TSEKOU TO K HAM IT 



burnt from afar. In the village of Sere, where we stayed for 

 the night, we were the recipients of gifts, in token of gratitude 

 to Father Dubernard, by whose intervention a portion of their 

 belongings had been saved to the people from the expedition 

 of the mokoua of Yetche. Those of the villagers who were 

 too poor to have gaous^ carried round their necks amulets 

 hidden in bamboo tubes. The women had their hair parted in 

 the middle and hanging down behind in a number of tails, 

 united lower to form a plaited queue. \\"e slept in a Thibetan house, 

 with a ground-floor of lime-washed walls and a spacious terrace, 

 on which stood a row of small white pyramids, holding bunches 

 of bamboo and serving as altars. Over the door 'was a stone 

 bearing the inscription, OM mank pedmi houm, surrounded with 

 serpents. 



On the iith (September) we took leave of Father Duber- 

 nard, and juirsued our way up the course of the river. The road 

 led beneath a defile formed of mia^htv, iao-o-ed rocks, called b\- 

 the Thibetans the second gate of Sima-Chan ; the first was at 

 Lota. Cooper named it the Gorge of Hablus, in memory of 

 his protector. 



Near the village of Gotra we made our breakfast beside a 

 hot sulphur spring, the waters of which were at a temperature of 

 of 113" Fahr. Nam caused some amusement here: as he was 

 suffering from sore legs, we counselled a warm bath ; whereupon 

 the simple Annamite without hesitation jumjied into the torrent a 

 hundred yards farther off Beyond Gotra we redescended to the 

 actual brink of the Mekong through forests of superb coniferse, 

 and, after crossing a foaming torrent, camped in the brushwood on 

 the far side. This was our last bivouac on the Mekong. 



' Gaous = reliquaries, clianns. 



2qi 



