breed, his feet were not
shod, so that no serious injury resulted, as would have been the case if
the trampling had been done in iron shoes. At length the pony broke away
from the reins and scampered off, leaving his rider to recover the
breath that had been squeezed out of his body and to pick himself up.
This was an awkward beginning to the day's march, but, finding no bones
broken, and the pony having, for the occasion, allowed himself to be
caught, my friend mounted, successfully this time, and we proceeded on
our way. After some miles we overtook and passed the other party, and
pushed on till, finding we had gone twenty miles from Chaksam, were in a
pleasant spot suitable for resting in, and were uncommonly hungry, we
dismounted, took our ponies' bridles off, tied the animals up, gave them
their grain, and set to work upon our own sandwiches.

We rested an hour, and, thinking our surroundings too pleasant to leave
abruptly, we decided on another half-hour's rest. Just as we had done
so, and were looking forward to a spell of peaceful contemplation of
romantic scenery, as seen through the beautifying haze of
tobacco-smoke, one of us noticed that the Bhutya was fidgeting with his
head rope. He was on the edge of a field of green peas that were
tickling his fancy. As we looked, by some device known only, I should
think, to Bhutya ponies, he slipped the neck rope over one ear. Before
we could get at him he had slipped it over the other and was free. The
only man who had ever been known to catch the pony when he was free was
his own syce, whom his master had left at Chaksam. Here we were twenty
miles from Chaksam and twenty-five from Lhassa, and my friend with many
bruises on his body already contracted that morning, and a sore hip
that, though not preventing him riding, yet hurt him every time that he
tried to walk.

The party that we had overtaken now came up, and, after sending on most
of the escort so as not to detain His Majesty's mails, we proceeded to
try all the dodges known to us of catching a refractory pony. I suppose,
if we had been cowboys trained to use the lasso, we should have had no
trouble. As it was, we experienced much.

A feeding-bag full of grain held out coaxingly at arm's length made the
pony laugh. I tried him with a bit of commissariat biscuit, at which--as
is often the way of people--he snorted. I tried stalking him from behind
my own pony, and got fairly near him, only to find his two heels