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390 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
dishes for tea and tsamha, and as soon as we set foot within the
tent we should each be honoured with a haddik—that is,
a thin light-blue scarf which the Mongols and Tibetans are
wont to offer to distinguished guests as a token of respect.
My answer was, that if Kamba Bombo possessed the very
smallest knowledge of the usages and customs of civiliza-
tion, he ought to know that it was his duty to come and
visit us before inviting us to go and dine with him.
If he desired our acquaintance there was plenty of room
for him to put up his tents beside ours. We did not send
for him ; we wanted to have nothing to do with him. We
did not even know who he was, or what authority he
possessed to speak in the name of the Dalai Lama. All we
desired to know was whether we should be permitted to
continue our journey to Lassa. If not, we should return
to our main caravan, and Kamba Bombo would have to
answer for the consequences.
The poor interpreter wriggled and writhed like a worm.
He begged, he prayed, he bemoaned himself. " If you do
not come, I shall fall into disgrace and be dismissed." For
two mortal hours he used every art of persuasion he was
master of to induce us to go with him ; but when he found
that I was not to be moved from my purpose, he mounted
and rode away. " Tell Kamba Bombo," I called after him,
" that unless he has the good sense to come and visit us,
he will never see a glimpse of our faces."
Now to give such an answer to the governor of a province
is rather impolite ; but then this was not the first time I
had had to deal with Asiatics. There is only one method
of dealing with them if you want to get your own way with
them. At the same time, I will confess that I recognised
we were in an awkward situation. We knew that the
Tibetans were called to arms, and we had pretended to be
Buriats ; nobody, therefore, would have had any right to
reproach them, had they chosen to make an example of me,
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