hokas.

"It is the hermit speaking to God. Every night he climbs to the summit
of the rock, and from there addresses his prayers to Buddha the Great."

"How is he clothed?" I inquired.

"In skins."

Late in the afternoon we had an amusing incident. We came to a creek in
which were a number of men and women, hundreds of yaks and sheep, and
some thirty ponies.

The Shokas became alarmed, and immediately pronounced the folks to be
brigands. I maintained that they were not. Kachi had a theory that the
only way to tell brigands from honest beings was to hear them talk. The
brigands, he declared, usually shouted at the top of their voices when
conversing, and used language far from select, while well-to-do Tibetans
spoke gently and with refinement. I thought the only thing to do was to
go and address the people, when by the tone of voice we should find out
who and what they were. This, however, did not suit my Shokas. We were
placed in a rather curious position. In order to proceed on our journey
we must either pass through the Tibetan encampment or we must march
southward round a mountain, which would involve considerable trouble,
fatigue, and waste of time. We waited till night came, watching, unseen,
the Tibetans below us. As is customary with them, at sundown they
retired to their tents. Leaving my men behind, I crawled into their camp
during the night and peeped into one of the tents. The men were
squatting on the ground, round a fire in the centre, upon which steamed
two vessels with stewing tea. One old man had strongly marked Mongolian
features, accentuated by the heavy shadows which were cast by the light
of the fire on his angular cheek-bones and prominent and wrinkled brow.
He was busily revolving his prayer-wheel from left to right, repeating,
in a mechanical way, the usual _Omne mani padme hun_, words which come
from the Sanscrit, and refer to the reincarnation of Buddha from a lotus
flower, meaning literally, "O God, the gem emerging from a lotus
flower." Two or three other men whose faces I could not well see, as
they were stooping low, were counting money and examining several
articles of Indian manufacture which undoubtedly had been seized from
Shokas.

Having discovered the best way to pass without being seen, I went back
to my men, and led them, in the middle of the night, through the Tibetan
camp. We proceeded for a mile or so beyond the encampment. Having
selected a well-sheltered spot where we tho