By a mere chance, possibly suggested by my close observation of Shoka ways, I thought that, before departing to rejoin the main portion of my expedition, I would inspect some huge boulders some way off, behind which the men in their long hours of waiting might possibly have taken shelter. Had they been there, with the howling wind they could not possibly hear my voice. In fact, under the largest boulder, where the melting snow had formed a hollow, I discovered [[211]]my two Shokas wrapped up, head and all, in their blankets, and snoring hard. They had given me up for lost—although the idea did not disturb their sleep—and were waiting till the next morning to proceed up the glacier to look for me.
The four Tibetans had tried to approach them, pretending friendship, but they wisely had driven them away with stones. Then, for safety, they had at sunset removed their quarters to a more secluded spot. The distance from this spot to the Nui Pass and back was six miles.
The storm was still very bad, snow was again falling plentifully, and we decided that our best plan was to make a night march—long as it would be—and try to rejoin the others. Relieved of the weight of rifles and all, I was able to get along pretty well, except that after we had gone a couple of miles it got pitch dark, and we stumbled against everything and got terribly jerked. It snowed hard, and the wind blew in all its fury. We eventually came upon the faint trail, now white with snow, but on this it was considerably easier to proceed. We travelled now on long stretches of flat country, then upon an undulating, even hilly, portion of the valley, occasionally resting for breath under the lee of some big rock, and drawing [[212]]freely on my supply of chocolate, which one of my men carried.
Towards midnight we reached an open space—one of the camping-grounds—called Bedang, where the Tibetans have erected three extensive mani or sacred walls, one with a number of images. We got on the lee side of it, and, taking bundles of matches, lighted them up to inspect the long row of coloured Buddhas forming a cornice to the upper part of the wall. There were dozens of these images, evidently all made in the same mould, and painted in combinations of yellow, red, and blue. Then there were large stones with the usual sacred inscription, and flying prayers wherever they could be hung.
We Came Upon a Shrine of Curious Buddha Images
Half-way between Bedang and the Nui camping-ground we had come across a number of chirams (pyramids, often tombs) and chokdens.
By the time we had reached this sacred spot we were pretty well tired out and hungry, but we had not sufficient blankets to go round nor food enough to make us feel really happy again. We rested a while, and before our limbs got numbed with cold we again started off on our dreary march to rejoin the main body of my party. As we got lower down we came in for a violent shower of hail—the [[213]]pellets being of such a size that they thumped rather too vigorously on our skulls—then torrents of rain. We were simply soaked. It cleared for a few moments, and the moon shone for some seconds between two ugly black clouds—almost, it seemed, only to laugh at us. Indeed, a moment later another downpour froze us to the marrow of our bones, and it was all we could do to proceed at all.
There was, fortunately, a narrow trail here, which we followed, and which frequently overhung precipices of great height. In several places the trail was actually resting on crowbars thrust into the face of the cliff. We stumbled along, but we were all so tired out that we really cared little what happened to us. The hours seemed interminable.
At 3.30 A.M. we at last approached Go village. All the houses were shut up, everything was as still as death, until we got quite close. Then dogs barked furiously from every house, and the noise was echoed from mountain to mountain. The weather had somewhat cleared, but nowhere could I discern my tents. We shouted and yelled to rouse the head village man, and eventually the scared figure of a Shoka appeared, lighted by a red [[214]]blaze from a torch he carried in his hand. He was jovial, and most anxious to be of assistance.