decision altered, but it was no use and we had
to yield to superior force.

So we turned back on the long road through dreary Tibet, and eventually
regained our headquarters in safety.

THE TASHI LAMA

Thus it was that we came back to the little town of Leh, the capital of
Ladak, and again saw the winter caravans which come over the lofty
mountains from Eastern Turkestan on their way with goods to Kashmir.
Then several years passed, but in August, 1906, I was once more in Leh,
having travelled (as has been described) across Europe to
Constantinople, over the Black Sea, through Persia and Baluchistan, then
by rail to Rawalpindi, in a tonga to Kashmir, and lastly on horseback to
Leh. On this occasion the caravan consisted of twenty-seven men and
nearly a hundred mules and horses, besides thirty hired horses, which
were to turn back when the provisions they carried had been consumed.

Our course lay over the lofty mountains in northern Tibet, and for
eighty-one days we did not see a single human being. But when we turned
off to the right and came to more southern districts of the country, we
met with Tibetan hunters and nomads, from whom we purchased tame yaks
and sheep, for the greater part of our animals had perished owing to the
rarefied air, the poor and scanty pasture, and the cold and the wind.
The temperature had on one occasion fallen as low as 40 deg. below zero.

After wandering for about six months we came to the Upper Brahmaputra,
which is the only place where the Tibetans use boats, if indeed they can
be called boats at all. They simply take four yak hides, stretch them
over a framework of thin curved ribs and sew them together, and then the
boat is ready; but it is buoyant and floats lightly on the water. When
we were only a day's journey from Shigatse, the second town of Tibet,
the caravan was ferried across the river. I myself with two of my
servants took my seat in a hide boat, dexterously managed by a Tibetan,
and we drifted down the Brahmaputra at a swinging pace.

A number of other boats were following the same fine waterway. They were
full of pilgrims flocking to the great Lama temple in Shigatse. Two days
later was the New Year of the country, and then the Lamaists celebrate
their greatest festival. Pilgrims stream from far and near to the holy
town. Round their necks they wear small images of their gods or
wonder-working charms written on paper and enclosed in small cases, and
many of them tu