nt butter, your Majesty!) put in Mansing,
half in Hindustani and half in the Tibetan language.

This natural application for food seemed to afford intense amusement to
our torturers. They formed a ring round us, and laughed at our appeal,
while Mansing and I, both of us famished, were left bound in a most
painful position.

The day had now waned. Our torturers did not fail to constantly remind
us that the following day our heads would be severed from our bodies. I
told them that it would cause us no pain, for if they gave us no food we
should probably be dead from starvation by then.

Whether they realized that this might be the case, or whether some other
reason moved them, I cannot say. Several Lamas, who had been most
brutal, including one who had the previous day taken part in Chanden
Sing's flogging, now became quite polite and treated us with a
surprising amount of deference. Two Lamas were dispatched 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 people
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 given us. Upon
application the Tibetans revolved the wooden bowl round and round my
mouth, and I licked it as clean as if it had never been used.

After all the excitement of the day, we were beginning to feel a little
better. It was a great relief to be treated 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. The place
was again in commotion. We were pounced upon and roughly seized. My legs
were quickly untied, a number of men ho