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428 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
corpse on a camel’s pack-saddle and carried it to the grave-
side. Then, whilst his companions lowered the body into
the grave, Rosi Mollah addressed the dead man, speaking
in a whisper as though he were only concerned that the dead
man should hear him :
" You have been an honest and
faithful Mussulman. You have never done any harm to
any of us. We shall miss you, and we weep for your
departure. You have served Tura (your master) honourably
and well."
After that they placed the pack-saddle over the grave
and upon that laid a felt, and then heaped the soil all round
it. At the head they raised a perishable monument of
turves and small stones, then kneeling down around the
grave they put their hands before their faces and murmured
prayers for the peace of the dead man. Then they rose
and left Kalpet in his lonely grave in a strange land, and
now the nomads drive their flocks and herds over it, and
in the dark winter nights the wolves howl in the mountains
around.
The Tibetans, who watched our proceedings from a
respectful distance, thought that we were giving ourselves
a great deal of unnecessary and unseemly trouble, and asked
us why we did not fling out the corpse to the wolves and
vultures and ravens ; for that is what they do themselves,
as we saw with our own eyes later on.
Having loaded up, we once more started and soon came
to a second magnificent mountain gateway, through which
the country opened out with a wide sweep to the south.
Close at our heels followed the Tibetans. On the open plain
beyond the rocky gateway we perceived a group of black i
tents, with one or two white ones beside them. As we were
passing the latter, a troop of horsemen trotted forward to
meet me, and announced that two distinguished chiefs had
arrived from Lassa and desired to speak with me. They
came straight from the Dalai Lama, and bi-ought his com-
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