July, 1849. SINGTAM SOUBAH. 71 



sion about the geography of the frontier, he inflamed my 

 curiosity by telling me that Kinchinjhow was a very holy 

 mountain ; more so than its sister-peaks of Chumulari 

 and Kinchinjunga ; and that both the Sikkim and Tibetan 

 Lamas, and Chinese soldiers, were ready to oppose my 

 approach to it. This led to my asking him for a sketch 

 of the mountains ; he called for a large sheet of paper, and 

 some charcoal, and wanted to form his mountains of sand ; 

 I however ordered rice to be brought, and though we had 

 but little, scattered it about wastefully. This had its effect : 

 he stared at my wealth, for he had all along calculated on 

 starving me out, and retired, looking perplexed and 

 crestfallen. Nothing puzzled him so much as my being 

 always occupied with such, to him, unintelligible pursuits ; 

 a Tibetan " cui bono ? ' was always in his mouth : " What 

 good will it do you ?' " Why should you spend weeks 

 on the coldest, hungriest, windiest, loftiest place on the 

 earth, without even inhabitants ? ' Drugs and idle 

 curiosity he believed were my motives, and possibly a 

 reverence for the religion of Boodh, Sakya, and Tsong- 

 kaba. Latterly he had made up his mind to starve me 

 out, and was dismayed when he found I could hold out 

 better than himself, and when I assured him that I should 

 not retrace my steps until his statements should be verified 

 by a letter from Tchebu ; that I had written to him, and 

 that it would be at least thirty days before I could receive 

 an answer. 



On the 19 th of July he proposed to take me to Tungu, 

 at the foot of Kinchinjhow, and back, upon ponies, provided 

 I would leave my people and tent, which I refused to do. 

 After this I saw little of him for several days, and began 

 to fear he was offended, when one morning his attendant 

 came to me for medicine with a dismal countenance, and 



