FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



The march of the 13th (August) was a short one to the 

 villatje of Ngai-hoa, where Father Tintet took leave of us. 

 Hospitality was offered us by the chief, and we preferred the 

 shelter of his oratory to that of a bed-chamber where lay his 

 octogenarian mother. In the chapel was an altar with three 

 niches, from one of which the goddess Khou-an-yn with her child 

 in her arms watched over our slumbers. It was said she would 

 protect us for two nights, but none the less we lost three mules, 

 which retarded us for a whole day. Nothing was more exasperating 

 than to discover on the eve of starting that a mule was missing. 

 It was no use dropping on the men ; they would simply have 

 left us. Patience and search were the only remedies ; and in 

 these Joseph, with his good-sense and e.xperience, was unrivalled. 

 Roux, who was in haste to reach the frontier of Thibet, exclaimed 

 at one of these checks : " What are we to do if we stop here ? ' 

 — " Probably eat and sleep," replied Joseph, sucking at his 

 pipe. 



On the 15th (August) we came to the village of Halo, where 

 there was a ferry. A little higher up the right bank is stopped 

 by precipitous cliffs to the water's edge, and pedestrians creep 

 round on pegs of timber driven into the face of the rock. This 

 acrobatic performance being impossible for quadrupeds, the only 

 alternative by which the position might be turned was a flank 

 march of a fortnight into the Salvven valley, and so round to 

 Tsekou. This decided us. We had reached the point where 

 the right bank must be abandoned for the left ; on which a road 

 led in two days to Tsekou, and an opportunity would be given 

 of making the acquaintance eii route of a chief whose friendship 

 might prove of subsequent advantage to us. A bargain was 

 therefore struck with the headman of Halo for the passage of 



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