TSEKOU TO KHAMTI 



calculate the" last in a country where neither a coinage standard 

 nor paper currency were in use, and value goes by weight. The 

 business occupied a whole day. We left with the Fathers sixteen 

 hundred taels, carrying with us only the smallest possible amount. 



Our personal belongings, fine by degrees, were speedily 

 packed, and still more quickly loaded. It was wonderful to 

 watch the address with which the Thibetans harnessed the 

 animals. They adopted a different method from the Chinese. 

 On the beast's back were laid three pads with two small boards 

 on top, breast and crupper straps held in position a splinter-bar 

 which in steep descents pressed on the flanks ; the pack-saddle, 

 not detachable en bloc as in China, was fastened by a girth ; and 

 the load, instead of being placed horizontally, was secured verti- 

 cally to the boards by thongs ; by this means less angles were 

 exposed in narrow defiles than by the Ytinnan method. Some 

 packages were put on the men's shoulders. We now had eleven 

 pack and six saddle mules, and with twenty-three porters and 

 muleteers (three having been despatched in advance to buy pro- 

 visions on the banks of the Salwen) an imposing troop of thirty- 

 tour men was formed. Well as I already knew them, I could 

 not but be struck afresh with the cheery animation and activity 

 of the Thibetans. They seemed to have real blood in their 

 veins, a pleasing contrast to the inertness which is so exasperat- 

 intr in the Chinese. 



At our departure a fine rain was falling. Notwithstanding 

 the dulness of the skies, each one of us felt light-hearted to be 

 once more en route, bound lor the unknown, curious as to the 

 secrets of the Salwen, its inhabitants, and what lay beyond. 



On account of the wet, most of the men carried their 

 wool boots slung Thibetan fashion round their necks, and on 



249 



