conversational powers at Shipki, as a place where there was some danger of conversation being cut short by the removal of the conversing head, he fully made up for the deprivation at Gyumúr. He talked, without ceasing, to his Moravian brother and to me, to my servants, to the Namgea bigárrís, to the willow-trees, to the rills, to the huts, and to the stones. It did not in the least matter that no one understood much of what he said, for his dialect of Lower Kunáwar was not rendered more intelligible to the people about him by the mispronounced Tibetan words which he mixed up with it out of his bronchial tubes. That was a matter of no consequence to the Hereditary Executioner, who talked without waiting for replies, and did us excellent service all the while; but I could not help thinking that a few days more of him might have produced a strong temptation to exercise his own hereditary art upon his own. person. Close to Gyumúr there is the monastery of Tashigong, which affords a very secluded position for Lamas of a retiring and contemplative turn of mind as all Lamas ought to be. We were indebted to them for yaks, or rather zo-pos, but had hardly any communication with them, and they did not seem disposed to cultivate our acquaintance. They have a beautifully secluded position for a monastery, among the precipices of a mountain which no one dreams of ascending, and away from villages and trade-routes. This tendency of Búdhists to seclude themselves from the world, has interfered with Búdhism being a great, power in the world. Even in China, where the numerous and wellbuilt monasteries, with large gardens and plantations attached, sufficiently prove that Búdhism must, at one time, have had a great attraction for the Black-haired Race, this religion has long ceased to be an important element in the national life. It is forced to give way even before such a religion as Hindúism and a negative positivism such as Confucianism, whenever mankind reaches a certain stage of complicated social arrangements, or, as we call it, civilisation; but there is a stage before that, though after the period of tribal fighting, when a religion like Búdhism naturally flourishes. Now Tibet is still in that position at the present day, and so Búdhism (in the shape of Lamaism) is still supreme in it, though it has almost entirely disappeared from India, and has so little power in China. Starting about four in the morning, as was our wont, we had a very pleasant journey over the mountain to Nako. There were some vestiges of a path. The ascent was so steep, that great part of the way it looked as if the mountains were overhanging us, and some small stone avalanches came down uncomfortably near; but that was the character only of the first section. On reaching the highest part of the mountain which we attained a height of about 14,000 feet-we found ourselves on the turn of its ridge, and wound for some way along the top of terrific precipices, which rose up almost perpendicularly to the height of about 5000 feet above the river Lee. It is more interesting, and a great deal more pleasant, being at the top of this gorge than at the bottom of it, where there is no path; and the largest pieces of rock we could roll over were dissipated into fragments, too small to be seen by us, long before they reached the river. The Gerards made several attempts to ascend one of the lower peaks of Lío Porgyúl, and believed they got up as high as 19,411 feet; but most of their instruments were destroyed in the effort, and they suffered much from intense cold, though there was very little wind. They never before "saw such a horrid-looking place; it seemed the wreck of some towering peak, burst asunder by severe frost." The ascent completely de bilitated them, and caused severe headache and pain in the ears, the thermometer being sometimes 22° below freezing-point. A plant, with leaves like sage, was found to the height of 17,000 feet, beyond which there was no soil. Overtaken by night, and obliged to camp at 13,724 feet, they seem to have kept themselves alive only by drinking large quantities of punch. The marches from Shipki to Nako are :— Shipki to Shipki Fields, Shipki Fields to Namgea Fields, Namgea Fields to Gyumúr, Gyumúr to Nako (over shoulder of Lío Porgyúl, Hours. 4 7 7 8 CHAPTER XXII. ΝΑΚΟ AND THE NAKOWALLAH. A MOUNTAIN POOL-PLEASURES OF CAMP-LIFE-A STRANGE FEELING INCLEMENT WEATHER -FOOD-TIBETAN APPETITES — HOUSES A WONDERFUL DOG-A REINCARNATION-PART FROM BRUDER PAGELL-CHANGO-SPITI MINSTRELS-LEAVE KUNAWAR -ITS CHARACTERISTICS-ITS PATHS. AT Nako we camped close to the village, on the grassy bank of a small lake. The other side of this lake was lined with large poplar and willow trees, and in so desolate a region the place appeared exceedingly beautiful. Elsewhere it might not have appeared so striking; but there is nothing like slow difficult travelling and tentlife, or camping out, for enabling one to appreciate the scenery. I particularly felt this to be the case in the upper parts of Kashmir, where not only the scene of each night's encampment, but even every turn of the beautiful wooded valleys, was deeply impressed upon my memory. Nako is a little over 12,000 feet high; and though I had already slept at higher altitudes on the Kúng-ma Pass, the weather had become colder, and I here, for the first time, experienced a sensation which the head of the Yarkand expedition had warned me not to be afraid of. It consisted in being suddenly awakened at night by an overpowering feeling of suffocation and faintness, which one unaccustomed to it, or not warned about it, might readily mistake for the im mediate approach of death. It is a very curious feeling -just as if the spirit were about to flit from the body; but a few more days of travelling along the line of 12,000 feet enabled me to get rid of it altogether. At Nako we stayed two nights, and must have been in much need of a rest, for we enjoyed our stay there immensely in spite of the exceedingly inclement weather. It is in an almost rainless district, but it is occasionally visited by rain or snow, and we happened to hit on the time of one of these storms. Soon after our arrival about mid-day the thermometer sank to 50°, and next morning was at 47°, and rain fell, or chill raw mists swept over us. Occasionally the clouds would clear away, showing the mountain above us white with newfallen snow down to within a few hundred feet of our tent; and this sort of weather continued during the period of our stay at this highly elevated village. At night it was intensely cold; the wind carried the rain into our frail abodes wherever it could find admission; and though the canvas of our tents did not admit the wet exactly, yet it was in a very damp state, which added to the coolness of the interior. Nevertheless we felt quite at home, and our servants also enjoyed themselves much. They amused themselves with various athletic games; and, to my astonishment, I found Silas, who had spent all his life within the tropics, swimming across the lake, which was a most dangerous thing to do, owing to the almost icy coldness of the water and the number of tangled weeds which it contained. This, and our general cheerfulness, said a great deal for the beneficial effects of high mountain air, and of a nourishing diet of milk, mutton, game, and wheat or barley flour, so superior to the rice, curries, vegetables, and pulse, with which the people of India delight to stuff themselves. The piles of chuppattis, or girdle-cakes, which my servants baked for themselves, |