180 EXECUTIONS 
It was a beautiful place, and a splendid view was. 
obtained to the northward. I much regretted that I 
nad not got my camera with me on this occasion—the 
only time I ever was there. 
On May 4, leaving the tent and my men on the 
mountain, I returned to Ta-tsien-lu in order to despatch 
Mr. Kricheldorff to Mou-pin, a place, ten days’ journey 
to the E.N.E. of Ta-tsien-lu, which is but little known, Pére 
David and another French missionary being, I believe, 
the only Europeans that have ever visited it. I gave him 
directions to establish at least four stations, and sent a 
cook and interpreter and six collectors with him, fitting 
him out with a good tent, as I was nearly sure he could 
find no houses to live in. 
Before this, on my entering the town by the south 
gate, I saw five Tibetan heads hanging in bamboo 
cages. These, I learned, belonged to five men who 
had been executed near Litang while I was away. 
The frontier seemed to be in a very unsettled state, and 
I was told that on the military mandarin hearing of a 
disturbance, he promptly proceeded to the place and 
had these five men, whom he considered to be the ring- 
leaders, beheaded at once. One of the heads had 
' belonged apparently to a mere lad ‘of about sixteen 
or seventeen. After they had been exposed here for 
a certain time, they would be sent on to Cheng-tu 
