New-York tribune., 1886-03-07
HUMAN NATURE IN TIBET.
THE wILEs OF A TRAVELLER.


trim TO Hundes | wanted a horse and the CHEF
nathan. who bore the classical name of Junia,
brouqht me a white one plump that If one ran
pin into him. am sure he would burst with a iona
report Yet he had never tasted grain in his me-
only grass. He was not shod either-thc STONY
paths of the country strengthen and develop the
hoof; so the pathan said. Besides. 1T is provero:a
in the Himalayas that hOrS with SHOES OIL arc ho'
half so suIe-footed as those without. never
mounted this animal till the return journey on the
way mn my chuprassie, Parwananda. rode him. III
was fnnny TO see hinl--hs face BLUSH gray with
cold and his knees nearly level with his ears
for Orientals use very short stirrups-noun|ed on
that gobose pony at the tail of the procession the
procession consisted Of three wild ByanSl noun
taineers and two yaks. Yaks are the cOmmonest
beasts Of burden in Byans, and llundes 1hey are
creatures of the OK kind and If you shorten an OK
by cutting of bis legs below The knee, cover MIN
with long white or black hair reaching down TO the
ground. substitute horses tail in place of his own
and endow him with gruut instead OF moo
YOU will have something very like yak 1t has
huge head ont of all proportion with its body, and
IL carries If an inch above the ground as If 1t were
smelling its way. It is not at all dangerous
animal. Its eye is large, mild ana qulet-con
pacent too. and without any of that pathetic hghi
which shines IN the beautiful eyes OF COW. "a" W
early associations with the YAK: used to Ieau OF u
in Mayne Reid's stories where 1t Sh0ne as Il W''o'
ferocious monster, chasing stray naturausls dpou'
the country penning them mp in cracks IN the roc"'
and brsiec ng them there till that Providence that
always takes care OF Mayne Rcid's heroes nuts an
end TO its savage and perhaps anthropophagouS eN-
istcnce But | must not malign the lriend oil my
borbood There are wild yaks, and they are said to
be really very dangerous. The Bhutlas mere say
that the liver of wild yak is a load Tor tame
one; So suppose the former must be very iareeor
else a very billions animal. Later on used 10
watch daily fight between yak and BrahminY
bull kept in the Zoo at Cincinnati, hght Wh'ch
seeing that it took place through the meshes OF
wire fence afforded pleasing and lnnpccnt lecre"-
tjon both TO the yak, which always lost It's temper
and charged the fence with great fury and fearless
ness and TO the bull which inserted one OF Its long
sborn horns through the wires and gently proddeu
its opponent Herewith. AfterWard saw nothing
of the "Grunting oxen - except the tallS which
they use as fvfappers i'll India Till actually Sa"
them grazing in the meadows about GarDyah aio"s
with number of ubuS the latter cross between
the YAK and the common bumped cattle OF lndia'
may add in regard to the yaks tai. that aIth"USh
II has come to base uses as iiytapper ana taOie-
duster vet it was once the symbol Oh lh"Iah
ROYALTY: an attendant carrying one mounted on the
end of long stick used TO be regular acconlpaH-
ment of a native prince. No lesser man might have
one in his house For the yak. coming from the
sacred land of Tibet was boiler than a common
cow. and n COW was very holy indeed, anu the
bol;est rart of IT was the tail Thereby hangs a
legend silva once manifested himself as Il helA
ling or spire of light extending vast distance up
ward and downward through space. Ana orahiha
and Vishnu went in opposite directions to ma no"
far il went When they were together agllh'
Brahma said that he had come to the end OF lt-Whch
was not true However he appealed to the celes-
,o Oh lai bpr ne
frmatioa. but at the same time shook the end oil
her tail to Indicate private reservation but
Vjsbnu understood it all and said to Brahma,
GTbou Il great god hast lied and this shall he thy
punisbnont thou shalt never be worshpped any
moro on earth And as for the COW, only her TAN
shall be reverenced in the future And so Brahna
has no followers nowadays; all Hndus are wor-
shiprers Of either Vishnu or silva.
From the top of the Lepu LEX there was only
very limi :ed view. though was standing eighteen
+houean6 fnur hundred rect above tEe sea- buI
fixed on q higher point some distance to the east
and gngerly descending the steep snowy path |
reached the foot of IL and after hour or two the
top. Up 10 this time had felt few of the sepSa-
tions which most travellers experience on lofty
heights like tnis and which 50 far recognized
by the Tibetans that they cannot be induced TO
carry more than twenty-five or thirty pounds over
the pass, half their usual load. 1t breaks
the heaIt,' as tleN express IT, " "olh
hard at such a height. As | scrambled
up steep banks of frozen snow and over thousand
pointed jags OF rock that lay between me and the
peak before me began to feel very queer and had
TO sit down and hold my head. 1t bUzzed like
beehive my pulses throbbed as though they had
separate life Of their own and though kept my
mouth wide open aud took three breaths to the
second vet at every Inhalation there came an agon-
izing sensation as If were choking in vacuum
knew now for the first time how fish feels out
of the water These experiences renewed
every time made any eXeTtlOn aud when got as
near to the top as the prccipice would let me was
quite overcome and fell fiat on my face in the snow
and lay there gaspng for a quarter of an hour,
after which sat up and looked about.
There was only rock and snow in sight, the bones
OF the earth with the snow cliuging to them like
mildew. line of black, ragged pinnaclcs followed
one another as far as / could see, their natural
sharpness seemingly increased hundred fold by
the merciloss bright light that shone
on them from the east, making the dark
rock darker and the white snow whittier.
Returning to the path | descended for several
miles a narrow ravIne dry and bare. At the edge
of the last patches of snow the ground was moist
for few feet and little stemless blue flowers grew
there the only ones saw in Chinese Tibet. In
the distance Law great mountain -Namo namln'-
pedestal of creamy sand slowly rising TO roc KY
mass furrowed by deep hOlows, and in each OF
them glacier curling over at the base like a
breaking wave. All the rest of the landscape was
sand-gravel in reality, but in the distance II
looked like sand Low, pale-brown hills OF 1t
stretched away everywhere, and over them great
sand columns were slowly wheeling moving this
way and that Along the stream ran level line OF
turreted bluffs of congomerate ending in long
Gravel slides Another stream came down to meet
tbis one. and on the narrow cape of land between
them. a triangular plateau surrounded by preci
pices on three SIDES was Tagla Kot, Oh Dung Ban
n. tho Tibetans call it, the capital of the district
Tho red walls of its monastery and the glded Gu