# Three Years in Tibet/Chapter 17

CHAPTER XVII.
A Beautiful Rescuer.
While I was engaged in the pleasant work of warding off the dogs, a woman, apparently roused by the loud barking of the animals, put her head out of the tent. Hers was a beautiful face, so beautiful that I was surprised to see it in such a wilderness. For a while the woman stood staring at me, and then, coming out of the tent, she scolded the dogs. One word from her was enough, and the beasts all ran away crest-fallen and with tails down, so that I could not help smiling at them. And, smiling, I asked the beauty of the wilderness for a night's lodging.
Her answer was that she must first obtain the permission of "her Lama," and, so saying, she disappeared within the tent. At her second appearance I was admitted into the tent, and a very hospitable man "her Lama" proved to be. It was a great relief to me. That afternoon and evening I spent in pleasant conversation with my host and his wife. For two days more I was allowed to recuperate myself in their tent, and in the interval I learned a good deal about my future route. Among other things I was told that at half a day's distance on horse-
ATTACKED BY DOGS AND SAVED BY A LADY.
As for my host the Lama, I learned that he was really a man of the order belonging to the new sect of Tibetan Buddhism, which by the way strictly enjoins celibacy and abstinence on all its priests, so I was considerably perplexed at seeing him living with a wife. He called himself Alchu Tulku, which means 'incarnation of Alchu'—the name of a place on the plateau. His wife was exceedingly beautiful, as I have already hinted. But it was none of my business to pry into the matter any further. It was enough for me that, after all my distressing experiences, he received me with open arms, treated me with the utmost kindness, and behaved in a manner bespeaking a large heart and deeply charitable ​mind. I noticed that he owned about sixty yaks in addition to two hundred sheep, and that he was very well circumstanced, though lie might not perhaps he called a very rich man. Besides, his charming wife appeared to be thoroughly devoted to him, and he seemed in every respect the master of a very happy home. What more could I wish for them?
But I was much surprised at a discovery which I made on coming back to them from a visit to the white tent. When in the evening I approached the Lama's tent, I heard noises inside which suggested a fearful quarrel at its height. On entering, I saw that a wonderful metamorphosis had come over the erstwhile beauty. Her face was burning red and undergoing the most disagreeable contortions I had ever seen, as she went on calling her husband names and otherwise insulting him in the vilest language imagina- ble. It was all about " another woman " and also about the husband's partiality for his own relatives. A man of quiet disposition as the Lama was, he heroically maintained his self-composure and silence until she dared to call him " beast," when he rose and feigned to beat her. He prob- ably did so because he was irritated at my appearance on the scene just at that juncture. But that was a blundering move on his part, for the moment he raised his fist, the now thoroughly maddened termagant threw herself at his feet, and, with eyes shut, shouted, shrieked and howled, daring him to kill and eat her ! What could I do ? I played the part of a peace-maker, and it was lucky that I succeeded in the office. I got the woman to go to bed on the one hand, and persuaded the Lama to spend the night with the Ladak trader, to whose tent I accompanied him. And so the last night I spent with my kind host brought me a rude awakening, which caused me to shed tears of deep sympathy, not necessarily for Alchu Tulku only, but for all my brethren of the Order, whose moral ​weakness had betrayed them into breaking their vows of celibacy, and who in consequence were forced to go through scenes such as I have described.