FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99  
100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   >>   >|  
e contents until they were tired. I swore at them in Spanish, English, and Hindustani, but it was small relief, as they didn't take the slightest notice, and I had neither hands to beat them nor feet to kick them over the _khud_. My orderly followed and told them in a mild North-Country accent that they would be punished if they did it again; there is some absurd army regulation about British soldiers striking followers. For all they knew, he was addressing the stars. They dropped the thing a dozen times in ten miles, and thought it the hugest joke in the world. I shall shy at a hospital doolie for the rest of my natural life. There is a certain Mongol smell which is the most unpleasant human odour I know. It is common to Lepchas, Bhutanese, and Tibetans, but it is found in its purest essence in these low-country, cross-bred Lepchas, who were my close companions for two days. When we reached the heat of the valley, they jumped into the stream and bathed, but they emerged more unsavoury than ever. It was a relief to pass a dead mule. At the next village they got drunk, after which they developed an amazing surefootedness, and carried me in without mishap. After two days with my Lepchas we reached Rungli (2,000 feet), whence the road to the plains is almost level. Here a friend introduced me to a Jemadar in a Gurkha regiment. 'He writes all about our soldiers and the fighting in Tibet,' he said. 'It all goes home to England on the telegraph-wire, and people at home are reading what he says an hour or two after he has given _khubber_ to the office here.' 'Oh yes,' said the Jemadar in Hindustani, 'and if things are well the people in England will be very glad; and if we are ill and die, and there is too much cold, they will be very sorry.' The Jemadar smiled. He was most sincere and sympathetic. If an Englishman had said the same thing, he would have been thought half-witted, but Orientals have a way of talking platitudes as if they were epigrams. The Jemadar's speech was so much to the point that it called up a little picture in my mind of the London Underground and a liveried official dealing out _Daily Mails_ to crowds of inquirers anxious for news of Tibet. Only the sun blazed overhead and the stream made music at our feet. I left the little rest-hut in the morning, resigned to the inevitable jolting, and expecting another promiscuous collection of humanity to do duty as _kahars_. But, to my great joy, I
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99  
100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Jemadar

 

Lepchas

 

reached

 
thought
 
soldiers
 

relief

 
Hindustani
 

England

 

stream

 

people


introduced
 

Gurkha

 

friend

 

plains

 

office

 
fighting
 

telegraph

 

reading

 

writes

 
khubber

regiment

 
things
 

talking

 

overhead

 

blazed

 

crowds

 

inquirers

 
anxious
 

morning

 

resigned


kahars

 

humanity

 

collection

 

jolting

 

inevitable

 

expecting

 

promiscuous

 

witted

 

Orientals

 

platitudes


sincere

 

smiled

 

sympathetic

 

Englishman

 

epigrams

 

Underground

 
London
 

liveried

 

official

 

dealing