In the forbidden land, an account of a journey into Tibet . ached him when the soldiers who stoodby sprang upon me, grappling me, and lifting me bodilyoff my feet. They threw me on the back of a pony. Though I now feared the worst, I tried to encouragemy brave servant by shouting to him that I was beingtaken to Taklakot, and that he would be brought afterme the following day. He had exhausted his last atomof strength in creeping to the door. He was roughlyseized, and brutally hurled back into the room of themud-house, so that we could not exchange a word the coolie was placed with
In the forbidden land, an account of a journey into Tibet . ached him when the soldiers who stoodby sprang upon me, grappling me, and lifting me bodilyoff my feet. They threw me on the back of a pony. Though I now feared the worst, I tried to encouragemy brave servant by shouting to him that I was beingtaken to Taklakot, and that he would be brought afterme the following day. He had exhausted his last atomof strength in creeping to the door. He was roughlyseized, and brutally hurled back into the room of themud-house, so that we could not exchange a word the coolie was placed with his arms pinionedon a bare-backed pony. The saddle of the pony I hadbeen thrown upon is worthy of description. It was in 128 THOSE AWFUL SPIKES reality the wooden frame of a very high-backed saddle,from the back of which some five sharp iron spikes stuckout horizontally. As I sat on this implement of torture,the spikes caught me in the small of my back. My guard having been augmented by twenty or thirtymounted men with muskets and swords, we set off at a. SIR, SIR, I AM DYING furious pace. A horseman riding in front of me led mypony by means of a cord, as my hands were manacledbehind my back; and thus we travelled across country formiles. But for those awful spikes in the saddle, the ride wouldnot have been so very bad, for the pony I rode was a finespirited animal, and the country around was curious andinteresting. We proceeded along an apparently endlesssuccession of yellow sand-hills, some of them as high astwo or three hundred feet, others not more than twenty orthirty. The sand seemed to have been deposited more by 129 IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND wind than by water, though it is also possible that thewhole basin, not very high above the level of the hugestream, may at some time have been altogether underwater. The whole space between the mountain-range tothe north of the Brahmaputra and the river itself was cov-ered with these sand-mounds, except in certain placeswhere the soil
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