blasts the monks
proclaim the New Year, just as long ago the priests of Israel announced
with trumpet notes the commencement of the year of jubilee. Then follow
cymbals which clash in a slow, ringing measure, and drums which rouse
echoes from the temple walls. The noise is deafening, but it sounds
cheerful and impressive after the deep stillness in the valleys of
Tibet.

After the musicians have taken their places in the court the dancing
monks enter. They are clad in costly garments of Chinese silk, and
bright dragons embroidered in gold flash in the folds as the sunlight
falls on them. The faces of the monks are covered by masks representing
wild animals with open jaws and powerful tusks. The monks execute a slow
circular dance. They believe, and so do all the people, that evil
spirits may be kept at a distance and driven away by this performance.

The next day I was summoned to the Tashi Lama. We passed along narrow
paved lanes between the monastery walls, through narrow gloomy passages,
up staircases of polished wood, and at last reached the highest floor of
the monastery, where the Tashi Lama has his private apartments. I found
him in a simple room, sitting cross-legged in a window recess from which
he can see the temple roofs and the lofty mountains and the sinful town
in the valley. He was beardless, with short-cut brown hair. His
expression was singularly gentle and charming, almost shy. He held out
his hands to me and invited me to take a seat beside him, and then for
several hours we talked about Tibet, Sweden, and this vast, wonderful
world.

WILD ASSES AND YAKS

If I had counted all the wild asses I saw during my travels in Tibet the
number would amount to many, many thousands. Up in the north, in the
very heart of the highland country, and down in the south, hardly a day
passed without our seeing these proud, handsome animals, sometimes
alone, sometimes in couples, and sometimes in herds of several hundred
head.

The Latin name for the wild ass, _Equus kiang_, indicates his close
relationship to the horse, and "kiang" is what he is called by the
people of Tibet. The wild ass is as large as an average mule, with
well-developed ears, and a sharp sense of hearing; his tail is tufted at
the end, and he is reddish-brown in colour, except on the legs and
belly, where he is white. When he scents danger he snorts loudly, throws
up his head, cocks his ears, and expands his nostrils; he is more like a
fine a