Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/106

 improvements,” you will find in front of the k’ang huge caldrons for cooking soup, their legs bedded in the mud  with places for fires underneath, so arranged that the smoke  and surplus heat passes under the k’ang and thence by the  smoke hole to the outer air.

When the fire is built under the k’ang, the planks above are soon heated and will remain reasonably warm for quite  a length of time. Here you sit by day and sleep by night, and if you can accustom yourself to roasting on one side and freezing on the other, you will soon learn, as we did, to make yourself very comfortable on the k’ang.

Bent upon his benevolent intentions, Maurice now lent his assistance to Ah Schow and the argols were soon gathered up and thrown under the k’ang. Meanwhile I had shut the door and the Doctor returned to his comfortable  position in the warmest corner.

“May as well secure a seat while it’s possible,” he said. “Just you wait till these people come up and then see how comfortable we’ll be? I tell you there’s no such thing as sleep to-night.”

They were coming. The shouts of the camel drivers grew louder. Anxious to keep the place as warm as possible, we refrained from opening the door again, until the racket  outside told us that the moment had arrived.

“Here they are!” cried Manrice. “Let’s do the hospitable, George. We would expect it if we were in their place.”

“Keep the door shut whatever else you do!” roared the Doctor. “As for me I don’t budge an inch for the biggest Lama in Thibet.”

Before we could answer, the door was flung open and in walked one of the K’ambas, or “red-capped men,” as the  Chinese call the natives of eastern Thibet.

He was short and thick set, dressed in a dirty sheepskin, cut a la robe de nuit, very bunchy and reaching about to his knees, where it was met by high boot legs of red cloth with  thick rawhide soles. He wore nothing on his head, nor did he seem to need it, for his long, tangled hair formed a jet  black mat of amazing thickness, falling down over his  shoulders and “banged” across the forehead, just above the  eyes.

“Peace be with you, my brothers!” he exclaimed—Ah Schow was equal to the translation—“we have brought  a guest who will be sure not to crowd you off the k’ang.”