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98 ADVENTURES IN TIBET. "
it was no lighter than at ordinary twihght. We were
penetrating into the murky realms of winter.
After crossing the twelfth depression the country ahead
looked really alarming. On, on we went, climbing up the
next sandy pass ; but it seemed as if we were never to get
to the top, for no sooner did we reach one eminence than
a fresh one loomed up in our path. The tired camels kept
stopping at shorter and shorter intervals to catch their
breath. At length, however, we did get to the summit,
and there, far down below our feet, lay outspread the thir-
teenth hayir, its floor lost in the haze. We descended by
glissading down the slope, and upon reaching the bottom
encamped.
During the night the storm subsided, and when at day-
break I peeped out of my furs, the moon was still shedding
her pale frosty light over our silent camp. All the men were
sleeping heavily, and the long-drawn breathing of the
camels was the only thing that broke the brooding silence
of the desert. As I looked up, I sent my greeting by the
wintry moon to my home in the Far North, for it was
Christmas Eve—Christmas in the desert
!
After our strenuous march through the sand of the day
before everybody was tired, men and animals alike, and I
let them have a thorough good rest, so that by the time the
camp had begun to stir, the sun had already climbed above
the tops of the dunes. The camels, which always lay in a
clump close together for warmth’s sake, cast long shadows
in strong relief across the ground.
It was now time to weed out everything that we could
possibly do without, for the little supplementary caravan,
under Parbi Bai, was to return to our winter quarters at
Yanghi-kol. Each of the men who was appointed to go
back came and begged earnestly to be allowed to accompany
me across the desert ; its weird fascination held them in its
spell, even as it held me. But requests, even entreaties.
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