| MEETING WITH NOMADS. 47 hundred rupees, to guide us to the nearest large encampment. This offer was, however, refused. Before the bargaining for the yak was concluded, the chief of the nomads appeared and not only forbade the sale, but commanded that no sort of help should be given us. He said, truly enough, that it was against the laws and customs to permit strangers to enter the country, and that he and his people would be severely punished if they supplied guides or transport. This obstructionist was obdurate, and would accept neither payment nor presents, nor even listen to our proposals. He said that the Deva Lung, the official head at Lhasa, was a god, and would certainly know of any transaction between him and strangers. No doubt one cause of his determination was distrust of the men in his own neighbourhood. Tibetans have little confidence in their countrymen, and this chief would not run the risk of being denounced as a receiver of bribes, and subjected to the severities inflicted on such delinquents. So far as the possession of coin is concerned, these nomads are exceedingly poor, and, indeed, in the ordinary course of things, have seldom occasion to use money. They are in a condition similar to that of the inhabitants of the Caucasus, whom I observed, when travelling through that country in 1893, to have no adequate notion of the value of money. Still, the Tibetans require arms and ammunition as well as barley and other supplies from India and Ladak, and the means of purchasing these things are provided mainly by the sale of wool and salt, the chief products of Western Tibet. The use of money is thus known among them, but yet the offer of sums which must have appeared large, scarcely tempted them to run the slightest risk. It was not easy to make out whether the stolid manner of these men was due to the affectation of indifference | |
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