May, 1849. MEET TCHEBU LAMA. 5 



path : they were Lepchas, with blue and white striped 

 garments, bows and quivers, and with their long knives 

 gleaming in the sun : they seemed to be following a figure 

 in red Lama costume, with a scarlet silk handkerchief 

 wound round his head, its ends streaming behind him. 

 Though expecting this apparition to prove the renowned 

 Kajee and his myrmidons, coming to put a sudden 

 termination to my progress, I could not help admiring the 

 exceeding picturesqueness of the scenery and party. My 

 fears were soon dissipated by my men joyfully shouting, 

 " The Tchebu Lama ! the Tchebu Lama ! ' and I soon 

 recognised the rosy face and twinkling eyes of my friend 

 of Bhomsong, the only man of intelligence about the 

 Rajah's court, and the one whose services as Vakeel were 

 particularly wanted at Dorjiling. 



He told me that the Lassoo Kajee had orders (from 

 whom, he would not say) to stop my progress, but that 1 

 should proceed nevertheless, and that there was no 

 objection to my doing so ; and he despatched a messenger 

 to the Rajah, announcing my progress, and requesting 

 him to send me a guide, and to grant me every facility, 

 asserting that he had all along fully intended doing so. 



On the following morning the Lama proceeded to 

 Dorjiling, and I continued the ascent of Tendong, sending 

 my men round the shoulder to Temi in the Teesta valley, 

 where I proposed to pass the night. The road rapidly 

 ascends by a narrow winding path, covered with a loose 

 forest of oaks, rhododendrons, and various shrubs, not 

 found at equal elevations on the wetter Dorjiling ranges : 

 amongst them the beautiful laburnum-like Piptantkus 

 JVepaleiisis, with golden blossoms, was conspicuous. 

 Enormous blocks of white and red stratified quartz and 

 slate, some 20 and even 40 yards long, rest on the narrow 



