lo6 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



and were fit for their important duties. The Bhotias all 

 carried bags of sattu, or parched corn, which they could 

 eat in handfuls quickly without having to cook. It was 

 partially roasted and browned, and was not at all unpalat- 

 able, and more digestible than semi-boiled rice. Many 

 had suffered agonies the previous evening from eating 

 rice, which, though boiled for hours, could not be properly 

 cooked owing to the rarefaction of the air, water boiling 

 at a temperature of i8o° instead of 212° Fahr. The rice 

 naturally swelled in the stomach after being eaten, and 

 the result was howling and kicking all through the night. 

 Proceeding on our march, and gradually descending, we 

 got nearer to Taklakhar. Presently we saw from a dis- 

 tance a troop of horsemen coming at a hand-gallop 

 straight for our line of march, as if they came from the 

 Bians Pass, where, as we heard later, they had been sent 

 by the Zung-pun, and had been waiting to stop our 

 passage, as they had done the year before, when Smyth 

 had tried to get across. He had had only a few carriers, 

 and his loads were carried on jhobus. The Hunias had 

 simply unloaded the jhobus and turned them loose. 

 They had succeeded in stopping him, as he could not 

 leave his loads ; and he had to return the way he came, 

 being quite helpless. Such tactics were on this occasion 

 of no avail ; and we felt, with our sixty faithful Bhotias 

 marching in a solid body, with the yaks in the middle, 

 and headed by four sahibs and six shikaris, all carrying 

 rifles, guns, and revolvers, loaded with near a hundred 

 cartridges, that we rather had the advantage of these 

 gentlemen. 



Their advance was intended, doubtless, to be terrifying 

 and imposing, as they swept on in an extended line, shout- 

 ing and brandishing their weapons, fully sixty specimens 

 of the Hunia cavalry wheeling in picturesque confusion 



