In the forbidden land, an account of a journey into Tibet . wart Tibetan stealing along the ground only a fewyards away from me, with the object, no doubt, of takingpossession of my rifle before I had time to discover for him he was not quick enough, and allthat he gained for his attempt was a good pounding withthe butt of my Mannlicher. He was one of the Dakuswe had seen in the morning, and no doubt they had fol-lowed and spied upon us all along. Having got over hisfirst surprise, the dacoit, with an amusing air of assumedinnocence, requested us to go and spend the night in
In the forbidden land, an account of a journey into Tibet . wart Tibetan stealing along the ground only a fewyards away from me, with the object, no doubt, of takingpossession of my rifle before I had time to discover for him he was not quick enough, and allthat he gained for his attempt was a good pounding withthe butt of my Mannlicher. He was one of the Dakuswe had seen in the morning, and no doubt they had fol-lowed and spied upon us all along. Having got over hisfirst surprise, the dacoit, with an amusing air of assumedinnocence, requested us to go and spend the night in histent with him and his mates. They would treat us rightroyally, he said. Being, however, well acquainted withthe hospitality of dacoits, we declined the brigand went away somewhat shaken and disap-ao 243 IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND pointed, and we continued our journey along the water-edge of the Devils Lake (Rakastal), where hundreds ofhares sprang from under our feet, several of which Ikilled with my rifle, using bullet-cartridges. There were. A DACOIT signs all along that at some previous epoch the level ofthe lake must have been much higher than it is atpresent. Marching during the day, we encountered many Tibe- 244 DECEIVING THE JOGPAS tans, some of whom were Dogpas, others Jogpas. Whenthey saw us approaching they generally bolted, drivingtheir sheep or yaks in front of them. Nevertheless, wecame upon two Tibetan women, very dirty, and theirfaces smeared with black ointment to prevent the skinfrom cracking in the high wind. They were dressed inlong sheepskin garments, w^ornout and filthy, and theircoiffures were so unwashed that they emanated a sick-ening odor. I ordered them not to come too near us,for although these females had no claims whatever tobeauty — and, as far as I could see they possessed noother charm, one being old and toothless, the other witha skin like a lizard—they actually tried to decoy us totheir tents, possibly with the object of gettin
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