d to
speak to us, and offered us tea. I would not accept their invitation,
distrusting them, but went on across the encampment, halting some three
hundred yards beyond. Chanden Sing and I proceeded afterward on a round
of calls at all the tents, trying to purchase food, and also to show
that, if we had declined to enter a particular tent, it was not on
account of fear, but because we did not want to be caught in a trap. Our
visit to the different _golingchos_ or _gurr_ (tents) was interesting
enough. The tents themselves were cleverly constructed, and admirably
adapted to the country in which they were used. The tents, black in
color, were woven of yaks' hair, the natural greasiness of which made
the cloth quite waterproof. They consisted of two separate pieces of
thick material, supported by two poles at each end. There was an oblong
aperture above in the upper part of the tent, through which the smoke
escaped. The base of the larger tents was six-sided. The roof, at a
height of six or seven feet above the ground, was kept tightly stretched
by means of long ropes passing over high forked poles and the ends of
which were pegged to the ground. Many wooden and iron pegs were required
to keep the bottom of the tent close to the ground all round, so as to
protect its inmates from the cutting winds of the great plateau. Outside
each tent stood four long poles with white flying-prayers--one for each
point of the compass. Around the interior of the larger tents there was
a wall from two to three feet high for protection against the wind,
rain, and snow. These walls were constructed of dried dung, which, as
time went on, was used as fuel. There were two apertures, one at either
end of the tent. The one facing the wind was always kept closed by means
of loops and wooden bolts.

The Tibetan is a born nomad, and shifts his dwelling with the seasons,
wherever he can find grazing for his yaks and sheep. He knows how to
make himself comfortable. For instance, in the centre of his tent he
makes himself a _goling_, or fireplace of mud and stone, some three feet
high, four or five feet long by one and a half wide, with two, three, or
more side ventilators and draught-holes. By this ingenious contrivance
he manages to increase the combustion of the dried dung, the most trying
fuel from which to get a flame. On the top of this stove a suitable
place is made to fit the several _raksangs_ (large brass pots and
bowls), in which the brick tea