THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 107 



for, in the darkness, I could not tell what they 

 might be. 



It was in this way that I spent the month of July, 

 when I had hoped to be travelling in Chinese Tibet. 

 Trying as this combination of horrors was, I think it 

 did me good rather than harm, for it made life more 

 desirable than it might otherwise have appeared, and 

 so prevented me succumbing to the disease which had 

 got all but a fatal hold of me. Moreover, the one 

 visitor neutralised the effect of the other : you cease 

 to care about scorpions when you see long snakes 

 moving about you at night, and Tibetan mastiffs are 

 insignificant after the visit of an Ursus isabellinus. 

 During this trying period Mrs Pagell paid me a short 

 visit every day or two, and did all in her power to 

 afford medical comforts. My servants also were anx- 

 ious to do all they could, but they did not know what 

 to do ; and I was scarcely able to direct them to do 

 more than weigh out medicines and to leave me as 

 undisturbed as possible, complete repose being almost 

 essential to recovery. I could only lie there, remem- 

 bering the lines 



" So he bent not a muscle, but hung there, 



As, caught in his pangs 

 And waiting his change, the king-serpent 



All heavily hangs, 

 Far away from his kind, in the pine, 



Till deliverance come." 



After I had recovered, and we were away from Pii, 



