IN TIBET^ 311 



knocked up that I had great difficulty in dragging him after 

 me. At the lakes I refreshed him with some tufts of green 

 Carex and led him back, suffering much from headache 

 as the sun was intensely hot, and a little exertion brings on 

 headache at these elevations (nearly 18,000 feet). 



Late in the evening I met Campbell's party, viz. the 

 Lama and Phipun, looking for me ; they told me that 

 Campbell had gallantly pushed through thirty Sepas armed 

 with matchlocks, that no hands were laid on him, but on 

 our cooHes (we had no Sepas nor arms), who of course were 

 much frightened ; that Campbell having shot ahead and 

 I too being gone, he, the Lama, took on himself to point 

 out to the Chinese officer that if either of us died for want 

 of our tents, &c., it would be a terrible affair for the officer 

 above all, who should have taken us alive rather than stop 

 our men. The coolies were then allowed to pass on too, 

 and came up at night suffering terribly from the dry heat, 

 sun and dust and elevation. The Lama then went to find 

 Campbell, who had mistaken the way towards Donkiah, 

 and soon came in full of spirits and gave me a most ludicrous 

 account of the mixture of fright and obstinacy and force 

 the Chinese Sepas displayed. 



In the evening the Chinese followed us, the Dingpun, 

 or Lieutenant, riding on the top of a black Yak ! surrounded 

 by pots, pans, bags and bamboo bottles of buttermilk, a 

 tent, blankets, &c., all bundled about his Yak, and he on 

 the top of all hke a gipsy on a laden donkey. He was a 

 small withered man, in a green coat, with a gilt button on his 

 Tartar cap ; behind came the Sepas, enormous ruffianly 

 looking men, dressed in blanketing, each armed with a 

 pipe, a long knife, and a long rude matchlock lashed across 

 his stem. These matchlocks are slung at right angles across 

 the hip ; they are very rude, long, with a pronged support 

 or rest ; the latter folds up with a hinge and projects hke 

 antelopes' horns beyond the muzzle. Such ungainly imple- 

 ments across their stern parts were comical enough looking. 

 They marched in orderly, took no notice of us, and camped 

 close by. We tented in a low cattle enclosure on the bare 

 plain, burning Yaks' dung for fuel. The cold was intense 

 and wind violent and dusty, sky brilHantly clear. 



We determined to stay a day or two where we were, at 



