Evening star., 1925-08-02

once more among deep SHOWS and
glaciers, and although they could not
be compared to the snow wall of the
Rakshi la. our state Of exhaustion
made US feel the passage very hard.
anyhow, we reached the obo and en-
tered steep, slippery path. 1 had
gone down for a few hours and night
had come, when l missed the path.
slipped and wen. down, an ava
lanche of snow and stones rolling
with me. Before the end of my fall
had tainted. When l recovered L
was on a very small platform, be
tween bushes and rocks that had
stopped me. l heard my servant ca.
ing me; answered and tried to stand.
but this was more than 1 could do.
Pain caused me to faint a second
time. When | became conscious again
| did not hear my servants voice
any more. But for the roaring Of q
torrent below me, all was silent. Then
/ saw, far away, glimmers moving TO
and fro: gradually / could guess that
men were carrying burning branches
to light their way, as is the custom
at night in these countries. l be-
came convinced that Thobgyal had
met Yongden and Dawa and that they
were all searching for me. | called
as loud as l could, according to the
way of the cowmen. Shouts answered
me and about half an hour later the
Lama and my servants were near me.
Nothing serious, l am all right"
l said, cutting short their questions.
Tell me quickly what danger threat
ems u.s."
None" answered Yongden.
"None?-but what?-Dawa had his
rosary around his neck"
'Oh; OH" said the latter, weeping.
Il hung ii few days ago without re-
fiection. l am so much accustomed
! TO wear it in that way that l did not
no food. Oh! OH" And he continued
| to weep.
1T is all my fault said the Lama.
| II am a fool, I am blind. l was SO
preoccupied by the flags you had
| hung TO the obos that ordered me to
proceed quickly. ! saw nothing. OF
| course, the rosary-Dawa had always
| one on him before we started 1t did
! not strike me-"
| He was very sorry. AS for my
| self, l saw only the comic side OF
| the adventure and laughed. They
! took me TO their own camp and gave
| me a bowl of soup. They had not
| themselves much food left and in
! tended to buy some the following day
at Nanchon, where there is village
! around the humble palace of a native
.
dry meat of his dreams, it had all
-vn eaten before our arrival.
! WE arrived one day at noon near
| '/the long frontier bridge. 1t is called
| Chakzam (the iron bridge) It is q
| suspension bridge hung with iron
| chains. Although 1t is built in a rather
primitive way. it is famous in Tibet,
| where bridges are few, and especially
suspension bridges. It's floor is made
| of boards loosely attached together
that move under the feet; it has no
parapet and swings dangerously at
the least motion of the people crossing
| 1t. Under 1t runs, foaming on huge
powders, tributary of the Mekong.
On our side the entrance of the
bridge was in a small village; on the
! opposite side it was dominated by a
hill on which stood a large monastery,
now residence of the official watching
| the border The bridge had gates on
both sides. Were they closed at
| night? We did not know. We could
| not expect to cross during the day
| because we had been informed that
| even beggars were stopped there
| questioned, and their load examined
We remained the whole afternoon
and half of the night hidden in
| narrow gorge, in front of the mon
| passage as soon as darkness sheltered
! us. but had we met a watchman or
any other Tibetan we would have
| looked suspicious travelling at night
| We could avoid this by waiting till
| few hours before daybreak; the
| general custom Of Tibetan travellers
being to start at that time for the
days march. At about am. we
| left our camp.
1 shall never forget that part Of
my adventure. 1t was pitch dark
Thobgyal had got nearly crazy out
of fear. He obstinately wanted TO
walk in the direction of the hills.
repeating that we were in danger of
| falling into the big water" as he
ssid. He nearly wept aloud when
we missed the entrance of the bridge.
found ourselves against the high pier
! supporting the suspension chain and
In fact. nearly slipped down into the
big water. Then a village dog be-
gan to bark behind us. 1 pushed my
companions on the bridge, hoping that
| the animal would not follow. for the
place was certainly not fit for a fight.
AS soon as we had gone few steps
the bridge began to swing and the
| boards of it's roadway to crack
loudly. Maybe a watchman was at
the other end and we had awakened
him. 1 thought. Il shall die there
| AiOlil
But we passed safely. No watch.
man was there. We felt a little re-
lief. Now we had to be quick in
order to be far from the frontier at
daybreak. Unfortunately we missed
the, way that follows the river. We
went up as far as the dreaded monas-
terry and passed under the very win
dows of the official: again a small dog
barked, this time inside the house. the
oH1clals own little pekinese. I learned
later on. 1 dragged my servant across
neIds. He had become hystericaI and
L had to compel him to walk Dark
ness vanished, pale light appeared
In the sky. | took his hand and made
MN run with me, jumping over the
rocks, knocking against the trees
Before the sun had risen we were
far from the frontier post.
Il Y
WE continued our way. Adventures
of a more pleasant character
'often comical ones-happened. The
country was warmer, nobody sus-
pected us in the village that we passed
through. We had succeeded in
smuggling ourselves into the forbidden
zone and it seemed that all was all
right. Still l could not understand
why Lama Yongden, who had decided
to cross the bridge about a week after
us. had not yet arrived, although we
had, on purpose, proceeded by very
short stages. Fear again began to
torment me.
One morning all came to an end
We were following up a road leading
to a village; I noticed peasants who
gathered ahead of US. Arriving near
them we asked the way. They
showed us the opposite direction and
seemed embarrassed. They did not