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378 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
and flocks and herds of the Tibetans were abundant in every
direction. We halted for the night not far from twelve
tents in a pretty extensive plain, surrounded everywhere
by lofty mountains. We had by this travelled 162 miles
from our headquarters camp.
As the Tibetans paid no attention to us, but remained
sitting round their fires, while their children played with the
puppy-dogs and lambs, we felt perfectly at our ease. But
no sooner was it dark than we saw three Tibetans approach-
ing our tent on foot. The Lama and Shagdur went to
meet them, and remained such a long time absent that I
grew uneasy. At length, when it was quite dark, Shagdur
came back alone. He was calm and collected as usual ;
but when he addressed me in Russian, I understood that
something serious had happened. " Tilings look bad for
us," he said. " I didn’t understand a word ; but they
were talking all the time about ’
Shved Peling,’ ’
Buriat,’
and ’
Lassa.’ The Lama is quite humble and his voice
almost tearful."
Heated and completely dispirited, the Lama at length
came back and told me that one of the three Tibetans was
a chieftain, or officer, who had spoken to him politely
enough, but at the same time in a stern commanding tone.
He had said without circumlocution, that they knew a
" Shved Peling " (Swedish European) was on the way to
Lassa, and some yak-hunters, who had just reached Nakk-
chu, had reported that they had seen a large and powerful
European caravan advancing over the mountains towards
the south. A thousand questions were rained down upon
the unhappy Lama :
" Did he know anything about these
Europeans ? Were any of them with him ? How many
did his party consist of ? How many animals had we ?
Were we armed ? Where did we come from ? Where
were we going to ? Why had we chosen this b3^-road
instead of following the usual highway by which tiie Mongol
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