d
hitherto said nothing; but when night came, and he found that we were not
ready, he could no longer restrain his impatience. "It's quite obvious,"
said he to us, "that you are people altogether of another world; why
don't you understand that your tent is at the pawnbroker's?" "At the
pawnbroker's? Impossible!" "It is not at all impossible; it is
considerably more than probable; the Hoei-Hoei wanted money wherewith to
pay his debts at the end of the twelfth moon; he was delighted to find
you with him in the emergency; he borrowed your tent, and he took it
straight--not to the Land of Grass, but to the House of Pledges; and now
he hasn't got the money to redeem it with. Just have him up: I'll put
the matter to him, and you'll see." We requested the host to come to us.
As soon as he entered the chamber, Sandara the Bearded commenced his
interrogatory with imposing solemnity. "Listen to me," said he; "this
evening I have a few words to say to you. You are a Turk--I a Lama, yet
the laws of reason are the same for both of us. You have taken our tent,
and you have carried it to the pawnbroker's; if you were in an
embarrassed position, you did quite right; we do not reproach you; but we
depart to-morrow, and our tent is not yet here. Which of us has reason
on his side? we in claiming our property, or you in not restoring it? Do
not tell us that the tent is at a friend's: I tell you that it is at the
pawnbroker's. If, by the time we have drunk this jug of tea, our tent is
not brought back, I will myself go to the magistrate to demand that it be
given up to us, and we shall see whether a Lama-Dchiahour is to be
oppressed by a Turk." By way of peroration to this harangue, Sandara
gave such a thump with his fist upon the table, that our three cups
performed a caper in the air. The Turk had nothing to say, and it was
manifest that our tent was really at the pawnbroker's. After a moment's
pause, the host assured us that we should have our property immediately,
and he entreated us earnestly not to mention the matter abroad, lest it
should compromise his establishment. We had scarcely quitted our room,
before there arose a grand confusion in the court-yard; the attendants
were collecting everything they could lay their hands upon, saddles, bed
clothes, candlesticks, kitchen utensils, wherewith to redeem the tent,
which, before we slept, we saw securely packed on the car which was to
convey it to the Lamasery.

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