Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/244

220 Like all Mongols, he was a dreadful hypocrite, and lazy to a degree. Once on his camel he would never cease muttering his prayers through the march, and would not dismount to walk for any consideration, even in the coldest weather, or on the steep descents and in other dangerous places, where it would have been safer to have tried the strength of the ice. A casual observer might have taken him for a plucky fellow, but the fact was that his excessive laziness overcame his fear.

Chutun-dzamba, however, took good care of himself, and laid in a supply of medicines for the road, with which he doctored himself daily for some imaginary complaint. He was really ill several times, but this was entirely owing to the extraordinary quantity of meat he had eaten. During dinner he ranged round him plates of frozen yak-dung, on which he placed junks of hot meat to cool, and which, as these melted, adhered to the meat, and must truly have added a fine flavour to his viands, judging from the relish with which he ate! His behaviour after dinner was equally indelicate, and in the evenings he employed himself industriously in the destruction of the parasitical insects which swarmed in his habiliments.

Another trait in his character was the passion he had for picking up and hiding in his bag all sorts of odds and ends and rubbish which we had thrown away. Thus, an old bit of leather or tin, a spoilt steel nib, a scrap of paper, empty cartridge cases, all would find their way into his travelling bag, and at