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National Geographic : 1962 Mar
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National Geographic, March, 1962 on one of his journeys asked his guide the name of a peak in China. The guide replied, "Muztagh Ata," which went into Hedin's records. It means Ice-mountain Father. What Hedin did not understand was that the word "father" was addressed to him! I recalled the story of an early Russian explorer in Mongolia who asked an arat the name of a mountain. The arat replied, "Don't know." And down it went in a notebook to plague future travelers. We had our own encounters with delight ful Mongolian place names one day on a hike near Terelge, in the mountains northeast of Ulan Bator. At one point Ochirbal gestured toward a mountain in the northwest and said: "The White Camel Is Going Away. That's the name of that mountain." A flood of Asian place names came back to mind: He Hung Up a Saddle; The Wild Ass Died; The Cradle Remained Behind. "If the custom continues in modern Mon golia," I remarked to Ochirbal, "think of the interesting place names that will result. 'We Had a Flat Tire,' for example." "The Car Turned Over," Dean Conger added. "The Back Seat Driver Was to Blame," Mercedes suggested. We all laughed as the list grew. There was a long silence and someone said, "The Old Order Changeth." The old order has indeed changed. Yet old ways linger on. Today, as in the days of Genghis Khan, August is thought to be the best month for roasting sheep or goats. "Why August?" I asked an arat in the steppe country. "By August most of the wild flowers have 338
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