d dirty.

The whole of the next day we remained where we were in order to dry our
things, and the Lama again stained my head down to the neck and in the
ears. The critical moment was approaching.

On August 4 we met a caravan of about a hundred yaks, accompanied by
armed men in tall yellow hats; but they took us for ordinary pilgrims
and did not trouble themselves about us. Then we rode past several
tents, and when we reached the top of the next pass we saw that tents
lay scattered about on the plain like black spots, fourteen together in
one place. We were now on the great highway to Lhasa.

The next day we came to a flat open valley, where there were twelve
tents. Three Tibetans came to our tent there at dusk, and had a long
conversation with the Lama, who was the only one of us who understood
Tibetan. When he came back to us he was quite overcome with fright. One
of the three men, who was a chief, had told him that information had
come from yak-hunters in the north that a large European caravan was on
the way. He had a suspicion that one of us might be a white man, and he
ordered us on no account to move from where we were. In fact, we were
prisoners, and with great anxiety we awaited the morning, when our fate
would be decided. All night a watch was kept round our tent, as we knew
by the fires, and next day we were visited by several parties, both
influential chiefs and ordinary nomads, who warned us, if we valued our
lives, to wait there till the Governor of the Province arrived.

In the meantime they did all they could to frighten us. Troops of
horsemen in close order dashed straight towards our tent, as if they
meant to stamp us into the earth, and so finish us off at once. On they
rushed, the horses' hoofs ringing on the bare ground and the riders
brandishing their swords and lances above their heads and uttering the
wildest shrieks. When they were so near that the mud was splashed on to
the tent, they suddenly opened out to right and left, and returned in
the same wild career to the starting-point. This martial manoeuvre was
repeated several times.

During the following days, however, they behaved in a more peaceful
fashion, and eventually we came to be on quite a friendly footing with
most of our neighbours. They visited us constantly, gave us butter,
milk, and fat, and when it rained crept coolly into our tent, which
became so crowded that we could hardly find room for ourselves. They
informed us that th