IN TIBET .311 
knocked up that I had great difficulty in dragging him after 
me. At the lakes I refreshed him with some tufts of green 
Carex and led him back, suffering much from headache 
as the sun was intensely hot, and a Httle exertion brings on 
headache at these elevations (nearly 18,000 feet). 
Late in the evening I met Campbell's party, viz. the 
Lama and Phipun, looking for me ; they told me that 
Campbell had gallantly pushed through thirty Sepas armed 
with matchlocks, that no hands w^ere laid on him, but on 
our cooHes (we had no Sepas nor arms), who of course were 
much frightened ; that Campbell having shot ahead and 
I too being gone, he, the Lama, took on himself to point 
out to the Chinese officer that if either of us died for want 
of our tents, &c., it would be a terrible affair for the officer 
above all, who should have taken its alive rather than stop 
our men. The cooHes were then allowed to pass on too, 
and came up at night suffering terribly from the dry heat, 
sun and dust and elevation. The Lama then went to find 
Campbell, who had mistaken the way towards Donkiah, 
and soon came in full of spirits and gave me a most ludicrous 
account of the mixture of fright and obstinacy and force 
the Chinese Sepas displayed. 
In the evening the Chinese followed us, the Dingpun, 
or Lieutenant, riding on the top of a black Yak ! surrounded 
by pots, pans, bags and bamboo bottles of buttermilk, a 
tent, blankets, &c., all bundled about his Yak, and he on 
the top of all like a gipsy on a laden donkey. He was a 
small withered man, in a green coat, with a gilt button on his 
Tartar cap ; behind came the Sepas, enormous ruffianly 
looking men, dressed in blanketing, each armed with a 
pipe, a long knife, and a long rude matchlock lashed across 
his stern. These matchlocks are slung at right angles across 
the hip ; they are very rude, long, with a pronged support 
or rest ; the latter folds up with a hinge and projects Hke 
antelopes' horns beyond the muzzle. Such ungainly imple- 
ments across their stern parts were comical enough looking. 
They marched in orderly, took no notice of us, and camped 
close by. We tented in a low cattle enclosure on the bare 
plain, burning Yaks' dung for fuel. The cold was intense 
and wind violent and dusty, sky brilliantly clear. 
We determined to stay a day or two where we were, at 
