ut went on across the encampment, halting
some three hundred yards beyond it. Chanden Sing and I proceeded
afterwards on a round of calls at all the tents, trying to purchase food
and also to show that, if we had declined to enter a particular tent, it
was not on account of fear, but because we did not want to be caught in a
trap. Our visit to the different _golingchos_ or _gurr_ (tents) was
interesting enough. The tents themselves were very cleverly constructed,
and admirably adapted to the country in which they were used; and the
various articles of furniture inside attracted my curiosity. The tents,
black in colour, were woven of yaks' hair, the natural greasiness of
which made them quite waterproof. They consisted of two separate pieces
of this thick material, supported by two poles at each end, and there was
an oblong aperture above in the upper part of the tent, through which the
smoke could escape. The base of the larger tents was hexagonal in shape:
the roof, generally at a height of six or seven feet above the ground,
was kept very tightly stretched by means of long ropes passing over high
poles and pegged to the ground. Wooden and iron pegs were used for this
purpose, and many were required to keep the tent close to the ground all
round, so as to protect its inmates from the cutting winds of the great
plateau. Long poles, as a rule numbering four, with white flying prayers,
could be seen outside each tent, or one to each point of the compass, the
East being taken for a starting-point. Around the interior of the larger
tents there was a mud wall from two to three feet high, for the purpose
of further protection against wind, rain and snow. These walls were
sometimes constructed of dried dung, which, as time went on, was used for
fuel. There were two apertures, one at either end of the tent; that
facing the wind being always kept closed by means of loops and wooden
bolts.

[Illustration: BLACK TENT]

The Tibetan is a born nomad, and shifts his dwelling with the seasons, or
wherever he can find pasture for his yaks and sheep; but, though he has
no fixed abode, he knows how to make himself comfortable, and he carries
with him all that he requires. Thus, for instance, in the centre of his
tent, he begins by making himself a _goling_, or fireplace of mud and
stone, some three feet high and four or five long, by one and a half
wide, with two, three, or more side ventilators and draught-holes. By
this ingenious contr