The Kuti Castle--Under way--Our first disaster--A cheerful and a
sulky coolie--Mansing--A brigand--A strange medley of
followers--A character--Tailoring--Fields of stones--Troublesome
rivers--The Jolinkan or Lebung Pass--Sense of humour--Pleased
with small comforts.
BEFORE leaving Kuti, I went to see the curious and ancient castle perched
on a small hill about three hundred yards south of the village. It is now
in ruins, with the exception of a quadrangular tower called by the
natives the Kuti Ker, but the foundations of the whole structure can
still be plainly seen. I made a plan, which is here reproduced, as it may
be of archæological interest. The natives could give me no information
regarding it, except that it was once a king's palace strongly fortified.
A small house of several rooms by the side of the tower is said to have
been the blacksmith's shop in which the arrowheads and swords for the
king's soldiers were made. The tower is four yards square at its base,
and built of stone. Judging by its shape and construction, and the
curious windows, I am inclined to attribute this castle to Tibetan
workmanship, for identical towers are seen in Tibet, even at Taklakot.
The windows, or rather slits, on each floor of the tower were six inches
square; those in the blacksmith's house were considerably larger. There
were outer walls for the defence of the fort at places where the castle
would have been most accessible. Quantities of stones piled up in heaps
probably served as ammunition for the defenders of the fortress in
centuries gone by.
When I returned to camp all was ready, and after endless trouble with
some of my men, who were already uncertain as to whether they would
accompany me on my journey or not, I eventually got under way in the
afternoon. The Kuti village is the highest in Bias, being situated at an
elevation of 12,920 feet.
The track was now comparatively free from snow and ice except here and
there, where we had to cross extensive slopes covered with snow. On one
of these we had our first disaster. A coolie fell who carried in his hand
a large pot containing butter. He fortunately did not slide far down, but
we had the bitter disappointment of seeing our precious pot roll into the
water and disappear for ever. We camped at an elevation of 13,050 feet.
Late in the evening, as my men were collecting wood to keep up a huge
fire round which we sat, my two coolies, who had remained at Kuti with
instructions to follow, arrived with their respective loads. They were
two strange characters. The one with a coral necklace was mournful and
sulky, the other lively and talkative. They professed to be by caste
Rajiputs.
"You see," exclaimed the cheerful coolie, "I am small, but I fear
nothing. When we cross into Tibet I shall go ahead with a pointed stick
and clear all the Tibetans away. I am not afraid of them. I am ready to
fight the whole world."
Knowing the value of this sort of talk on the part of natives, I shut him
up and sent him away to fetch wood. The sulky fellow interested me more.
He seldom uttered a word, and when he did he never spoke pleasantly; he
was apparently immersed in deep thought, from which it seemed a great
effort to draw his mind away. He looked painfully ill. Motionless and
speechless, he would stare at a fixed point as if in a trance. His
features were peculiarly refined and regular, but his skin had that
ghastly shiny whitish tinge so peculiar to lepers. I waited for an
opportunity to examine his hands, on which he sat to keep them warm. It
is there, in the contracted or dropping off fingers, that one finds the
first certain symptoms of that most terrible of all diseases, leprosy. I
asked the man to come and sit nearer the blazing fire. He came and
stretched out his open palms towards the flickering flame. Alas! my
suspicions were but too correct. His fingers, distorted and contracted,
with the skin sore at the joints, were sad and certain proof. I examined
his feet and found the same symptoms there also.
"What is your name?" I inquired of him.
[Illustration: THE KUTI CASTLE]
"Mansing," he said drily, becoming immediately again absorbed in one of
his reveries.
The crackling fire was dying down, when a stalwart Tibetan suddenly
appeared bent low under the heavy weight of a huge tree-trunk which he
was carrying on his back. He approached and threw the wood on the fire.
Here was another character! As strong as an ox, this servant of mine had
queer antecedents. He was at one time a well-known bandit in the
neighbourhood of Lhassa. He was said to have taken many lives, and,
finding his own in danger in his country, had come to settle on our side
of the border, marrying different wives, whom he constantly beat and in
turn banished from under his roof. It was owing to his latest family
squabble that he came into my employ; his abnormal strength, valuable for
carrying loads, was to me his only recommendation. In camp he went by the
name of _Daku_, "the brigand."
