began overhauling
our baggage. The watches and chronometer were looked upon with suspicion,
their ticking causing anxiety and curiosity. They were passed round and
round and mercilessly thrown about from one person to the other, until
they stopped. They were then pronounced "dead." The compasses and
aneroids, which they could not distinguish from watches, were soon thrown
aside, as "they had no life in them," but great caution was displayed in
touching our rifles, which were lying on our bedding when the tent had
been torn down.

Great fears were entertained lest they should go off by themselves; and
it was only on my assurance (which made our captors ten times more
cautious) that they were not loaded, that at last they took them and
registered them in the catalogue of our confiscated property. I had upon
me a gold ring that my mother had given me when I was a child. I asked
permission to retain it, and with their superstitious nature they
immediately thought that it had occult powers, like the wands one reads
of in fairy tales.

A man called Nerba, who later on played an important part in our
sufferings, was entrusted with it, and warned never to let me see it
again. As we three prisoners sat bound and held down by guards it was
heartbreaking to see the Lamas and officers handle all our things so
roughly as to spoil nearly all they touched; but particularly disgusting
was their avidity when, in searching the pockets of the coat I wore
daily, and which I had not put on that morning, they found a quantity of
silver coins, some eight hundred rupees in all. Officers, Lamas and
soldiers made a grab for the money, and when order was re-established,
only a few coins remained where the sum had been laid down. Other moneys
which they found in one of our loads met with a similar fate. Among the
things arousing greatest curiosity was an india-rubber pillow fully blown
out. The soft, smooth texture of the india-rubber seemed to catch their
fancy, and one after the other they rubbed their cheeks on the cushion,
exclaiming at the pleasant sensation it gave them. However, in playing
with the brass screw by which the cushion was inflated, they gave it a
turn, and the imprisoned air found its way out with a hissing noise. This
created quite a panic among the Tibetans, and many were the conjectures
of their superstitious minds as to the meaning of the strange
contrivance. They regarded it as an evil omen, and naturally I took
advantag