Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1900-09-06
THE LLAMA CURSE
A Story of Tibetan Magic.

| The waiter brought us drink ana the
| change out of Tom Martins half soy.
,reign. pushed the latter over to-
ward him with my left hand and with
the right raised the water bottle to
dilute my whisky.
Your change, Tom" said l.
Yes. Of course" said Tom, who was
absorbed in the story he was telling
me- He put out his hand as if to pick
| the money up, but seemed to remember
| something, for he drew his hand back
| suddenly.
| Good heaven" said he, "and had
| forgotten that
He took out his handkerchief, wrap
ped it around the foretinger Of his
right hand and then, with the fore
finger so covered, gently scraped the
money toward him, piece by piece, and
earnestly looked at each coin.
Now, look here, Tom" said l, this
is very pretty story that you have
been telling me- but don't try aud give
it an air of reality by a performance
| like that"
You can believe it or not, just as
you like" said Tom, "but | tell you,
| Fred, that piece of money is coming
along this way some day. have seen
it once and-I left it on the table.
| You don't catch me touching any coin
while | am certain that one is in cir
culation. But let me conclude what I
was telling you.
| "Urga is one of the most peculiar
places you could think of, and one Of
our first duties was to present our
| selves to the grand llama. We had TO
get Il paanquin, for it was only meet
that Europeans of our importance
should so in state, and it was while en-
route that we suddenly came to the
praying mill This was a sort of
roundabout with huge wooden posts
| sticking out at the side, which every
| Buddhist passing was supposed to take
hold of and push the mill round at
least once.
! what caused Phil to do what he
did then l don't know, but something
seemed to impel him to get out of the
| palanquin, make run over to the mill,
| catch hold of one of the wooden posts
and commence to push 1t around at its
| topmost pace. The square where the
mill was erected was pretty well filed
with people, and when some of those
saw what had been done they came
rushing toward us, shouting and ges-
ticulating. Phil had undoubtedly COM
mitted "A sacrilege, and was fearful
for his safety. These fanatical Mon
golians, once their religion is assailed
In any shape or form, would certainly
have no mercy upon the assailant
| phil came hurriedly back to me,
| jumped into the palanquin and order
ed the bearers to get on. But they
were struck dumb with terror. The
mob came for us, smashed in the doors
OF the palanquin, dragged us out, and
for two minutes there was the liveliest
| fight on record going on. We got the
worst of it and, bruised. bleeding and
insensible were carted off to prison
I'VE were taken before the grand
| llama, and then and there he ordered
| us TO be sent across the Siberian from
tier with the utmost dispatch. The
next day we were hurried along under
an escort of soldiers, and it was not
| long before we arrived at the frontier,
| the town of Miamatshn, which really
| Is the Monaghan portion of kiakta.
| We We're taken along TO the yellow
| posts which marked the actual frontier,
| and there the soldiers Of the llama
| stopped. We were removed from the
| palanquin in which we had been car
Ito n LODI 20 oil
few yards from the posts. Not 20
| feet away were the black and white
posts Of the Russians, and 1t was in
deed something TO gladden. our eyes to
see the brown coat and the astrakhan
fez of the Russian Cossaek who stood
there on sentry.
"Our guards spread themselves out
then there came forward a Buddhist
priest. who began to talk 20 US in a
jargon which Of course we could not
understand He finished at length and
produced from his robe wire on
which were threaded some hundreds
of brass cash, which the Chinese al
ways carry. He took two Of the 'casb
off the wire ard laid them in front OF
US on the ground.
Then the priest began waving ms
arms about, and the Mongolians took
out their hand prayer mills and began
turning them for all they were worth
The voice Of the priest then rose CO
the air. He said three or four words
and spat deliberately at each of the
coins which had been put on the
ground before us.
THAT was all The priest departed,
the soldier escorted US 10 the posts, the