[Illustration: MANSING THE LEPER SHOWING HIS HANDS]
In looking round to inspect my other followers, with whom I had hardly
yet got acquainted, I was amused and interested at the strange medley of
creatures forming my band. There were Humlis and Jumlis with their
luxuriant black hair tied into small tresses and a top-knot over the
head, like the Coreans. There were Tibetans, Shokas of Bias, Rongbas,
Nepalese, Rajiputs and Totolas, also a Brahmin, two native Christians and
a Johari. Then Dr. Wilson. What a collection! What a chaos of languages
and dialects!
An amusing feature of this odd crowd was that each particular caste
looked down upon all the others. This from the very beginning occasioned
separation during mealtime, and the camp was lively with as many burning
fires in as many sheltered spots as there were castes of men following
me. I was glad of this, as it seemed a sort of guarantee that they would
never all join together to conspire against me.
Poor Mansing, the leper, was shivering with cold. He had been unable to
purchase himself a blanket and shoes at Kuti. He had spent the money in
tobacco instead. Dr. Wilson and I took pity upon him. The long evening
was still before us, so I got out the cloth I had purchased at Kuti, and
with scissors and needle we began to cut and sew a new set of garments
for the poor wretch. The Doctor did the cutting and I the sewing. I
cannot boast that a professional tailor would not have turned out a
better fit, but for all general purposes the newly-made clothes answered
well enough. There was only one inconvenience in the single-breasted
jacket. I had no buttons, and was therefore compelled to sew the coat on
the man himself. It thus remained a fixture, and not only looked all
right, but--which was our chief object--kept him warm.
We left camp at 5.30 the following morning. High mountains rose on either
side of us, and we followed the Kuti River flowing here from West to
East. At an elevation of 13,980 feet we crossed the Bitroguare River. On
the other side of the Kuti River were high perpendicular cliffs of a
vividly red-coloured rock with blue horizontal stratifications, and
towering over them a succession of very pointed peaks.
The action of ice on the rock was noticeable everywhere. As we went
farther we came upon extensive fields of stones and boulders brought down
from the higher peaks by the ice, and in some places we found actual
_moraines_. To our left stood a gigantic wall of stone like a natural
impregnable fortress. Travelling in a direction of 320° (b.m.), and at
elevations of 13,900 feet, 14,200 feet, 14,300 feet, we waded through
three tributaries of the Kuti; then we came to a foaming, rapid and deep
river which we had great difficulty in crossing. It was getting towards
the middle of the day, and the stream, fed by the snows melting under the
hot sun, was rising from moment to moment. Two of my coolies whom I first
sent in reached the middle, where the water came up to their chins. They
lost their footing and were temporarily helpless, and in some danger of
being swamped, the loads which they carried on their heads being partly
spoiled when we succeeded in recovering them. The other men got
frightened by the time they were ready to cross. The river had risen so
high that it was impossible to get to the other side except by swimming,
and this was out of the question, on account of the loads. We therefore
had to follow the stream upwards for about a mile, when fortunately we
found a somewhat dangerous, yet passable, snow bridge, over which the
remainder of my men and goods effected a crossing in safety. We returned
to our course on the Kuti, still passing between high, rugged mountains
along an undulating plain averaging about 400 yards wide. Though at
comparatively high elevations, there were large patches of brightly
coloured flowers--red, violet, white and vivid yellow--which gave to the
landscape a picturesque and constantly changing effect.
[Illustration: THE JOLINKAN OR LEBUNG PASS]
On reaching a small pass, 14,750 feet, the path branched to Darma by the
Jolinkan towards bearings 260°, and over the Lebung Pass. It is really
only a goat track, exceedingly difficult and fatiguing, except in the
month of August, when there is only a small quantity of snow, and it
leads to the Dholi River about half a mile south of Khumling.
