Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/151

 rampa. This underground grass acquires, in some places, a length of five or six feet, and in the early spring, when vegetables and forage are scarce, it is dug up. The people know where to dig for it by the little shoots which rise above the ground.

We were detained at Chyang-chu all day, waiting for Tsering-tashi, who had been obliged to stop over at Tashi-gyantse to make some purchases.

In the evening tea was served by Po-ka-chan, a grey-haired monk who works on the estates of the minister at Tanag. He had travelled much in Kongpo, Naga, and among the Mishmis, and in Tsari. He related how the savage Lhokabra harassed the Tibetan pilgrims, and how the Tsang-po river entered the country of defiles in Eastern Bhutan, rushing in a tremendous waterfall over the top of a gigantic precipice called the "Lion's Face," or Sing-dong.

April 28.—The villagers had all assembled to bid us farewell, and the Tung-chen's sister presented me with a "scarf for good luck" (tashi khatag). We saw as we rode along numerous flocks of cranes (tontong), and brown ducks with red necks were swimming in the river and the irrigation ditches. We stopped for the night at Pishi Mani lhakhang, where Angputti received us with the same kindness she had shown us on my former visits. Snow fell during the night, but our hostess's servants watched over our ponies, and stabled them under the roof of the okhang, or godown, on the ground floor.

We reached Dongtse at 4 p.m. on the 29th, and took up our lodgings in the Choide; but in the evening the Deba Chola came and invited us to put up at the castle, where the minister was still staying.