SUCCESS 299 
they had mounted to the high alp of Tungu, where friendly 
Tibetans from across the frontier were camped for the summer 
in their black horsehair tents, pasturing yaks. The journey 
to the pass and back was the best part of thirty miles. The 
ground was level enough for riding on the hardy Tartar ponies, 
stubborn, intractable, unshod, which never missed a foot among 
the sharp rocks, deep stony torrents and slippery paths, even 
in the pitch darkness of the final way back. Sorry-looking 
beasts, nothing could tire them, not even the sixteen stone 
burden ol the Soubah. Hooker himself walked some thirteen 
miles of the way, botanising ; but ' at dusk,' he confesses, ' I 
took horse, for alas ! I am quite blind in the dark.' 
Peppin, the Soubah, was as good as his v/ord ; going and 
coming they were most graciously received by his squaw and 
family. 
The whole party squatted in a ring inside the tent, the 
Soubah and myself seated at the head, on a beautiful Chinese 
mat. Queen Peppin then made tea (with salt and butter), 
we each produced our Bhotea cup, which was always kept 
full. Curd, parched rice, and beaten maize were handed 
liberally round, and we fared sumptuously, for I am very 
fond both of Brick Tea and curds. 
Nature reserved an impressive setting for the last act of the 
serio-comedy. As they sat round Peppin's hospitable fire, a 
tremendous peal like thunder echoed down the glen. The 
men started to their feet and cried to Hooker to be off, for the 
mountains were falhng and a violent storm was at hand. So 
for live or six miles they pursued their w^ay up the river bed, 
shrouded in fog and deafened by the unseen avalanches that 
thundered down unceasingly from the great mountains on 
either side. Only the low hills which flanked the river fended 
off the falhng rocks. Gradually, as they ascended, the valley 
widened ; at 15,000 feet they emerged on a broad, flat table- 
land, and 500 feet higher reached a long flat ridge, where 
stood the boundary mark — a Cairn ! This was their goal. 
The storm hfted its curtains. Beyond showed the blue and 
rainless skies of Tibet ; behind, were revealed the two snow 
