in July a small image of one of the high gods is put into this shrine, and then the elephant and the wagon are drawn in triumphal procession around the lamasery to the music of drums, trumpets, conch-shells, cymbals, and gongs, and with an escort of perhaps three hundred brilliantly costumed lamas. While we were examining the white elephant, Khainúief came to me and said that Khambá Lamá, in view of the fact that we were the first foreigners who had ever visited the lamasery, had ordered an exhibition to be given for us of the sacred "dance of the burkháns." I strongly suspected that we were indebted for all these favors to Khainúief's unrivaled skill as a translator of truth into fiction; but if we had been introduced to the Grand Lama as "deputies, if not ambassadors, from the great American republic," it was in no sense our fault, and there was no reason why we should not accept the courtesies offered us.
When we returned to the great temple we found that everything was in readiness for the dance. It was to take place out of doors on the grass in front of the datsán, where seats had already been prepared for the musicians and for the Sheretúi and his assistant. The big drums and the eight-foot iron trumpets were brought out, the presiding lamas seated themselves cross-legged on piles of flat yellow cushions in their chairs, and we took the positions assigned to us. At the sounding of a small rattle twelve or fifteen of the strangest, wildest-looking figures I had ever seen rushed out into the open space in front of the temple, and to the crashing, booming accompaniment of cymbals and big iron trumpets began a slow, rhythmical, leaping dance. Four or five of the dancers had on enormous black helmet masks representing grinning Mongolian demons, and from their heads radiated slender rods to which were affixed small colored flags. Two figures had human skulls or death's-heads on their shoulders, one man's body had the head and antlers of a marál, or Siberian stag, and another was surmounted by the head and horns of a bull. Three
