BOW SINGH PLAYS ME FALSE 325 



greatly enraged, and on reaching Piiling Siimdo dismissed 

 Bow Singh, his men and his animals. Bow Singh's 

 promises were a regular swindle. He had been with me 

 ten days, during which I bagged only two ewes ! Before 

 paying him, I spoke my mind to him before all the people 

 present ; there were a good many, as several camps were 

 pitched at the place. 



Among the rest was a " Eajah " from Chaprang, in a 

 nice little tent. He had been sent to keep an eye on me, 

 though his purpose was declared to be the collection of 

 Government revenues from Nilang. Further inquiry 

 revealed that he was only the Munshi, or clerk, of the 

 Chaprang establishment : the people of Xilang called him 

 "Eajah" out of respect. I had no doubt he had been 

 sent down to watch me, probably on receipt of the report 

 from Tan^i, which the Panboh sent to the Chaprang-Zong 

 long after he had seen me fairly started. So perhaps, 

 after all, I had not lost much by Bow Singh's manoeuvring, 

 as with this Tibetan official in my rear I could not possibly 

 have got to Gandokh. The Munshi paid me a visit 

 while I was haranguing the people on the iniquities of 

 Bow Singh ; he wanted me to stop and have a feast. He 

 was a well-mannered little man, but not a true Chinaman, 

 I think, though wearing Chinese dress and long porcelain 

 earrings in his ears. I was too much out of humour at 

 the miscarriage of my plans to take much notice of him. 

 To make me more savage, a man in the Tibetan official's 

 camp brought me the skull of an Ovis ammon for sale. 

 The horns were about 44 inches long and finely curved; 

 the end of one was blunted. It was a splendidly massive 

 head, and keen was my regret that fortune had not given 

 me the chance of bagging a similar trophy. The animal 

 could not have been long shot, as the blood about the 

 skull was quite fresh. The man said it had been shot in 



