io8o THROUGH ASIA 
farthest outpost of an inhabited region, after travelling 
fifty-five days through the wilds of Northern Tibet. ^ 
Not long after that we observed the old woman s te , 
standi,,? on the right bank of the stream ; and beside ,t 
*e pitched camp No. XXXVIII. Her yaks goats, and 
sheep grazed in the vicinity. The last-named made our 
mouths water terribly. 
Our conversation with the old dame may be regar ^ 
a triumphant vindication of the value of the primitive 
gesture language. She did not of course know who or 
what we were; and there was none in our party xvho 
understood Mongolian. Parpi Bai remembered a sing e 
word, W = “there is” ; and I knew the three common 
creooraphical terms, =-“ mountain, gol - rivei, and 
“ lake.” But this vocabulary was scarcely rich 
enough to make the old woman understand that first and 
foremost, above all things else, we wanted to buy a sheep 
I beaan to bleat like a ram, at the same time showing her 
two Hang or Chinese taels (twelve to thirteen shillings) , 
and she understood me. f,.pcVi 
That evening we enjoyed the rare luxury 
mutton for supper. , 
My men were perfectly enraptured. 1 hey 
done with the dreary, lonely, monotonous ^mnner of . e 
they had pursued on the Tibetan highlands. We had m 
llLr any need to put ourselves on short commons and 
eat tough yak beef ; and perhaps we might be able even 
here to^fill up the lamentable gaps which had been made 
In our caravan since we crossed the Arka-tagh Purther 
employment of the language of signs taught us t a 
the old woman’s husband had gone into t e i 
(mountains) to shoot boka (yaks) ; but that she expected 
him home before the naren (sun) set. 
for the Mongol’s return, I, accompanied by _ 1 arpi a. 
and Emin Mirza. paid a visit to the interior o 
old woman’s tent. When she saw us approaching, she 
came to meet us with her eight-year old son by 
side I gave the boy a sweetmeat and his mother a 
pinch of tobacco, which she instantly stuffed into her 
