ing-place--a bleak spot very much swept
by the wind. From there we marched to Tuna, and thence to Dochen, with
Chumalari on our right, showing us a new view of himself as we rounded
each spur that jutted out into the plain. We passed many herds of the
Kiang or wild ass, some of us galloping after them in an attempt to get
a close view; but they are fleet and wary, and evaded us altogether. The
simple peasant of that part of Tibet has been known to allude to the
Kiang as the 'children of Chumalari,' and thus to explain their
sanctity, for Chumalari himself is a sacred mountain. Whether belief in
this origin of the Kiang is orthodox, or merely a local superstition, I
do not know.

Hereabouts we passed the 'hot springs,' where still lay what was left
of the corpses of many Tibetans who had fallen in the fight that had
occurred there some months before. We had, I am told, once actually
buried these corpses when we found that the enemy were making no effort
in that direction; but the Tibetans, holding curious theories on the
subject, had again unearthed them. The principle that apparently governs
Tibetan obsequies is the desirability of making a corpse fulfil its
natural function as food for animals. Hence exposure of corpses as food
for wolves or vultures causes them no pang. They even, it is said, so
far elaborate the above principle as to regard a corpse as specially
honoured when given as food to the domestic pig, the origin of this
development of the principle being of course really utilitarian; for the
high-placed Tibetan, since in his life he 'feeds high and lives soft,'
must of necessity in his death be specially nutritious. Lama-fed pork
is--so they say--regarded as the greatest of delicacies.

Leaving Dochen and the lake, on the bank of which it lies, we turned up
a valley to our left, and emerged at Kalatso, the name given to the post
which adjoins the lake of the same name. From here we marched along the
Kalatso plain to Menza. The next day was to bring us into Kangma.

My commanding officer was with the first column, and had given me orders
to ride on early on alternate days to meet him at the camp ahead of me
before he left the latter. His hour for leaving each such camp would be
9 A.M., by which hour I had to arrive there. I had to bring a sergeant
with me on each occasion. It was fifteen miles from Menza to Kangma. The
road was rather rough, so they said, but one could cover the distance in
two hours and a