e pain caused by riding those wretched yaks in our
wounded condition were terrible.

[Illustration: MAP DRAWN IN BLOOD DURING CAPTIVITY]

All our property had been taken away from us, and our clothes were in
rags and swarming with vermin. We were bare-footed and practically
naked. The first few days we generally marched from before sunrise till
sometimes an hour or two after sunset; and when we reached camp we were
torn off our yaks and our jailers fastened iron cuffs round our ankles,
in addition to those we had already round our wrists. Being considered
quite safe, we were left to sleep out in the open without a covering of
any kind, and often lying on snow or deluged with rain. Our guard
generally pitched a tent under which they slept; but even when they did
not have one, they usually went to brew their tea some fifty yards or so
from us.

Helped by my two servants, who sat by me to keep watch and to screen me,
I managed, at considerable risk, to keep a rough record of the journey
back, on a small piece of paper that had remained in my pocket when I had
been searched by the Tibetans. As I did when on the rack, I used to draw
my right hand out of its cuff, and, with a small piece of bone I had
picked up as pen, and my blood as ink, I drew brief cipher notes, and a
map of the whole route back.

Necessarily, as I had no instruments with which to take careful
observations, I had to content myself with taking my bearings by the sun,
the position of which I got fairly accurately by constantly watching the
shadow projected by my body on the ground. Of course, when it rained or
snowed, I was altogether at a loss, and had to reckon my bearings by the
observations of the previous day.

CHAPTER XCIV

South of the outward journey--Severity of our
guard--Ventriloquism and its effects--Terrible but instructive
days--The Southern source of the Brahmaputra--Leaving Yutzang.

WE travelled, as can be seen by the dotted red line on the map attached
to this book, first W. then W.N.W., N.W., W. and N.W., following the
Brahmaputra along a course South of the outward journey, until we reached
the boundary of the Yutzang[37] (central, or Lhassa) province. Our guard
were not only severe with us, but they also ill-treated us in every
possible way. One or two of the soldiers, however, showed kindness and
thoughtfulness, bringing us a little butter or _tsamba_ whenever they
could do so unseen by their comrades. Th