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356
CHAPTER XXIV.
TIBETAN NOMADS—A DANGEROUS RIVER-CROSSING.
After Ordek left us, we rode twenty-four miles towards the
south-east. On our right was a low saddle in the hills, on
which hundreds of yaks were grazing. As they showed no
inclination to take to flight, we concluded that they were
tame, and expected every moment to see the herdsmen in
charge of them ; but when we approached nearer, they
moved away. This showed that they were after all wild
yaks ; from which we inferred that we still had at least a
couple of days to travel to reach the nearest nomad encamp-
ment. We all felt that we should be glad when we got
there, for we should then feel a good deal safer.
We made our camp that night in a perfectly open locality,
with an uninterrupted view in every direction, and with
plenty of grass, water and yak-fuel. As we three pilgrims
were now left to ourselves, I had to lend a hand in unfasten-
ing the loads and putting up the tent and in gathering fuel.
The last time I did this sort of work was in 1886, when I
twice rode to all intents and purposes alone through Persia.
The arrangement between us was that Shagdur was to act as
leader of the party, and neither of the other two was to
show me any special mark of respect ; in fact, I was to be
treated as the groom. Moreover, we were not to speak
Russian ; not a word of any other language except Mon-
golian was to be heard amongst us. We soon learned to
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