In the forbidden land, an account of a journey into Tibet . e we hadour first disaster. A coolie fell who carried in his handa large pot containing butter. He fortunately did notslide far down, but we had the bitter disappointmentof seeing our precious pot roll into the water and dis-appear forever. We camped at an elevation of 13,050feet. Late in the evening, as my men were collectingwood to keep up a huge fire round which we sat, my twocoolies, who had remained at Kuti with instructions tofollow, arrived with their respective loads. They weretwo strange characters. The one with a coral neckl
In the forbidden land, an account of a journey into Tibet . e we hadour first disaster. A coolie fell who carried in his handa large pot containing butter. He fortunately did notslide far down, but we had the bitter disappointmentof seeing our precious pot roll into the water and dis-appear forever. We camped at an elevation of 13,050feet. Late in the evening, as my men were collectingwood to keep up a huge fire round which we sat, my twocoolies, who had remained at Kuti with instructions tofollow, arrived with their respective loads. They weretwo strange characters. The one with a coral necklacewas mournful and sulky, the other lively and professed to be by caste Rajiputs. You see, exclaimed the cheerful coolie, I am small, 139 IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND but I fear nothing. When we cross into Tibet I shall goahead with a pointed stick and clear all the Tibetans am not afraid of them. I am ready to fight the wholeworld. Knowing the value of this sort of talk on the part ofnatives, I shut him up and sent him away to fetch MANSING, THE LEPER, SHOWING HIS HANDS The sulky fellow interested me more. He seldom uttereda word, and when he did he never spoke pleasantly; hewas apparently immersed in deep thought, from which itseemed a great effort to draw his mind away. He lookedpainfully ill. Motionless and speechless, he would stareat a fixed point as if in a trance. His features were pe-culiarly refined and regular, but his skin had that ghastly,shiny, whitish tinge so peculiar to lepers. I waited for anopportunity to examine his hands, on which he sat to keep 140 MANSING AND THE BRIGAND them warm. It is there, in the contracted or dropping-o£ffingers, that one finds the first certain symptoms of thatmost terrible of all diseases, leprosy. I asked the manto come and sit nearer the blazing fire. He came andstretched out his open palms towards the flickering ! my suspicions were but too correct. His fingers,distorted and contracted, with th
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