The next morning a crowd follow~ ed us over the bridge. Our entry into a town was nearly always the cause of a procession, rather like the entrance of a circus, with horses instead of elephants. First there would be the Barnum and Bailey arrival, then the slow ride through the town, followed by the classic' pitching of our tent. At last the show would start: strange performance of washing in a land where no} one knows the meaning of the word: curious cooking rites in a mystic vessel that gave a piercing whistle and jets of steam; examination of weird instruments and the writing)) down of the arcane information gained from.them., The only thing lacking was a band, and yet on one arrival a formidable drum was bein beaten, Owing to the strain of the journey beginning to tell on the horses and mules we had applied for "wuia." This is a system for animal hire in Tibet instituted, I believe, in Imperia! times, and original tended solely for officials. Now it has fallen into) abuse, and its granting depends upon the whim of the hsienehang. The idea is that the Tibetans upply animals and in return are paid a small sum of mone well as ha ig a certain amount of their taxes pardoned. We were now on our way to Kantzu, up the Ya sungkiang, and expected to have to change our animals at every day- stage. As it! was, we had to change about four or five times the first stage, and each change caused such a delay whilst they sought animals, or protested that they had none and that we must wait until they had (they did net relish losing the chance for a tax remission) that we were much delayed and irr fed. On the third day and afterwards, though, things improved and we usually had not to change animals more than twice a a fairly good spot for camping at Diana, but the local Tibetans sought to dissuade us from using it, saying that an evil spirit lived there. When the tent pegs were driven in he vould wake up in fury and the: who camped there would be stric with illness. Actually the spot was very marshy in places and not unlikely to give the Theumatics to those who stayed any length of tim The next night we camped at Takai, where there is a large lamasery. Here it was much cooler, for just ahead lies the beautiful snow-clad Kawalujih and its two attend peaks. At certain times highly religious lamas can see a black lion chasing round the peak.
Two days later we reached Kantzu, The gorge had been left behind at noon on that day, and the route led aer pretty level plain rather broad, with the braided Yalung keeping to its southern boundary, whilst to the southwest high limestone mountains were snow-clad.
We camped here in a little grove below the great lamasery. There are here about 2,000 lamas and drabi but in spite of its importance as a religious centre, and in spite of the outwardly attractive appearance of the lamasery with its flat mud roofs, quasi-Algerian air, and golden roofs the interior is extremely shabby and dirty, even the main halls. The whole place is like a gigantic rabbit warren of filthy, muddy wet passage-ays, dog-haunted, off which small doors lead into the lamas' rooms. In a small courtyard a couple of lamas were practising some steps' for the devil dances: Tibetan women were bearing great wooden pitchers of water; tattered and discoloured prayer-flags hung in an air without motion; occasionally a lama would pass, automatically muttering his everlasting abracadabra "O mani pad me hum," translated freely as "O thou sacred jewel of the lotus." and more literally as "O mammy me tum,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.