NAGARTSE: ENVOYS: DEMOLITIONS: BATHS: BOILING WATER
Next day we reached Nagartse. This is a village surmounted by a jong
which is perched at the end of a rocky ridge which runs from higher
hills close down to a corner of the Lake Palti. There is one monastery
inside the jong itself, and another on the hillside close by. There was
a belt of standing crops close to the jong which were more advanced than
those on the other side of the Karo-La. On the whole we appeared to have
reached something of an oasis. If the enemy had decided to make a stand
against us here, we should have had very little difficulty in ousting
them. It would have been quite easy to send our mountain guns up on to
the ridge above the jong, and a very few shells from that position would
have probably secured a speedy evacuation. As a matter of fact, after a
little parleying, they decided to evacuate, and we were to be free of
the jong and all it contained, while of course we respected all property
of theirs that pertained to religion.
From here onwards we were constantly met by deputations of envoys. The
sight, which first of all used greatly to tickle the fancy, of important
Tibetan personages under bright umbrellas and riding splendid mules
splendidly caparisoned, and led by servants in gorgeous liveries, soon
grew quite common. At every point of any importance along the line of
our advance, this or a similar cavalcade would come hurrying up. What
exactly used to take place at the interviews which followed, I am not
privileged to know, but apparently fresh reasons were advanced on each
occasion for our not going further on our way to Lhassa, and fresh
specious promises of considering our demands in a conciliatory though
vague spirit were never wanting. But after a pleasant talk of many hours
the purple and fine linen used to ride away baffled.
We halted at Nagartse for two nights. We found it a useful place to have
captured. Unfortunately it contained little grain, of which now we were
growing very short, but we found in it a large storehouse of bagged
tsampa, which was very welcome. It proved also to have been used by the
enemy as an arsenal, and several boxes of gunpowder were discovered in
it, hidden away in a barn among quantities of straw. We had grown wary
in searching jongs since the day, a fortnight or so before, when some
accident such as a lighted match falling through a flooring in
Gyantse-jong had caused the explosion of a store of gunpowder which had
done much havoc among a party of Fusiliers close by, several of whom
had been seriously injured.
The gunpowder found at Nagartse was destroyed by us, and certain
portions of the buildings demolished, the latter process producing a
fine haul of firewood in the shape of the beams and rafters of the
demolished houses. That process of demolition, in which the Sappers and
Miners were past masters, is one of the dirtiest jobs I know. I was
there to collect wood from the _debris_, which the Sappers and Miners
demolished. As each wall falls it throws up a cloud of dust, and the
filth of ages in small particles enters your eyes, your ears, your hair,
and your mouth, and covers your clothes: no small matter when the
clothes in which you stand may be the only suit you possess, and the
function of having a bath cannot be undertaken lightly, but needs due
warning, ample preparation, and assured leisure.
Many of us who serve in India have, for considerations of health, which
to the Englishman at home seem absurd, but are nevertheless proved by
Anglo-Indian experience to be imperative, had to abjure the cold bath.
For such a hot bath is the only form of complete ablution. Your tent, if
you do not exceed your scale of transport, will be small and will have
no bath-room attached; then for preparing the bath, you have to remove
all the ordinary contents of the tent outside into the open. Then will
follow the setting in position of whatever form of camp bath you may
possess, or may be able to borrow. Meanwhile an extra allowance of
firewood has to be procured and the water made hot. By the time all is
ready and you are beginning to take off your clothes a considerable time
will have passed. If, during that period, some exigency of field service
does not arise which requires you to leave all those preparations
regretfully, and postpone the bath to another day, you are lucky. Even
if you get through with your project without being disturbed, it is as
likely as not that the day for getting your clothes washed being a
movable feast, you will have nothing to put on that will not seem a
defilement to your freshly polished skin. Getting water hot enough was
sometimes difficult when you wanted as much as is necessary for a bath,
if the wind blew high and firewood was scanty. But this was nothing
compared with the difficulty experienced in such forms of cookery as
were associated with boiling water. The temperature at which water boils
at an altitude of, say, 15,000 feet is, I believe, some forty degrees
lower than boiling point on the sea-level. I wondered for a long time
why my tea never seemed to have been made with boiling water, and I am
afraid a certain faithful youth who used to make it for me got rather
harsh treatment till my scientific education was sufficiently advanced
to absolve him. Tea that is served up at a temperature of forty degrees
below the normal boiling point can never be very nice. And it got cool
very quickly, which of course was natural. When I returned to India the
other day, I could not make out why I was always burning my tongue over
my tea, till I remembered that of course the tea which I was now
drinking was made with water that boiled at an ordinary boiling
temperature, and so remained too hot to drink till it had been allowed
to stand for a decent interval.
It was in its effect upon rice as part of the natives' ration that this
low boiling point was really of serious import. Rice well boiled is a
good ration for natives, but there was many a case of indigestion and
colic attributed to the rice which had been spuriously boiled at one of
these high altitudes, but never really cooked.