y. In reality, there
is plenty of hard and uninteresting work. The expedition is attended
with all the discomforts of a campaign, and very little of the
excitement. Colonel Younghusband is now at Tuna, a desolate hamlet on
the Tibetan plateau, exposed to the coldest winds of Asia, where the
thermometer falls to 25 deg. below zero. Detachments of the escort are
scattered along the line of communications in places of varying cold
and discomfort, where they must wait until the necessary supplies have
been carried through to Phari. It is not likely that Colonel
Younghusband will be able to proceed to Gyantse before March. In the
meanwhile, imagine the Pioneers and Gurkhas, too cold to wash or shave,
shivering in a dirty Tibetan fort, half suffocated with smoke from a
yak-dung fire. Then there is the transport officer shut up in some
narrow valley of Sikkim, trying to make half a dozen out of three with
his camp of sick beasts and sheaf of urgent telegrams calling for
supplies. He hopes there will be 'a show,' and that he may be in it.
Certainly if anyone deserves to go to Lhasa and get a medal for it, it
is the supply and transport man. But he will be left behind.

CHAPTER III

THE CHUMBI VALLEY

CHUMBI,
_February, 1904._

The Chumbi Valley is inhabited by the Tomos, who are said to be
descendants of ancient cross-marriages between the Bhutanese and
Lepchas. They only intermarry among themselves, and speak a language
which would not be understood in other parts of Tibet. As no Tibetan
proper is allowed to pass the Yatung barrier, the Tomos have the
monopoly of the carrying trade between Phari and Kalimpong. They are
voluntarily under the protection of the Tibetans, who treat them
liberally, as the Lamas realize the danger of their geographical
position as a buffer state, and are shrewd enough to recognise that any
ill treatment or oppression would drive them to seek protection from the
Bhutanese or British.

The Tomos are merry people, hearty, and good-natured. They are
wonderfully hardy and enduring. In the coldest winter months, when the
thermometer is 20 deg. below zero, they will camp out at night in the snow,
forming a circle of their loads, and sleep contentedly inside with no
tent or roofing. The women would be comely if it were not for the cutch
that they smear over their faces. The practice is common to the Tibetans
and Bhutanese, but no satisfactory reason has been found for it. The
Jesui