sis is past, the grass in the valley grows
visibly, and the mountains and hills around are covered, as by
enchantment, with flowers and verdure. The period was also one of
palingenesis for our camels. They became wholly divested of their hair,
which fell from them in large flakes, like rags, and for a few days they
were as bare as though they had been closely shaved from the muzzle of
the nose to the tip of the tail. In this condition, they were perfectly
hideous. In the shade they shook with cold in every limb, and at night
we were obliged to cover them with great pieces of felt to keep them from
dying with cold. After four days had elapsed, the hair began to
re-appear. First, it was merely a red down, extremely fine and curling,
like lamb's wool. The intense ugliness of the animals during their state
of nudity, made them appear perfectly beautiful in their new attire,
which was completed in a fortnight. Thus new dressed, they rushed with
ardour to the pasturages, in order to get up respectable dimensions and
adequate strength for their autumnal journey. To sharpen their
appetites, we had purchased some sea salt, of which we gave them a large
dose every morning, before they went into the valley: and every evening,
on their return, we gave them another dose, to aid them to ruminate,
during the night, the immense mass of forage which they had amassed in
their stomachs during the day.

The new coating of our camels had enriched us with an immense quantity of
hair; we exchanged one-half of it for barley-meal, and the question then
arose, what was the best use we could make of the remainder? A Lama, who
was a skilful ropemaker, suggested an excellent idea: he pointed out that
during the long journey through Thibet, we should need a large supply of
cord wherewith to fasten the luggage, and that ropes made of camel's hair
were, on account of their flexibility, the best for cold countries. The
suggestion, so full of wisdom, was at once adopted. The Lama gave us,
gratuitously, a few lessons in his art, and we set to work. In a very
short time, we were able to twist our material tolerably well, so as to
give it a form approximately, at least, resembling rope. Every day when
we went out to tend our cattle, each of us took under his arm a bundle of
camel's hair, which on his way he twisted into the smaller strings, that,
on our return, we combined into larger cords.

Samdadchiemba contented himself with looking on as