to nothing before Gyantse was reached. At last they
were made to understand, and shouting excitedly to
each other they, too, scampered away on their stout
little ponies. It was a curious incident— the impassive
non possumus which Younghusband returned to the
heated declamations of the two senior delegates ; the
Tibetan attendants waiting during the conference on the plain.
gay yellow and green coats of the generals from Lhasa
and Shigatse ; the various head-dresses ; the purple
and blue of the robes ; the strange forked guns embossed
with turquoise and coral ; the richly-worked
sword hilts the little grey and bay ponies, saddle-
clothed with swastika-patterned stuffs and gay with
filigree brass headbands and wide moulded iron stirrups
v o l . H i o
