1G2 TIBET. Chap. XXIII. 



chirped ; and all rejoiced as they prepared themselves for 

 the last flight of the year, to the valleys of the southern 

 Himalaya, to the Teesta, and other rivers of the Terai and 

 plains of India. 



The Dingpun paid his respects to us in the morning, 

 wearing, besides his green cloak, a white cap with a green 

 glass button, denoting his rank ; he informed us that he had 

 written to his superior officer at Kambajong, explaining his 

 motives for conducting us across the frontier, and he drew 

 from his breast a long letter, written on Bap/we * paper, 

 whose ends were tied with floss silk, with a large red seal ; 

 this he pompously delivered, with whispered orders, to an 

 attendant, and sent him off. He admired our clothes 

 extremely,! and then my percussion gun, the first he had 

 seen ; but above all he admired rum and water, which he 

 drank with intense relish, leaving a mere sip for his 

 comrades at the bottom of his little wooden cup, which they 

 emptied, and afterwards licked clean, and replaced in his 

 breast for him. We made a large basin full of very weak 

 grog for his party, who were all friendly and polite ; and 

 having made us the unexpected offer of allowing us to rest 

 ourselves for the day at Yeumtso, he left us, and practised 

 his men at firing at a mark, but they were very indifferent 

 shots. 



I ascended with Campbell to the lake he had visited 



* Most of the paper used in Tibet is, as I have elsewhere noticed, made from the 

 bark of various species of Daphncce, and especially of Edyeivorthia Gardneri, and is 

 imported from Nepal and Bhotan ; but the Tibetans, as MM. Hue and Gabet 

 correctly state, manufacture a paper from the root of a small shrub : this I 

 have seen, and it is of a much thicker texture and more durable than 

 Daphne paper. Dr. Thomson informs me that a species of Astragalus is used 

 in western Tibet for this purpose, the whole shrub, which is dwarf, being reduced 

 to pulp. 



t All Tibetans admire and value English broad - cloth beyond any of our 

 products. Woollen articles are very familiar to them, and warm clothing is one of 

 the first requisites of life. 



