xed our
efforts, and by its side on a similar hill the Medical College,
challenging us by its proud eminence to seize it. But such wild schemes
were not to be realised. These ways were not our ways. We marched
quietly into a swampy camp, sat down, and began to negotiate. Those that
negotiated were busy men, for the amount of talking that the
representatives of the Tibetan Government got through, and that needed
listening to, before anything was settled, must have been immense. The
rest of us were not often very busy. 'Those also serve who only stand
and wait' was our motto.

There was reluctance at first on the part of the monasteries to sell us
supplies, but this was shortly overcome. We had for one day to feed the
natives of the force on peas soaked overnight in water as a substitute
for tsampa, while waiting for supplies to come in; but from the time
when the latter began to do so till we left Lhassa we felt no pinch. The
large monasteries were our chief purveyors, but besides these the
Chinese community of Lhassa comprised certain considerable merchants who
at the instigation of the Amban placed their wares at our disposal from
the very first. A Chinese market was a great boon to us, for the
Chinaman, especially if at all influenced by other civilisations, has
ideas on dietetics more nearly approximating to both those of the
British and of the native of India than do the Tibetan's ideas. To the
ordinary Tibetan the sucking of mouthfuls of tsampa at irregular
intervals from a dirty leather bag which he hangs from his neck
represents an adequate idea of diet. The monks and richer laymen of
course do themselves better; but such dainties as they indulge in did
not appeal to our palates, nor to those of Indian natives. Their butter,
for instance, which at times both British and native had to make use of,
had always a special flavour of its own--a flavour which in an
indefinable way suggests Tibet and its many associations, being allied
to a blend of such smells as that of Tibetan fuel, of joss-stick
incense, and of temple floors smeared with grease. Few Europeans and
fewer natives could eat Tibetan butter with relish. The Chinaman, on the
other hand, provided us with flour sufficiently fine to bake with, with
white and brown sugar, with that solidified form of molasses called
'goor,' and with dried fruits. Latterly we had often had to mix tsampa
with flour to eke out our stock of the latter when baking bread for
British