Page:Three Years in Tibet.djvu/128

Coming to a small clear stream, I went through the process of fire-making and tea-preparing, and then took a meal oi" baked flour. Crossing the stream and then mounting an elevation, J saw far in front of me one white and several black tents pitched in the plain. The sight of a white tent puzzled me a good deal. Tibetan tent- cloth is almost always dark in color, the natives weaving the stuff with, yak's hair, which they first take between their teeth, draw out and twist into a yarn between their fingers, putting it on to the loom when a sufficient quantity of coarse thread has thus been obtained. I could not solve the mystery ; but it mattered little after all to me then ; I only wanted to reach the tents as quickly as possible, and to be allowed a few days' rest there. I had walked about five miles, and the last mile or so brought back on me the now chronic trouble, the pain of fatigue and shortness of breath. When, somehow, I had managed to drag myself along to the threshold of the largest of the tents, the welcome I received was in the shape of five or six ferocious-looking native dogs, and it was a right hot reception, to appreciate which I had to put all my remaining energy into the gentle warning of my staff.