8. In a blacksmith’s shop in Phari, I found a man-trap
very similar in construction to those but recently obsolete in
England. The jaws were armed with the teeth of some huge
fish, and the spring was provided by a strong yak-hair rope.
The punishments inflicted by the Tibetans are abominably
cruel. The wretched men attached to the Mission who were
caught in Gyantse on the night of the 4th of May, were cut to
Bolka. This, being a clearing in a bamboo plantation, is in Bhutanese territory.
pieces slowly in the “ alternate ” method, and during the stay
of the Mission at Kamba jong an unhappy woman, convicted
or suspected of adultery, had her nose and lips slit, and was
afterwards flogged to death. In a country where morality
is of the loosest, this was simply inhuman. It is a Tibetan,
not a Chinese custom. The “ alternate ” mutilation is of course
found in China also.
9. On the 16th of February I went for a two-day excursion
with Major Ray down the valley of the Ammo chu. After a
difficult climb through the rhododendron jungle nine or ten
miles below Rinchengong we encamped across the Bhutanese
frontier—which is here delimited by the clearly-defined line
(The end of the path down the Chumbi Valley below Assam. The trail here
descends the precipitous side of the rock.
of bamboo growth—in a “ dmo ” accouchement clearing in
the bamboos, named Bolka. Unfortunately, in returning for
the mules which were unable to climb further, Ray slipped in
the darkness, and fell down the khud. He hurt his arm severely,