marked that if he ever found himself in Calcutta the note would
serve him in good stead.
I might suggest to anyone who may have the opportunity
of doing so that an exhumation of the corpse buried at Balkh
as Moorcroft’s would settle the matter at once. It might also
he a good thing to remove altogether the remains of an Englishman
from a place where they have for so long been treated with
disrespect. If the skull is that of a European the body is Moot-
Group of Tibetan women and children.
croft’s. If it is that of a native, there will arise a strong probability
that the story Hue tells had at least some basis of fact.
I should add that so great was the anger in LhaSa over the
discovery of Moorcroft’s notes and maps, that Nisan destroyed
the “ chit ” lest in some way it should incriminate him.
18. I had not properly read my Marco Polo (“ Yule’s ” latest
edition), when I wrote that I could not understand the reference
to the “ flesh-licking ” yak. The emperor, Humaion himself,
told the Turkish admiral, Sidi Ali, that when a yak had knocked
a man down, it skinned him from head to heels by licking him
with his tongue.
19. I have not drawn sufficient attention in these pages to
the danger with which any decrease of our prestige in Lhasa
threatens our best recruiting ground— Nepaul. The Gurkhas,
who are the mainstay of all our hill operations in the North-West,
would be the first object of any foreign hostility in Lhasa, which
still exercises considerable spiritual ascendancy over their
races. The excellent work of the 8th Gurkhas, who had been
brought almost to perfection by-Major Row and the opportunity
of active service, demands mention in this record, though in
general I have avoided singling out officers or men for especial
comment.
20. In Tibet, only the members of the family are carried out
to burial through the door. Others dying in the house are put
through a window. In the Chumbi Valley the dead are cremated
in a sitting posture. Some important persons in Tibet are
cast after death into the Yam-dok tso, others—-especially lamas
— are reduced to a mere cuticle and enshrined in chortens.
The enormous majority are hacked in pieces and given to the
pigs, dogs and vultures.