but it will be the fault of the patient, not
the cure. Besides, what does it matter whether you die to-day or
to-morrow?"

And with this unprofessional dictum he left me.

CHAPTER L

Tucker village--Chokdens--Houses--Flying prayers--Soldiers or
robbers?--A stampede--Fresh
provisions--Disappointment--Treachery--Shokas leave
me--Observations--Five men, all counted!

WHEN I left the Gomba, having been salaamed to the ground by my new
friends the Lamas, I walked about the village to examine all there was to
be seen.

Along the water's edge stood a number of dilapidated Chokdens made of mud
and stones, with a square base surmounted by a moulding, and an upper
decoration in steps, topped by a cylindrical column. They were in a row
at the east end of the village, and, as is well known, they are supposed
to contain a piece of bone, cloth or metal, and books or parts of them,
that had once belonged to a great man or a saint. Roughly drawn images
are occasionally found in them. In rare cases, when cremation has been
applied, the ashes are collected into a small earthenware urn, and
deposited in one of the Chokdens. The ashes are usually made into a paste
with clay, on which, when flattened like a medallion, a representation of
Buddha is either stamped from a mould, or engraved by means of a pointed
tool.

The interior of the houses at Tucker was no more pleasing than the
exterior. Each habitation had a walled courtyard, and the top of the
wall, as well as the edge of the flat roof, was lined with masses of
tamarisk for fuel. In the courtyard, sheep and goats were penned at
night; and the human beings who occupied the rooms were dirty beyond all
description. There were hundreds of flying prayers over the monastery as
well as over each house, and as the people stood on their roofs watching
us, laughing and chatting, the place had quite a gay aspect.

While I was strolling about some fifty or sixty men appeared on the
scene, armed with matchlocks and swords, and I looked upon them with
suspicion, but Kachi reassured me, and said they were not soldiers, but a
powerful band of robbers encamped about half a mile off, and on very
friendly terms with the Lamas. As a precaution, I loaded my rifle, which
was quite sufficient to occasion a stampede of the armed crowd, followed,
in the panic, by all the other villagers that had collected round us.
Like all Tibetans, they were a miserable lot, though power