TSEKOU TO KHAMTI 



of rather less precarious dimensions, we made our midday meal. 

 Water was running" among the boulders in a bed of felspar granite^ 

 moss and red orchids tapestried the sheltering wall of rock. On 

 their arrival at the biaf tea-kettle, the first care of the Thibetans 

 after dropping their packs was to draw forth their bamboo-root 

 pipes, and in blue clouds of tobacco smoke to obliterate their trials. 

 None can tell the full enjoyment of a pipe after the hardships of a 

 march like this. Nam shared our view as he squatted like a 

 Buddha ruminant. I believe a cataclysm would not shake him out 

 of a casuality greater even than an American's. 



Naturally, there was no further question about the mules. We 

 sent back word to the headman to forward all the packs he could, 

 and to leave the animals where they were under a small guard. 

 For the present it must ho. pedidiis cum janilns for us, like the great 

 Tartarin. But this was something- like exploration. The enjoy- 

 ment of the work grew on me. And added to it all was the distant 

 pleasure of dropping in upon the English by a road they did not 

 know. 



We had thought our efforts of the morning laborious : they were 

 nothing to those of the rest of the day. Close following on the 

 escalade of a crag by the help of two notched tree trunks, there 

 succeeded a struggle up an almost perpendicular rampart of damp 

 soil, where, while digging one's elbows into the surface and clutch- 

 ing the tussocks, a slip would seem to have set one rolling to 

 eternity. I own I did not dare look back for fear of giddiness. 

 Shortly before nightfall we bivouacked on a ledge hard by a patch 

 of snow. The altitude was 10,808 feet, and the temperature 48° 

 Fahr. As it was fine, and we were dry, we all felt better than at 

 the base of the Garnier Peak. This was Nam's first introduction 



to snow, which his curiosity led him to taste, under the assurance 



267 



