Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXIV.—Tibetan Nomads—A Dangerous River-crossing
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
TIBETAN NOMADS. 363
milk or tsamba* on the ground that it was the day of a
religious festival ; but if we would wait until the morning,
we might have whatever we wanted. But there was one
thing that they could give to two or three poor Mongols
and that was a sack of dry argol, which the Lama
brought with him. Whilst we were kindling our fire, the
master of the tent appeared on a hillside, whence at a safe
distance he stopped and scrutinised us. Thereupon the
Lama went and fetched him in, and without hesitation he
came and squatted down on the wet ground beside our fire.
This man, the first Tibetan we saw, was probably forty
years of age, and his name was Sampo Singhi. His face
was almost black, beardless, and wrinkled ; his hair, raven-
black and dirty, hung in draggled, disorderly ends about
his ears, and the rain-water kept dripping off it upon the
sack-like cloak he wore. His boots were made of white
felt, though then nearly black, and from his belt hung his
tobacco-pouch, pipe, and various other useful articles—all
inconceivably filthy. Sampo Singhi, like almost all
Tibetans, went bare-headed and bare-foot, except for his
top-boots. In other words, he was minus the usual nether
garments of man—pretty cool and airy, I expect, riding in
that condition in such rain as we had had. Sampo Singhi
kept incessantly blowing his nose with his fingers, and did
it with such I’c/at that we thought Tibetan etiquette
demanded we should follow his example. Many were the
longing eyes he ostentatiously cast upon our Mongolian
cups and so forth, but we pretended not to notice his
interested admiration. To me he paid not the slightest
degree of special attention ; but then I was just as filthy
as he was. Shagdur and the Lama were in the habit of
taking snuff, and when they offered it to Sampo Singhi he
helped himself to a pinch, which caused him to sneeze
* A Mongol dish ; see p. 364.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
