AN INTERVIEW WITH THE BORDERERS. 269 



pass, and presently three or four Tartars, mounted on capital 

 ponies (for which Chumurti is famed), hove in sight. One 

 of them, a rather well-dressed corpulent individual, turned 

 out to be the head functionary of the Chumurti province. 

 They galloped by without at first observing us as we sat 

 amongst the rocks and stones ; but on suddenly catching sight 

 of us, the stout party, seemingly in a high state of excite- 

 ment, wheeled round his pony and rode straight towards us, 

 shouting and waving his arm in the air, as if he were lead- 

 ing on his army of Tartars, who had not as yet arrived in 

 sight. Very soon, however, parties of two or three men at 

 a time began to appear in the most marvellous manner, as 

 though they had suddenly arisen out of the ground, like " Clan- 

 Alpine's warriors true," until a small crowd, numbering about 

 forty or fifty, had collected around us. Where they had all 

 come from so quickly it was impossible to conjecture, for the 

 top of the pass was as desolate-looking a spot as a height of, 

 I should say, nearly 18,000 feet could make it. A dirtier 

 or more ill-favoured lot than the generality of them were, 

 I never set eyes on. Had they carried any other weapons 

 than their wool-spindles, and had I not been aware that the 

 resistance offered by these borderers to European travellers 

 or sportsmen attempting to cross the Eubicon of the Chinese 

 Empire in Tibet was usually more of a passive than a forcible 

 kind, I should have felt considerable relief of mind at being 

 reinforced by the Major and his men, who, having crossed 

 the stream below the pass, soon appeared on the scene of 

 action. I took the precaution, nevertheless, to keep my 

 rifles within reach, in case of any attempt being made to 

 appropriate them. 



Whilst the Major and I sat there making futile attempts 

 at polite conversation with the stout potentate, who of course 

 could not understand a word we were saying, his myrmidons 

 were gesticulating and clamouring away in an excited manner, 

 quite as unintelligible to us, with one exception, which was a 

 kind of pantomime of the act of binding the hands behind 



