FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



with friendly salutations and no demonstrations of hostility. I 

 asked why they had removed the bridge, but only elicited the 

 invariable answer, "Jem pou te " ("I don't know"). Nearly as 

 bad as Maitre Pathelin's " be." 



Through our men we heard that these villagers had cause to 

 fear the Lamas. Placed on the frontier of Thibet, Landjre has to 

 stop all strangers, and would suffer for any neglect of orders. 

 Great was their relief, therefore, when we did not take the road to 

 Tsarong. We pitched our four tents in the fields above the place, 

 and, despite a rainy evening, the men danced round the fire with 

 little apparent concern for the future. 



The next day, and the ne.xt, it rained, with only slight 

 intermission. We marched through virgin forests, where the large- 

 leaved bamboos soaked us through. A rare gleam of sunshine lit 

 up a savage scene of torrent, rock, and tree, of which it would be 

 hard to convey an idea. Pines, and oaks, and giant chankas, 

 with boles of i8 feet diameter and long grey beards of pendent 

 creepers, choked the slippery path with tangled roots and fallen 

 trunks. It took the mules six hours to accomplish what we did 

 in three. Our camp of the 13th (September), among lilies and 

 rhododendrons on the edge of the euphoniously named torrent Lili, 

 we called Tululu, after a sort of civet which we had seen in the 

 woods. Our men had the inspiration to lead with them from 

 Landjre two of the long horizontal-horned sheep of the country. 

 The 14th (September) was a heavy day. We crossed the Lili, and 

 mounted the left bank by sliding zigzags, where the mules fell 

 constantly and the men had to carry most of the loads. Above the 

 zone of rhododendrons, and "water, water everywhere" — in the 

 grass, on the rocks, in the atmosphere, with the thermometer only 



3 above freezing. I think if one wanted stage scenery for the 



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