to their request. The people, however, became urgent, and the
Choongtam Lama giving his high authority to the superstition, it
appeared impolitic to resist their earnest supplication; though I was
well aware that the story was trumped up by the Lama for the purpose
of forcing me to return. I yielded on the promise of provisions being
supplied from the village, which was done to a limited extent; and I
was enabled to hold out till more arrived from Dorjiling, now, owing
to the state of the roads, at the distance of twenty days' march.
The people were always civil and kind: there was no concealing the
fact that the orders were stringent, prohibiting my party being
supplied with food, but many of the villagers sought opportunities by
night of replenishing my stores. Superstitious and timorous, they
regard a doctor with great veneration; and when to that is added his
power of writing, drawing, and painting, their admiration knows no
bounds: they flocked round my tent all day, scratching their ears,
lolling out their tongues, making a clucking noise, smiling, and
timidly peeping over my shoulder, but flying in alarm when my little
dog resented their familiarity by snapping at their legs. The men
spend the whole day in loitering about, smoking and spinning wool:
the women in active duties; a few were engaged in drying the leaves
of a shrub (_Symplocos_) for the Tibet market, which are used as a
yellow dye; whilst, occasionally, a man might be seen cutting a spoon
or a yak-saddle out of rhododendron wood.

During my stay at Lamteng, the weather was all but uniformly cloudy
and misty, with drizzling rain, and a southerly, or up-valley wind,
during the day, which changed to an easterly one at night:
occasionally distant thunder was heard. My rain-gauges showed very
little rain compared with what fell at Dorjiling during the same
period; the clouds were thin, both sun and moon shining through them,