e should be dead of starvation by then.

Whether they realised that this might be the case, or whether some other
reasons moved them, I cannot say; but several of the Lamas, who had been
most brutal, including one who had the previous day taken a part in
Chanden Sing's flogging, now became quite polite and treated us with a
surprising amount of deference. Two Lamas were despatched to the
monastery, and returned after some time with bags of _tsamba_ and a large
_raksang_ of boiling tea. I have hardly ever enjoyed a meal more, though
the Lamas stuffed the food down my throat with their unwashed fingers so
fast that they nearly choked me.

"Eat, eat as much as you can," said they grimly, "for it may be your last
meal."

And eat I did, and washed the _tsamba_ down with quantities of buttered
tea, which they poured into my mouth carelessly out of the _raksang_.

Mansing, whose religion did not allow him to eat food touched by folk of
a different caste, was eventually permitted to lick the meal out of the
wooden bowl. I myself was none too proud to take the food in any way it
might be offered, and when my humble "_Orcheh, orcheh tchuen mangbo
terokchi_" ("Please give me some more") met with the disapproval of the
Lamas, and brought out the everlasting negative, "_Middu, middu_," I was
still too hungry to waste any of the precious food: so the Tibetans
revolved the wooden bowl round and round my mouth, and I licked it as
clean as if it had never been used.

CHAPTER LXXXVII

Happiness checked--Stretched on the rack--Mansing shares my
fate--Drenched and in rags--An unsolved mystery.

AFTER all the excitement of the day, we were beginning to feel a little
restored and much relieved at being treated rather less roughly, were it
only for a few moments, when, small as it was, the improvement in our
condition was checked.

A Lama came from the monastery and gave orders right and left, and the
place was again in commotion. We were pounced upon and roughly seized,
and my legs were quickly untied, a number of men holding me down the
while. Again they lifted me until I stood upright on the cutting edge of
the prismatic log: two men seized one leg and two the other, and
stretched them apart as far as they could possibly go. Then rope after
rope was wound round my feet and ankles, and I was made fast as before to
the log.

As my legs were much farther apart this time, the pain in the muscles of
my legs when the