imity of Jung's encampment. The minister
came out and received us cordially, expressing his regret at our
misadventure and the anxiety he had been in as to our fate; for the route
we had taken was not the ordinary one, but one of those short cuts which
so often prove the unwary traveller's greatest misfortune. As our
servants had not yet come up, he insisted upon our partaking of the
repast he had prepared for us. I did not require a second invitation,
and all scruples vanished as I looked with delight at the little leaf
cups containing the scented greasy condiments formerly despised, and
unhesitatingly plunged my fingers (for of course there were no spoons or
forks) into a mass of rice and mixed it incontinently with everything
within reach, disregarding the Jung's remonstrances, that this was salt-
fish and the other sweetmeat, and that they would not be good together.
After fasting for fifteen hours, and being in hard exercise the greater
part of that time, one is not disposed to be particular, and to this day
I have not the slightest conception what I devoured for the first ten
minutes; at the end of that time my first sensation was peculiarly
disagreeable--namely, that my hunger was sufficiently appeased to allow
me to consider what I was eating; at this point I stopped, still rather
hungry, but better off than my companion, who, having retained his
presence of mind, had not touched anything.

We now got into palanquins prepared for us, and arrived at the residency
at Katmandu at three in the morning, in a comatose state, arising partly
from fatigue, partly from drowsiness, but chiefly, I imagine, from
peculiar feeding.

CHAPTER VII.

_The British residency--Houses at the temple of
Pusputnath--Unprepossessing appearance of the Newar population--Their
dress and characteristic features--Ghorkas--Temple of Pusputnath--View
from the hill above it--The temple of Bhood--Worshippers from Thibet and
Chinese Tartary--Their singular and disgusting appearance--Striking scene
in the grand square of the city of Katmandu_.

I did not awake until the day was far advanced, and my first impulse was
to look out of my window, with no little curiosity, expecting to see the
Snowy Range somewhere in the heavens near the sun; in this I was
disappointed, for the mist was so dense that neither sun nor Snowy Range
was visible; we therefore determined to go in search of less exalted
objects of interest.

But ere we canter aw