In the forbidden land, an account of a journey into Tibet . a and having Lhassa for its capi-tal. The word Yu in Tibetan means middle, and itis applied to this province, as it occupies the centre ofTibet. To the north of the Maium lies the Doktolprovince. I had taken a reconnoitring trip to another pass to thenortheast of us, and had just returned to my men on theMaium Pass, when several of the Tibetan soldiers we hadleft behind rode up towards us. We waited for them,and their leader, pointing at the valley beyond the pass,cried : That yonder is the Lhassa territory, and we for-bid you to ente
In the forbidden land, an account of a journey into Tibet . a and having Lhassa for its capi-tal. The word Yu in Tibetan means middle, and itis applied to this province, as it occupies the centre ofTibet. To the north of the Maium lies the Doktolprovince. I had taken a reconnoitring trip to another pass to thenortheast of us, and had just returned to my men on theMaium Pass, when several of the Tibetan soldiers we hadleft behind rode up towards us. We waited for them,and their leader, pointing at the valley beyond the pass,cried : That yonder is the Lhassa territory, and we for-bid you to enter it. I took no notice of his protest, and, driving before methe two yaks, I stepped into the most sacred of all thesacred provinces, the ground of God. 40 ONE SOURCE OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA We descended quickly on the eastern side of the pass,while the soldiers, aghast, remained watching us fromabove, themselves a most picturesque sight as they stoodamong the Obos against the sky-line, with the sunlightshining on their jewelled swords and the gay red flags of. SOURCE OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA their matchlocks, while over their heads strings of flyingprayers waved in the wind. Having watched us for a lit-tle while, they disappeared. A little rivulet, hardly six inches wide, descendedamong stones in the centre of the valley we were follow-ing, and was soon swollen by other rivulets from meltingsnows on the mountains to either side. This was onesource^ of the great Brahmaputra, one of the largestrivers of the world. I must confess that I felt somewhatproud to be the first European who had ever reachedthese sources, and there was a certain childish delight in * I passed the other source on the return IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND standing over this sacred stream, which, of such immensewidth lower down, could here be spanned by a man stand-ing with legs slightly apart. We drank of its waters atthe spot where it had its birth, and then, following amarked track to 125° (b. m.), we continued
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