stance, to let
me judge of its quality. I first bought only the handful. Having assured
myself that it was good, I then purchased the remainder.

We had marched on the same afternoon about half a mile in the direction
of Mansarowar, when we were overtaken by one of the brigands, whom we
had left a short time before. He rode toward us, apparently in great
excitement. Having dismounted, he drew his sword and began chasing one
of my yaks. This seemed so strange a proceeding that we were at a loss
to understand his intentions. He screamed to us that he meant no harm,
so we let him go on. He eventually overtook one yak, and, after a
struggle with the unfortunate animal, he flung his arms round the
beast's neck and rested his head between its horns. I was getting rather
anxious, fearing that this effusion was only a dodge to cut the beast's
throat. Much to my astonishment, I saw that the young Jogpa had seized a
tuft of the yak's hair with his teeth and was trying to tear it off,
while the unfortunate quadruped was making desperate efforts to shake
off its persecutor. The hair eventually gave way, and with a tuft of it
hanging from his tightly closed lips, the Jogpa let go the animal's
head, and, brandishing his sword, next made a dash for its tail.

I thought it was time to interfere. I seized the man by his pigtail,
while he in his turn clung to the tail of the frightened yak, which,
bolting, dragged both of us after it at an unpleasant pace.

The Jogpa, in our mad flight, cut off a long lock of the yak's silky
hair. Having secured this, he appeared to be quite satisfied, let go,
and sheathed his sword. He quickly concealed the stolen locks in his
coat, and then made low bows to us, sticking out his tongue, and
declaring that unless such a precaution were taken when parting with a
beast, bad luck was sure to come to you. This closed the incident. The
Jogpa rode away perfectly happy, and we continued our march across the
stony plain until we reached the ridge which extended across it, and in
its continuation divided the two lakes. We climbed up to the top, rising
to 16,450 feet. In order to make certain that the ridge really extended
right across between the two lakes, I made an excursion about half way
along its length, and found that the northern part seemed somewhat lower
than the southern; but in the portion between the two sheets of water,
and barring the central depression which I have already mentioned, it
seemed ev