Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/61

 river on a bridge, where it has eight small watch towers. It crosses the whole valley, its ends being high up on the sides of the mountains. On the farther side of the wall is the village. Ugyen and Phurchung stood trembling, not knowing whether to turn back towards the Kangla chen pass or to proceed onward towards the chorten, near which the headman resides. Phuntso alone was equal to the occasion. "If the guards are awake, we will sing some of our national Wallung songs, and pass ourselves off for Wallungpa." After a few words of encouragement to the others, we set out. Before we had reached the chorten, a voice from a yak-hair tent cried out, "Whence are you, and where are you going?" To which Phuntso replied that we were Wallungpa going to Shigatse, asked them where they were going, and without waiting for a reply we hurried on and passed by the dreaded headman's house without awakening any one, not even the fierce mastiffs tied up in front of the dwelling.

About 30 yards beyond the house we came to the bridge, a rough structure of logs and stone slabs. The Tashi-rabka river was partly frozen, and its swift current was sweeping down blocks of ice. We crossed over unnoticed, and I then broke the silence with thanks to merciful God who had enabled us to overcome this the most dreaded of all difficulties, one which had frightened my staunch friend Phurchung, that the snows of the Kangla chen had not daunted.

We followed the river in an easterly direction, passing on the way two poor traders (Gyagar Khamba ) who were going to Wallung to sell a wild sheep (nao) they had killed. Then we came to Ri-u, where is a large Nyingma monastery, and three miles further on to a bridge over the two branches of the river. 'Twas nearly midnight when we reached a sand-covered hillock called Shara, where we halted for the night, and slept in a sheepfold, near which two hunters with a hound (shyakhi) were also camped.

December 2.—At sunrise we resumed our journey, and after an hour's march got sight of the village of Guma Shara, at the foot of a range of mountains trending north-west and south-east. Leaving