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ESCORTED BACK.—A FRESH ATTEMPT. 409
this we dismounted, and waited until they came up, over-
joyed to see us.
An hour later I was sitting in my comfortable yurt ;
but to describe the pleasure of being once more home
again—well, it is a feeling that really cannot be described.
Chernoff had, I found, joined the main body with the
rear-guard ; and so well had he succeeded that he had
lost only two horses and two camels, one of them being my
faithful veteran of 1896.
After I had inspected the camp, I ordered Cherdon to
get me a warm bath, for I had not had a wash of any sort
for a month ; and he had to change the water no less than
three times before I got even tolerably clean. Then I
took an eternal farewell of my Mongol rags, and once
more stood forth in European garb. The dash for Lassa
was only a memory, a transient episode in the greater and
bigger journey.
Next day we started again to return to the point from
which we had set off for Lassa. Here and there on the
hill-sides as we went we saw the skeletons of horses which
had died whilst we were away. The camels, on the other
hand, had picked up wonderfully. Old Mohammed Tokta
was, however, in a bad way, and still complained of his
heart ; so I recommended him to keep perfectly quiet.
That" night everybody was in high spirits. The Cossacks
made themselves a balalaika* and with it and a Tibetan
flute, and a temple bell, and a couple of saucepans used
as cymbals, and the musical-box and four strong voices, we
were entertained to a tolerable concert, and that despite
the rain which was coming down as usual in a deluge.
On the 25th August we finally left the site of our main
camp in Northern Tibet and started upon our long journey
to Ladak. Nevertheless I did not direct our march towards
the west, but towards the south. We made, however, a
* A guitar like instrument with three strings, used in Russia to accompany songs.
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