howed thoughtfulness, bringing us a little butter or
_tsamba_ whenever they could do so unseen by their comrades. The guard
was changed so frequently that we had no chance of making friends with
the men. Each lot seemed worse than the last.

A curious incident happened one day, causing a scare among the Tibetans.
We had halted near a cliff. The soldiers were some twenty yards off.
Having exhausted all other means to inspire these ruffians with respect,
as a last resort I tried ventriloquism. I spoke, and pretended to
receive answers to my words from the summit of the cliff. The Tibetans
were terror-stricken. They asked me who was up there. I said it was some
one I knew.

"Is it a _Plenki_?"

"Yes."

Immediately they hustled us on our yaks while they mounted their ponies,
and we left the place at a great speed.

On reaching a spot, which from observations taken on my outward journey
I reckoned to be in longitude 83 deg. 6' 30" east, and latitude 30 deg.
27' 30" north, I had a great piece of luck. It was at this point that the
two principal sources of the Brahmaputra met and formed one river, one
coming from the north-west, which I had already followed, the other
coming from the west-north-west. The Tibetans, to my delight, selected
the southern route, thus giving me an opportunity of visiting the second
of the two principal sources of the great river. This second stream rose
in a flat plain, having its first birth in a lakelet in approximate
longitude 82 deg. 47' east and latitude 30 deg. 33' north. I gave the
northern source my own name. I was glad to be the first white man to
visit both sources of the Brahmaputra River.

Dreary as this period of captivity was, yet it was instructive. As we
went along, I got the soldiers to teach me several Tibetan songs, and
from the less ill-natured men of our guard I picked up, by judicious
questioning, a considerable amount of information.

Over a more southerly and lower pass than the Maium Pass, by which,
healthy, hopeful, and free, we had entered the province of Yutzang, we
now left it, wounded, broken down, almost naked, and prisoners.

We proceeded in a north-westerly direction. Once clear of the sacred
Yutzang province, our guard behaved with rather less cruelty. With the
little money the Pombo had permitted me to keep we were now allowed to
purchase food enough to provide us with more frequent meals. While we
ate, the soldiers removed our handcuffs, which they tempor