36 MANNING'S VISIT TO LHASA
wise, approved of his countenance and manner." He pretended to skill in physiognomy and fortune-telling, and foretold very great things of Manning.
Manning also visited the Tibet Mandarin, who lived " in a sort of castle on the top of a hill," the Jong, which General Macdonald attacked and captured in 1904, and they discussed Calcutta and '.Tibet together for half an hour, but what they said Manning does not record. The Tibetan intimated that he would return the visit the next day, and he sent " some rice and a useful piece of cloth, but did not come himself."
With his medical practice Manning had a greater success. To one Chinaman and his wife, who were suffering from an intermittent fever," he gave " opium, Fowler's solution of arsenic, and afterwards left them a few pages of bark. The mother-in-law, also, who had the complaint of old age, he cheered up with a little comforting physic."
The General often came to see him, for, like many other Generals, he had nothing to do, and was glad of' a morning lounge." He managed, however, to foist a Chinese servant on to Manning as cook. This man's cooking was bad, but in drying and folding up linen he saved him infinite trouble," for, says Manning, 64 I never could to this day fold up a shirt or other vestment. A handkerchief or a sheet I can manage, but nothing further."
Manning, hearing that the General was fond of music, and no bad performer," took the opportunity one day, while he was smoking his pipe in my courtyard, of introducing the subject, and paying my court to him by requesting the favour of hearing music. This brought me an invitation to take an evening repast and wine with him, which was just what I liked. He gave us a very pretty concert. . . . The Chinese music, though rather meagre to a European, has its beauties. . . . The General insisted upon my giving him a specimen of European (Calcutta) music on the Chinese flute. I was not acquainted with the fingering of that instrument, but I managed to produce something, which he politely praised
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