Mansing arrives--A pretence of killing him--Our execution
postponed--Fed by the Lamas.
AN excited consultation followed, during which, in the midst of this
scene of barbarity, my coolie Mansing arrived. He had fallen off his
bare-back pony many times, and had been left far behind. The man who held
my hair now relinquished his grasp, while another pushed me violently
from in front, causing me to fall heavily backward, and putting a painful
strain on all the tendons of my legs. Mansing, bruised and aching all
over, was brought forward and tied by his legs to the same log of wood to
which I was fastened. They informed me that they would kill my coolie
first, and one brutal Lama seized him roughly by the throat. I was pushed
up in a sitting posture, and a cloth was thrown over my head and face, so
that I could not see what was being done. I heard poor Mansing groan
pitifully, then there was a dead silence. I called him, I received no
answer; so I concluded that he had been despatched. I was left in this
terrible suspense for over a quarter of an hour, when at last they
removed the cloth from over my head, and I beheld my coolie lying before
me, bound to the log and almost unconscious, but, thank God, still alive.
He told me that, when I had called him, a Lama had placed his hand upon
his mouth to prevent him from answering, while, with the other hand, he
had squeezed his neck so tightly as to nearly strangle him. After a while
Mansing got better, and the coolness and bravery of the poor wretch
during these terrible trials were really marvellous.
We were told that our execution was only postponed till the next day, in
order that we might be tortured until the time came for us to be brought
out to death.
A number of Lamas and soldiers stood round jeering at us. I seized the
opportunity this respite afforded to hail a swaggering Lama and ask him
for some refreshment.
"_Orcheh, orcheh nga dappa tugu duh, chuen deh, dang, yak, guram, tcha,
tsamba pin_" ("I am very hungry, please give me some rice, yak meat,
_ghur_, tea, and oatmeal!") I asked in my best Tibetan.
"_Hum murr, Maharaja!_" ("I want butter, your Majesty") put in Mansing,
half in Hindustani and half in the Tibetan language.
This natural application for food seemed to afford intense amusement to
our torturers, who had formed a ring round us, and laughed at our appeal,
while Mansing and I, both of us famished, were left sitting bound in a
most painful position.
The day had now waned, and our torturers did not fail to remind us
constantly that the following day our heads would be severed from our
bodies, which I told them would cause us no pain, for if they gave us no
food we should be dead of starvation by then.
Whether they realised that this might be the case, or whether some other
reasons moved them, I cannot say; but several of the Lamas, who had been
most brutal, including one who had the previous day taken a part in
Chanden Sing's flogging, now became quite polite and treated us with a
surprising amount of deference. Two Lamas were despatched to the
monastery, and returned after some time with bags of _tsamba_ and a large
_raksang_ of boiling tea. I have hardly ever enjoyed a meal more, though
the Lamas stuffed the food down my throat with their unwashed fingers so
fast that they nearly choked me.
"Eat, eat as much as you can," said they grimly, "for it may be your last
meal."
And eat I did, and washed the _tsamba_ down with quantities of buttered
tea, which they poured into my mouth carelessly out of the _raksang_.
Mansing, whose religion did not allow him to eat food touched by folk of
a different caste, was eventually permitted to lick the meal out of the
wooden bowl. I myself was none too proud to take the food in any way it
might be offered, and when my humble "_Orcheh, orcheh tchuen mangbo
terokchi_" ("Please give me some more") met with the disapproval of the
Lamas, and brought out the everlasting negative, "_Middù, middù_," I was
still too hungry to waste any of the precious food: so the Tibetans
revolved the wooden bowl round and round my mouth, and I licked it as
clean as if it had never been used.