CHAPTER XVI.

JUNCTION OF THE SUTLEJ AND SPITI RIVERS.

THE MORAVIAN MISSION-THE

PEOPLE OF PÚ-START FOR CHINESE TIBET-DABLING AND DUBLING-SANG-PO AND SANG-PA-MURAL PRECIPICES KHALB — EXTRAORDINARY JUNCTION OF THE LEE AND SPITI RIVERS GEOLOGY-HIMÁLAYAN VALLEYS- САТА

CLYSMS-NAMES FOR RIVERS.

JUST after I had managed to get the better of my illness, but was still in danger from it, and confined to my cot, Mr Pagell arrived, having been recalled from a place in Spiti, ten days' journey off, by the letter which his wife forwarded to him. I found the Moravian missionary to be a strong, active, and cheerful man; no great scholar, perhaps, but with a considerable knowledge of English, able to speak Tibetan fluently, acquainted with the Lama religion, well liked by the people of the country, and versed in the arts which were so necessary for a man in his isolated and trying position. He had been established, with Mrs. Pagell, at Pú for about ten years; and, before that, had spent some years in the Moravian mission at Kaelang, in Lahaul, where also Tibetan is spoken. The house he had constructed for himself, or, at least, had supervised the construction of, was small, but it was strongly built, the thick beams having been brought

from a distance, and was well fitted to keep out the cold of winter, though not so agreeable as a summer residence. There was a small chapel in his compound, in which service was conducted on Sundays for the benefit of the few Christians, and of any strangers or people of the place who might choose to attend. Christianity has not made much progress at Pú, but this is to be attributed to the entire contentment of the people with their own religion, rather than to any want of zeal or ability on the part of the missionary. Besides himself and his wife, two or three men, with their families, constituted the entire Christian community; and of these one was the hereditary executioner of Kunáwar, the office having been abolished during the lifetime of his father; while of another, a true Tibetan, who acted as a house servant, Mrs Pagell said that he was a schande, or scandal, to the Christian name, from his habits of begging and borrowing money right and left. The good lady's opinion of the people among whom she dwelt, whether Christians or Búdhists, was lower than that of her husband; and, in particular, she accused them of being very ungrateful. I saw a little to show me that they were so-and even Mr Pagell admitted that; but, as a rule, he was in- · clined to take their part, to regard them in a kindly manner, and to find excuses for their faults-even for their polyandry-in the circumstances of their life.

A youth, christened Benjamin, who accompanied us for some days on our further journey, seemed the best of the Christians, and I think he was glad to get away for a time in order to escape from the hateful practice which Mrs Pagell compelled him to undergo, of washing his hands and face every morning. In language,

dress, religion, and manners, the people are thoroughly Tibetan; and though they are nominally subject to the Rajah of Bussahir, yet their village is so difficult of access that they pay little regard to his commands. Mr Pagell estimated the population at about 600, but I should have thought there were more, and perhaps he meant families. There is so much cultivation at Pú that the place must be tolerably wealthy. During my stay there most of the men were away trading in Chinese Tibet and Ladak, and I could not but admire the wonderful industry of the women. There were some fields before my tent in which they worked literally day and night, in order to lose no time in getting the grain cut, and in preparing the ground for a second crop, one of buckwheat. Besides labouring at this the whole day, they returned to their fields after dinner in the evening, and worked there, with the aid of torches of resinous pine-wood, until one or two in the morning. The enormous flocks of blue pigeons must have caused great loss in the grain harvest. There are vines at Pú, and very good tobacco, but when prepared for smoking it is not properly dried, and remains of a green colour. I found that this tobacco when well sieved, so as to free it from the dust and pieces of stalk, afforded capital smoking material, and I prefer it to Turkish tobacco.

Mr Pagell's society assisted me in recovery, and I was soon able to sit up during the day in front of my tent in an easy-chair, with which he furnished me; and on the 30th of July I was able to visit his house. But I knew that my recovery would go on much more rapidly if I could get up to some of the heights above the Sutlej valley. Though Pú is about 10,000 feet

high, it is in the Sutlej valley, and has not a very healthy climate in August, so I was anxious to leave it as soon as at all possible. Seeing my weak state, Mr Pagell kindly offered to accompany me for a few days, and I was glad to have his companionship.

On the afternoon of the 5th August, we set off for Shipki, in Chinese Tibet, with the design of reaching it in four easy stages. Three hours and a half took us to our first camping-place, on some level ground beyond Dabling, and underneath the village of Dúbling-places the names of which have been transposed by the Trigonometrical Survey. To reach this, we had to descend from Pú to the Sutlej, and cross that river upon a sangpa, or very peculiar kind of wooden bridge. The Sutlej itself is here known to the Tibetans usually by the name of Sang-po, or "the river;" and I notice that travellers and map-makers are apt to get confused about these words, sometimes setting down a bridge as "the Sang-pa bridge," and a river as "the Sang-po river.' Even our most accomplished geographers write of the upper portion of the Brahmapútra as the "Tsang-po river," that being the same as Sang-po, and meaning simply "the river," or the great river of the district. I have called the Namtú bridge, as it is named, beneath Pú peculiar; because, though about 80 feet above the stream, which is there over 100 feet across, it is only about three or four feet broad in the middle, is very shaky, and has no railing of any kind to prevent one going over it, and being lost in the foaming torrent below. A Púi yak once survived a fall from this bridge, being swept into a backwater there is a little way down the stream; but that was a mere chance, and the Bos grunniens can stand a great deal of knocking about.

These bridges are constructed by large strong beams. being pushed over one another, from both sides, until they approach sufficiently to allow of the topmast beams being connected by long planks. So rapid is the river below the bridge that Gerard was unable to fathom it with a 10-lb lead.

The path from this bridge towards the Chinese frontier kept up the left bank of the Sutlej, and not far above it, over tolerably level ground. The pieces of rock in the way were unpleasant for dandi-travelling; but it would take little labour to make a good road from beneath Pú to opposite the junction of the Sutlej and the Spiti river, there being a kind of broad ledge all the way along the left bank of the former stream, but, for the most part, a few hundred feet above it. Though easier for travelling, yet the Sutlej valley became wilder than ever as we advanced up it, though not so chaotic as lower down. On the side opposite to us there were almost perpendicular precipices thousands of feet in height, and the clay and mica-schist strata (interspersed here and there with granite) were twisted in the most grotesque manner. Shortly before, a Pú hunter had been killed by falling over these cliffs when in search of ibex. Above this precipice-wall high peaks were occasionally visible, but in our neighbourhood there was nothing but rocks and precipices, the foaming river, mountain torrents crossing the path, and a few edible pines, junipers, and tufts of fragrant thyme.

On the next day to Khalb, a short journey of four hours, the Sutlej gorge appeared still deeper and narrower. Quartz-rock became more plentiful, and, curiously enough, we passed a vein of very soft limestone.