine presents
to the traveller "A sort of ~tailOr's collec-
ton Of scraps and remnants of cloth of
every conceivable kind. quality and
color. futtering to the wind from slen-
der poles that look like hastily impro-
vised fishing-rods- Theoretically this
custom would seem to be not wholly
without its advantages. II a native
was familiar with the clothing Of his
friends, he could always tell by simple
inspection Of one of these shrineS who
had lately passed that way, ami. if
necessary, he could trace any particu-
lar person from hilltop to hilltop by
the strips of his shirt or the frayed
edges OF his trousers left hanging on
the stOne-ballasted fshing-rods as an
Offering to the mighty gods of the Si-
berian tempests- In practice, however.
might not be feasible unless one
remember all the old clothes of
the person whom one wished to trace
and the ancestral rag and tatters Of
that PERSONS family. From u careful
examination that we made of a number
OF shrines We became con WINGED that
every religious Buriat keeps a religious
he travels and to which he has
recOurs whenever it becames neces-
,ary to decorate the sacred fishing-poles
)f the storm-gOds. L am sure that
such miserable, deeayed scraps and
OF raiment as We saw fluttering
the wind over the sbrines between
and kiakhta never could
nave been cut Or torn from any gar
nents that were actually in wear
George Kennan. in Century.