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0103 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / Page 103 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000233
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

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Himalayas. On arriving toward sunset at Sukti, the last
village on the southwest side of the mountains, I told the
"lumbadar," or headman, that I wanted seven coolies to
be ready to start at two in the morning, so that we might
reach the pass before the snow began to grow soft in the
hot May sun, and so get over in a single day. Although at
nine o'clock, when I went to bed, nothing appeared to
have been done, at about eleven a crowd of men filed into
the room, headed by the lumbadar. The pass was very
bad, they said in Ladakhi, which Ibrahim, my Mohamme-
dan servant from Leh, interpreted for me into Turki. To
go over to-morrow was impossible. All the men in the vil-
lage were willing to go, but they were not ready. Would I
not take two days to go over? — putting their hands to-
gether, and bending low in supplication. Their shoes were
bad, and must be mended, and they must get new strips of
cloth in which to wrap their legs. Here they all showed
their ragged garments and foot-gear. Would I not delay
the start till daybreak to-morrow? — bending again in sup-
plication. They did not want pay. Five men would go for
the wages of one. The result was that we took two days
for the pass. If the breathless climb and labored descent
through the snow made the coolies as weary as it did me,
their supplication is not to be wondered at. When they
turned back, Ibrahim, by a mistake, afterward rectified,
paid them only twelve cents apiece instead of twenty-two.
They accepted it without complaint, and said, "Ju! ju!"
the usual Ladakhi greeting, as if most grateful.

On returning across the pass, May 13, my six young
Ladakhi coolies were even more cheerful, and acted as col-