Verdureless and waterless stretches, in crossing which our poor
animals were two nights without food, brought us to the glacier-blue
waters of the Serchu, tumbling along in a deep broad gash, and
farther on to a lateral torrent which is the boundary between Rupchu,
tributary to Kashmir, and Lahul or British Tibet, under the rule of
the Empress of India. The tents were ready pitched in a grassy
hollow by the river; horses, cows, and goats were grazing near them,
and a number of men were preparing food. A Tibetan approached me,
accompanied by a creature in a nondescript dress speaking Hindustani
volubly. On a band across his breast were the British crown, and a
plate with the words 'Commissioner's chaprassie, Kulu district.' I
never felt so extinguished. Liberty seemed lost, and the romance of
the desert to have died out in one moment! At the camping-ground I
found rows of salaaming Lahulis drawn up, and Hassan Khan in a state
which was a compound of pomposity and jubilant excitement. The
tahsildar (really the Tibetan honorary magistrate), he said, had
received instructions from the Lieutenant-Governor of the Panjab that
I was on the way to Kylang, and was to 'want for nothing.
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