Pass--Grass--Threats--Puzzled Tibetans--The Maium
Pass--Obos.

DURING the evening the Tibetans came over to my camp and made themselves
useful. They helped us to get fuel, and brewed tea for me in Tibetan
fashion. They seemed decent fellows, although sly if you like. They
professed to hate the Lamas, the rulers of the country, to whom they took
special pleasure in applying names hardly repeatable in these pages.
According to them, the Lamas had all the money that came into the
country, and no one but themselves was allowed to have any. They were not
particular as to the means used to obtain their aim; they were cruel and
unjust. Every man in Tibet, they said, was a soldier in case of
emergency, and every one a servant of the Lamas. The soldiers of the
standing army received a certain quantity of _tsamba_, bricks of tea and
butter, and that was all, no pay being given in cash. Usually, however,
they were given a pony to ride, and when on travelling duty they had a
right to obtain relays of animals at post-stations and villages, where
also they were entitled to claim supplies of food, saddles, or anything
else they required, to last them as far as the next encampment. The
weapons (sword and matchlock) generally belonged to the men themselves,
and always remained in the family; but occasionally, and especially in
the larger towns, such as Lhassa and Sigatz, the Lamas provided them:
gunpowder and bullets were invariably supplied by the authorities. The
arms were manufactured mostly in Lhassa and Sigatz. Although the Tibetans
boasted of great accuracy in shooting with their matchlocks, which had
wooden rests to allow the marksman to take a steady aim, it was never my
pleasure to see even the champion shots in the country hit the mark. It
is true that, for sporting purposes and for economy's sake, the Tibetan
soldier hardly ever used lead bullets or shot, but preferred to fill his
barrel with pebbles, which were scarcely calculated to improve the bore
of the weapon. Furthermore, gunpowder was so scarce that it was but very
seldom they had a chance of practising.

[Illustration: FLYING PRAYERS ON THE MAIUM PASS]

At sunrise the view of Gunkyo was magnificent, with the snow-covered
mountains tinted gold and red, and reflected in their minutest details in
the still waters of the lake. We loaded our yaks, the Tibetans giving us
a helping hand, and started towards the Maium Pass, following a general
course of 109 deg. up