Part 22 (1/2)
”_Middu, Middu!_” (”Cannot be, no.”) ”You are dacoits. I will not open.”
To show that we were not what they imagined, faithful Chanden Sing and Dola tapped again so gently at the door that the bolt gave way. The next moment ten strangers were squatting down round a warm fire drying their shrivelled-up, soaked skins by the flame of dried tamarisk and dung. The landlord, a doctor by the way, was rea.s.sured when he saw that we had no evil intentions, and found some silver coins in the palm of his hand. Yet he said he would rather that we slept somewhere else: there was a capital empty hut next door.
On our agreeing to this, he conducted us to the place, and there we spent the remainder of the night, or rather the early morning.
CHAPTER XLIV
The interior of a _serai_--Vermin--Fish, local jewellery, and pottery for sale--Favourite shapes and patterns--How pottery is made.
OUR abode was a one-storeyed house built of stones and mud with a flat roof. There were two rooms, the first lighted by the door, the second and larger having a square aperture in the ceiling for the triple purpose of ventilation, lighting and outlet for the smoke of the fire, which burnt directly underneath in the centre of the room. The beams and rafters supporting the roof had been brought over from the other side of the Himahlyas, as no wood is to be found in Western Tibet.
This _serai_ was in charge of a young, half-demented lama, who was most profuse in salutations, and who remained open-mouthed, gazing at us for a considerable time. He was polite and attentive in helping to dry our things in the morning, and, whenever we asked for anything, he ran out of the _serai_ in frantic fits of merriment, always bringing in what we required.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SILVER LHa.s.sA COINS]
The heavy storm during the night had flooded our room, and there was only one corner slightly drier than the rest of the floor, where we all slept huddled together. These _serais_ have no claim to cleanliness, and on this occasion all the minor animal life that inhabited the floor had, with a view to avoiding the water, retreated to the higher portion of the room, which we also had selected, so that one more trial was added to all our other miseries, for we were half devoured by a variety of ”insects.” This, indeed, was a dreadful pest, and one from which we suffered indescribable agonies, not only on this occasion but whenever we halted near Tibetan camps. When we rose in the morning the room was full of Tibetan men, women and children, who seemed very good-natured and friendly.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COPPER COINS]
[Ill.u.s.tration: EARRING WORN BY MEN]
[Ill.u.s.tration: SILVER CHARM]
[Ill.u.s.tration: GOLD AND MALACHITE BROOCH]
”_Tanga chick!_” (a silver coin equivalent to half a rupee) cried an old woman, who stuck a dried fish under my nose, professing volubly that it had been caught in Mansarowar, and that it would make its possessor the happiest of mortals. Others unrolled, from pieces of red cloth, jewellery in the form of brooches, rings, and earrings of bra.s.s or silver inlaid with malachite.
”_Gurmoh sum!_” (three rupees), ”_Diu, diu, diu_” (”Yes yes, yes”), ”_Karuga ni!_” (two two-anna pieces), ”_Gientcheke!_” (a four-anna piece), and so on, all talking at the same time, in their anxiety to dispose of their goods.
The jewellery was of local manufacture, and in some cases the pieces of malachite were firmly set, but usually a kind of paste is used for holding the stones, and consequently, pretty as the jewels are, they soon break.
The earrings are usually better made than the brooches, but the most interesting of all, because simpler and more characteristic, are the flat silver charms, such as the one I give in the ill.u.s.tration, ornamented with a primitive design. This particular one, which is now in my possession is of great antiquity, the edges being much worn down. It has the lotus pattern in the centre and leaf ornamentations filled in with lines radiating from a parent stem. Concentric circles occupy the inner square, which also contains circular dots in sets of threes and contiguous semicircles. Triangles filled in with parallel lines are a favourite form of ornamentation in Tibetan work, and, perhaps, most popular of all in the mind of the Tibetan artist is the square or the lozenge outline, with a special inclination towards purely geometrical patterns, a tradition probably inherited from their Mongol ancestors.
The most interesting objects to me at Tucker were the specimens of pottery made by the natives, which is manufactured from clay of fine quality, although it is not properly beaten previous to being worked into vases, jugs, &c. Moulds are used to fas.h.i.+on the bases of the larger vessels and the inner part is shaped by the hand; a rough turning-machine simplifies the finis.h.i.+ng of the upper part of the vase, leaving it comparatively smooth. Two handles with rough line ornamentations are added to the larger vessels, but one suffices for the jars with longer neck and small aperture.
The two patterns reproduced in the ill.u.s.tration are those more commonly adopted; the colour is a light greyish terra-cotta, left fairly smooth and unvarnished. They are well burnt, in primitive furnaces, the Lamas showing much skill in the manufacture of these vessels, which find a ready market among the pilgrims to the sacred lake. The tools used in fas.h.i.+oning the vessels are extremely simple; a piece of flat stone, and two or three wands of wood, beyond which the Tucker potter does not really require more than his fingers and his nails to accomplish his work.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MANSAROWAR POTTERY]
CHAPTER XLV
Friendly Lamas--Chanden Sing and Mansing purified--Mansing's sarcasm--Pilgrims to Mansarowar and their privileges--For luck!--Outside the Gomba.
SEVERAL Lamas came to visit me in the morning, and professed to be pleased to see us; in fact they asked me to go and pay them a visit in the Lamasery and temple. They said there was much sickness in the village, and as they believed me to be a Hindoo doctor, they wished I could do something to relieve their sufferings. I promised to do all I could, and was very glad to have this unique chance of visiting a Lamasery, and of studying the cases that would be brought before me. I carried my rifle in my hand even during this friendly visit to the Lamas.