A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



little or no success, whereas by following the 

 southern route I was, as it turned out, to be well 

 rewarded. The following 1 day we remained en- 

 camped opposite Nyuma Mud, and about midday 

 there arrived a somewhat imposing cortege, which 

 also halted here, and pitched camp about a quarter 

 of a mile away from us, the chief tent being a rather 

 striking one of blue and white stripes with golden 

 poles ! We wondered who on earth it could be 

 who was travelling in this swell fashion, and I 

 shortly afterwards received a message to say that 

 the Chagzot had arrived and would be happy to call 

 upon me during the afternoon. I of course replied 

 that I should be only too delighted to receive him, 

 though who the Chagzot might be I hadn't the faintest 

 idea. He came to visit me with a large retinue, 

 and after the usual " dalis " (presents) had been 

 exchanged and rupees touched, &c., we kept up a 

 conversation of a necessarily intermittent character 

 (as every sentence had to pass through two inter- 

 preters) for some little time. He appeared en 

 grande tenue ; but I am afraid that H . and myself, 

 in our shirt-sleeves and sitting on my bed, cannot 

 have impressed him much, though perhaps he 

 imagined that ours was the English costume de 

 parade in which to receive distinguished visitors. I 

 discovered that the Chagzot is a sort of head Lama 

 who visits all the monasteries, where he collects the 

 rents, &c., and that he was then on his way to the 

 Hanle Gonpa. He had been told by the Wazir of 



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