UNKNOWN MONGOLIA.

Shannon News, 11 March 1924, Page 3

UNKNOWN MONGOLIA.

“FIERCEST CREATURES IN

THE WORLD.”

Mr Roy Chapman Andrews, leader of the, third Asiatic expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, which has collected the fossilised remains of prehistoric monsters in Mongolia, tells an astonishing story of the “human interest” side of three- years work and 10,000 miles of ’travel in regions hitherto untrodden by white men (states the New York correspondent of the London “Daily Express.” “When we first arrived in the interior,” says Mr Andrews, “we were struck by the fact that the natives stood in the greatest awe of our motor transport. They had never seen a motor car and when we drew near a village we noticed ia.ll the men dashing off to the neighbouring moun tains. The most curious native custom is the disposal of the dead. Tho departed are thrown out to be devoured by dogs.

“The Mongols believe when persons are about to die that evil spirits enter the body. The bodies, once death has occurred, are placed on carts, driven -over the roughest possible ground, and during the journey thrown off, to be devoured by the following wild dogs. “I have seen a pack of dogs completely devour a dead body within eight minutes. “These dogs, which devour human flesh, are without any doubt the fiercest creatures in the world. They were,.indeed, terrible and a constant menace to the lives of the members of the expedition. No member, under my order, went out of the camp unless armed with revolver and knife. “The dogs will attack, without provocation, and at sight of a human being. No one in Urga, the Mongolian capital,, dares to go through the meat market at night. They would be seized and killed within a minute if they ventured to do so.” THOUSANDS ROUND DEATH PITS

“Members of the expedition on at least three occasions came within an ace of death from these animals. Professor Chfarles P. Berky, the chief geologist, was attacked on the first occasion by three dogs, and would have been killed had he not had his revolver handy. “He killed the leading dog and wounded the other two, but the wounded ones still leaped to the atatck, “I was asleep on the second occasion in a tent in our camp with my wife when suddenly I was awakened by a piercing shriek from my wife. "I looked out and saw a pack of fourteen dogs circling round in the moonlight. They were snarling and spitting like wolves. “Their leader in a moment darted forward, and came crashing into the tent, I was half asleep, but I grabbed my revolver and fired instinctively. “Luckily I hit the leader and shot him dead in his tracks. I then fired and fired again land hit three others. They thereupon drew away and began a gruesome feast on the wounded,

ECCENTRIC HIGH PRIEST. "Mongol marriages -which -we ob served were pretty casual affairs, and in the Par Western provinces polyandry is practised. “I was told that it was quite usual for a woman to have as many as ten husbands. There is, in fact, a shortage of men in Mongolia. This is due to the Llama religion. "The first-born, according to custom, is given to the Llama monasteries and this accounts for two-thirds of the male population. These priests are nothing more or less than parasites. living in ease and comfort at the expense of the public.. “The head of the Llama religion is termed the Tutukhtu, meaning the Most Benevolent One. He lives at Urga, the capital, and has the greatest possible passion for modern mechanical inventions.

“His palace is more like a scrapheap than a centre of religion. It is filled with ancient motor cars, sewing machines, moving picture apparatus, patent tin openers, and heaven alone knows what else. “Tutukhtu devours American mailorder catelogues. It is a standing jok e in that district that you can sell him any mechanical contrivance known to humanity.

i‘Be possesses in his mechanical graveyard every known make of car. Some of the very first vintage are there, but Tutukhtu has never taken a ride in any of them, although they a££ the children of his heart."