After further geographical work we made a rapid refyn to Tachienlu, and I was sorry to have to say good bye to my. companion, who was forced hurriedly to return to the coast, The big trek, however, was to begin, and I was most fortunate able to enlist the company of an American friend who wanted to see something of the grasslands, It took nearly three weeks to get sufficient horses and mules ta take us and our food. In fact it took us so long that we wondered if, with such an apparent plethora of animals, the authorities at Tachienlu were ess agreeable to our travelling in the interior than they smilingly would admit, Fortunately a debt owed my American friend by a Tibetan horsoowner, and og our proposed journey would' help to pay this off if we engaged his animals, we at last were able to make a start.
'Once. the stone. bridge above ghienlu is crossed one is in truly 'Tibetan territory, where Chinese are few, and where the nomad and the lama, the former with his great herds of yak, the latter with' his horse, rosary and prayer wheel, are almost the sole folk one meets with, Our route first led due westwards, past Cheto and Tiju, and then in a Somewhat northerly' direction up a steep valley, wooded with conifers and finally with stunted hododendrons, to the high summit of the grassy Kail pass. From here, looking from northwest to southwest one. should enjoy the most magnificent of panoramas. In a wide are the hori: zon is hemmed in by great snowy peaks, from the attractive Djam to the glorious Minya Gonkar. Actually clouds hid the view, allowing us to see only the great rolling grasslands between us and the peaks, and a little later it began to snow. As it did so a Tibetan postman came up over the pass on his way from Litang, mounted on a horse, "@ gun on his back and singing gaily. 'This is the first time I have heard a postman sing when on duty. His -alr' was naturally of the type characteristic Tibet, with wide, "leaping inter vals and a distonie favour, only to end suddenly with " note, wholly unrelated in. key, which was prom Jonged for several moments. The neared approach to Tibetan melodies I have heard, and that Is an extremely distant approach, are the "Hymns from the Rig Veda" of Hoist
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.