EARLY REMINISCENCES
way further on, on the Yatung side of the pass, by about twenty Chinese soldiers sent from the frontier to meet me. They presented a gay appearance in their blue uniforms with large letters in black on both back and front of their coats. A few of them were armed with guns, but the greater number carried tridents, flags, and other unusual things.
About one and a half miles from Yatung a tent was pitched where, to conform to Chinese ideas of etiquette, I had to change into my official uniform, and a little further on I was ceremoniously received by the Chinese and Tibetan officials and conducted to a gorgeous tent in which tea was served. Mr. F. E. Taylor, of the Imperial Chinese Customs Service, was amongst those present in Chinese official dress. The Chinese officials were the Popen or Frontier Officer, Wang-yen-Ling, the officer commanding the troops, Tu-Hsi-hsun, and interpreter, Yee-Shan, and the Tibetan officials, U. Depon, the Tsedun Tenzing Wangpo and Kutzab Lobzang Tenzing. Our conversation in the tent was limited to the exchange of compliments and mere trivialities, and after resting a little, we proceeded down the valley to the house which was to be my residence; a very gay procession with all the umbrellas, flags, pikes, &c., carried by the followers of the Chinese officials.
It was my first experience of the Chinese official, and I have since always found him of the same type, outwardly exceedingly polite and punctilious, but behind one’s back deceitful and cunning, intent on the Chinese policy of delay, and most difficult to bring to the point in any negotiation.
The house placed at my disposal was constructed partly on Chinese lines by Tibetan artisans; green wood had been employed, with the consequence that no door would shut, and I could look at the view from my bed through the chinks in the boards of the wall, which, as the temperature registered about 18° of frost, was somewhat chilly.
I shall not enter into a lengthy description of the negotiations, it will suffice to say that I found the so-called
31
