overed with a sort of hair as hard as iron needles.
Whenever one of these creatures perceived us, it immediately rolled
itself up, so that you could no longer distinguish head, tail, or feet,
and became, as it were, a great ball, all bristling with long, hard
thorns. At first these beasts frightened us; we could not comprehend at
all what they were, for the books of prayer say not a word about them.
However, by degrees we got courage enough to examine them closely. As
these balls were too prickly to be touched with the hand, we placed a
stick horizontally across one of them, and then pressed down both ends,
until we made the ball open itself a little, and then there came out a
little face, like a man's, that looked at us fixedly. We cried out in
great terror, and ran away as hard as we could. At last, however, we
grew accustomed to the little animals, and they even served us for an
amusement, for it was good fun to turn them over and over down the hills,
with the iron ends of our staves.

"We also met with worms of a very surprising kind. One day when it was
very hot, we were journeying along a little stream that meandered through
a valley, in which the grass grew very high. Towards noon, after
drinking tea, we lay down and slept on the edge of the stream. You know
that, according to the rule of Tsong-Kaba, the yellow-mitred Lamas do not
wear trousers. When we woke up, we found a number of worms sticking to
our legs; they were of a grey colour, and as big as one's finger. We
tried to get them off, but could not; and as we did not experience any
pain from them, we waited to see what would be the end of the affair.
By-and-by the beasts swelled, and when they had become quite round and
large, they dropped off themselves. Oh! Thibet is a singular country.
You see animals there that are found nowhere else. Lamas who have not
travelled in the country won't believe what we tell them about it."
"They are wrong, then," said we, "for what you have just said is in
perfect conformity with the truth. These curious animals that you
describe are not inhabitants of Thibet only; they are very common in our
country. Those which are enveloped with sharp thorns, we call hedgehogs;
and the great worms we call leeches." "What! have you seen animals of
the kind?" "Often." "I'm glad to hear it, for you'll be able to confirm
what we say to any Lamas that don't believe us."

"Well, we went on quite comfortably, till we came to th