it took many lessons to teach him the disparity
between his armed rabble and the resources of the British Raj. In the
light of after-events it is clear that we could have made no progress
without inflicting terrible punishment. The slaughter at Guru only
forestalled the inevitable. We were drawn into the vortex of war by the
Tibetans' own folly. There was no hope of their regarding the British as
a formidable Power, and a force to be reckoned with, until we had killed
several thousand of their men.

After the action the Tibetan wounded were brought into Tuna, and an
abandoned dwelling-house was fitted up as a hospital. An empty cowshed
outside served as an operating-theatre. The patients showed
extraordinary hardihood and stoicism. After the Dzama Tang engagement
many of the wounded came in riding on yaks from a distance of fifty or
sixty miles. They were consistently cheerful, and always ready to
appreciate a joke. One man, who lost both legs, said: 'In my next battle
I must be a hero, as I cannot run away.' Some of the wounded were
terribly mutilated by shell. Two men who were shot through the brain,
and two who were shot through the lungs, survived. For two days
Lieutenant Davys, Indian Medical Service, was operating nearly all day.
I think the Tibetans were really impressed with our humanity, and looked
upon Davys as some incarnation of a medicine Buddha. They never
hesitated to undergo operations, did not flinch at pain, and took
chloroform without fear. Their recuperative power was marvellous. Of the
168 who were received in hospital, only 20 died; 148 were sent to their
homes on hired yaks cured. Everyone who visited the hospital at Tuna
left it with an increased respect for the Tibetans.

* * * * *

Three months after the action I found the Tibetans still lying where
they fell. One shot through the shoulder in retreat had spun as he fell
facing our rifles. Another tore at the grass with futile fingers through
which a delicate pink primula was now blossoming. Shrunk arms and shanks
looked hideously dwarfish. By the stream the bodies lay in heaps with
parched skin, like mummies, rusty brown. A knot of coarse black hair,
detached from a skull, was circling round in an eddy of wind. Everything
had been stripped from the corpses save here and there a wisp of cloth,
looking more grim than the nakedness it covered, or round the neck some
inexpensive charm, which no one had thought wort