Dec. 1849. DINNER WITH THE DEWAN. 231 



cially as we were now amongst adherents of the Dewan, 

 and the Bhotanese are notorious for this crime. Only one 

 means suggested itself for proving this, and with Campbell's 

 permission I sent my compliments to the Dewan, with a 

 request for one of his hunting dogs to eat the vomit. It was 

 sent at once, and performed its duty without any ill effects. 

 1 must confess to having felt a malicious pleasure in the 

 opportunity thus afforded of showing our jailor how little we 

 trusted him ; feeling indignant at the idea that he should 

 suppose he was making any way in our good opinion by his 

 familiarities, which we were not in circumstances to resist, 



The crafty fellow, however, outwitted me by inviting us to 

 dine with him the same day, and putting our stomachs and 

 noses to a severe test. Our dinner was served in Chinese 

 fashion, but most of the luxuries, such as becJie-de-mer, were 

 very old and bad. We ate, sometimes with chop-sticks, 

 and at others with Tibetan spoons, knives, and two-pronged 

 forks. After the usual amount of messes served in oil and 

 salt water, sweets were brought, and a strong spirit. 

 Thoba-sing, our filthy, cross-eyed spy, was waiter, and 

 brought in every little dish with both hands, and raised 

 it to his greasy forehead, making a sort of half bow previous 

 to depositing it before us. Sometimes he undertook to praise 

 its contents, always adding, that in Tibet none but very 

 great men indeed partook of such sumptuous fare. Thus 

 he tried to please both us and the Dewan, who conducted 

 himself with pompous hospitality, showing off what he con- 

 sidered his elegant manners and graces. Our blood boiled 

 within us at being so patronised by the squinting ruffian, 

 whose insolence and ill-will had sorely aggravated the 

 discomforts of our imprisonment. 



Not content with giving us what he considered a mag- 

 nificent dinner (and it had cost him some trouble), the 