The Jolinkan River, rising from the snow field to the East of the Lebung
or Jolinkan Pass, had now to be crossed. The stalwart dacoit, ever ready
to make himself useful, conveyed his load across, and lifting me like a
feather on to his back, saved me from plunging higher than my waist into
the bitterly cold water, whereas he was covered up to his neck. The
course of the Kuti turns now to 330° (b.m.). Going up and down small
barren hills, round the foot of high mountains, we attained an altitude
of 15,000 feet. Here, to the left of the track, and eighty feet above it,
is a small and beautiful lake 500 yards long and 400 wide. Its waters, in
which the high snowy peaks round it are reflected as in a silver mirror,
find an outlet in a short but most precipitous river flowing with
tremendous force into the Kuti. Soon after leaving this lake we came upon
another small sheet of water, near which were thirteen peculiar piles or
columns of stones, each one having been erected by the first Tibetan or
Shoka who crossed the pass during the summer. A similar erection could
also be seen perched on a large rock jutting out from the water of the
larger lake. Though the sun was fast going down behind the mountains to
the west, we pressed on, trying to make as much headway as we could
towards the perpetual snows. We still travelled over undulating ground,
and the marching was not heavy or difficult, save for the freezingly cold
and very rapid streams we had to wade through. It was all we could do to
get warm again after having been immersed in one, and before we had
ceased shivering we had to wade through the next, and yet the next, so
that one's chilliness increased, and the constant discomfort of cold
became very trying. Much discontent prevailed among my carriers over the
very long march, as their feet were numbed with cold. They nearly
mutinied when I would not let them stop at a camp they had selected, but
ordered them to proceed farther. A mile and a half from the point they
had favoured, we overlooked a large, flat basin of stones and gravel,
about half a mile wide and three-quarters of a mile long, which had the
appearance of having formerly been a lake. It was surrounded by high
snowy peaks, and its bed lay at an altitude of 15,400 feet. It seemed as
if the immense quantity of stones and pebbles carried by the river
feeding it had raised its bed until it had caused the water to flow into
the Kuti. When I saw it, the river formed an extensive delta with as many
as twelve arms, joining again within the basin into one single stream
before throwing itself into the Kuti. Naturally we selected the wider
expanse of water to ford, assuming that it would be shallower than the
narrow ones. Once more that day I took off my lower garments and entered
the cold water. It came direct from the snows, and its temperature was
slightly above freezing-point. The sun had gone down, and there was a
piercing wind. My feet, as I went in and out of the numerous branches of
the stream, became so cold that I could hardly stand for the stinging
pain; moreover, treading on sharp-edged stones under the water and
knocking my frozen toes against them was at first very painful, but after
a time they got so frozen that, though at each step the soles of my feet
and toes were cut and bruised, I suffered no actual pain until after
crossing five or six arms of the delta. Unable to balance myself any
longer, I struggled as best I could out of the water and rubbed my feet
violently, until slowly, and with intense pain, they came back to life.
It is curious how a little sense of humour helps on such occasions. To an
onlooker not suffering as we were, the sight of our party crossing that
dreadful delta would have been curious. The expression of disgust on all
my men's faces, not to speak of my own, could not but have caused
merriment. We carried our footgear on our shoulders; we struggled,
stumbled, and splashed in the greenish water, and now one, then another,
fell helpless through frostbite on some island or other, until we were
all disabled, and still only half-way through. In spite of our condition,
worn out as we were, the soles and sides of our feet badly cut and
bleeding, my men, so sulky at having been firmly baulked in their wishes,
became quite good-natured and amusing when I chaffed them over their
present troubles, and they saw that I was in the same plight. After
endless rubbing, we restored a certain amount of circulation to our lower
limbs, and proceeded to cross the next six arms of the delta. When, after
an hour or longer of suffering, we were at last able to put on our
footgear, we felt the happiness which comes from the knowledge of
difficulties overcome. Never can I forget the great joy arising from what
may seem a small comfort--a warm pair of socks! As I write these lines I
live over again the particular pleasure of gently drawing them on, and it
is impressed for ever on my mind as a fitting reward for the hardships I
had put up with.
We pitched our tents in a sheltered narrow valley to the North-West of
the large basin. Altitude, 15,400 feet. Thermometer: Minimum, 24°,
Maximum, 51°.