226 DONG (WILD YAK) SHOOTING 



between the thighs was blue, and looked as if a bullet had 

 made a passage that way, but examination was such a 

 nauseating business that I did not carry my explorations 

 very far. One fact, however, was certain : there was no 

 bullet-hole in the hide of that portion of the body. Paljour 

 had his own theory about the entrance of the bullet from 

 behind, but I could not accept it, as there was no sign on 

 the part indicated. 



The sheep, fifteen hundred, in charge of fourteen men, 

 came up during the day and camped close by. They 

 were anxious to go on, as they travel by night only, and 

 intended to cross the Lanak-la by sunrise next day. Five 

 hundred of these sheep belonged to the Maharajah of 

 Kashmir, or, let us say, to his officials. In this way he 

 had large flocks of sheep all over the country. The profits 

 in the salt trade on this number of sheep go to him : the 

 only advantage the owners get is the produce of the sheep, 

 but the number belonging to the Maharajah must never 

 diminish. If they die, or are lost across the border, it is 

 the people's loss, on the " heads I win, tails you lose " 

 principle. These men had wonderful stories of the 

 Champa robbers across the border, and seemed to be in 

 great fear of them. The Champa (nomadic) robbers 

 (called also Cliakpa by Bower) are probably the 

 Golok plundering tribes mentioned by other travellers. 

 They are mounted on trained horses, that gallop up and 

 down mountains at full speed. A rest is fixed between 

 the ears of the horse, from which the horseman takes aim 

 with his long gun. They have their tents fifteen days' 

 march in the interior, and mounted parties infest the 

 roads. Sometimes, when their supplies run short, they 

 undergo great privations. There is no redress from their 

 plundering, because there is no appeal nearer than Lahsa, 

 three months' journey distant; besides, these sheepmen say, 



