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400 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
this word as it is used in India, to indicate a European,
especially an Englishman.
" No," I answered, " I am not a Sahib, though I will
confess that I am a European. I come from a country far
away in the north, a long way beyond Russia." But he
only reiterated again, " Sahib ! Sahib !
" And when I
pointed out to him, thinking to convince him, that 1 had
four Cossacks with me who had been lent to me by the
Czar of Russia, his reply was, " They are all Sahibs " ; and
from this conviction I was unable to move him.
After that two horses were led forward, which he offered
me as compensation for those stolen from us. I asked him
to let me see them tried, when they turned out to be such
wretched jades that I turned round and asked him whether
he didn’t want them for his own artillery ; I wouldn’t have
them. Immediately two others were brought forward,
useful animals of a white colour, and these I accepted.
An hour later we were all sitting once more in front of
my tent, Kamba Bombo being entertained with tsaniha,
raisins, and tobacco, while we exchanged our Chinese
yambas for Tibetan money. Once more we exhibited our
weapons, and I remarked seriously, " Remember, if you
had attacked us, we could have shot down thirty-six of
you before you would have had time to load again."
The Governor declared that he had never intended to
begin hostilities ; all he wanted to do was to protect the
frontiers against intrusive foreigners.
" Why are you, then, so afraid of me that you dare not
visit me without an escort of sixty or seventy men," I
asked.
,
" Why, you are a distinguished Sahib," he answered,
" and I have been ordered from Lassa to show you the
same respect that is shown to the highest authorities in our
own country."
Finally he introduced to me the three officers and twenty
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