国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 | |
チベットとトルキスタン : vol.1 |
On to Polu 71
great circle's quadrant separates you in space, a
hundred kowtows separate you in social rank, but
you stand together in one white man's memory as
having given him, each of you, a bushel of trouble
for an even bushel of reasonable suspicion against
him !
Now, the things which the Beg did, or inspired,
or seemed to inspire, were these : the desertion of
the head-and-tail holders for our ponies before the
plateau was reached ; the disappearance of the
donkey-caravan, bearing two-thirds of our grain-
supply, of which a part was recovered ; and the de-
sertion of our guide before he had taken us to an
agreed point on the plateau, beyond which neither
he nor we knew the way, but which we wanted as a
tie-point on the map. It all smelled of treachery.
But one never knows. We dealt through the un-
speakable Achbar. There was room for some
misunderstanding.
The assistant caravan-men, eight in number, did
excellent work for three days, fording the ice-cold
stream scores of times, legs bare, coats soaked in the
swirling torrent, no possibility of warming their half-
frozen limbs. Then, all the frightful steps saving
the last two having been surmounted, they disap-
peared one after the other. The caravan was badly
strung out — impossible to watch them. Hence
Achbar was told to promise backsheesh when the
end should be gained. Their regular pay, fifteen
cents per day, had been deposited with the Beg.
The backsheesh would have nearly doubled it.
The donkey men started away from Polu ahead
of us. We stipulated that they should take
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