A VISIT TO CHEN-LAO-PAN—COLONEL YANG—THE DAUGHTER OF PRINCE KOKO NOR—A VISIT TO THE MONASTERY OF KUMBUM.

The following morning we visited the Lhassa officials, but unfortunately found only one of them at home, Lusam Kindum, who was very friendly, and at once plied us with tea. He said that he himself was shortly going to Pekin with the big triennial tribute to the Emperor, consisting of pulo cloth, saffron, and incense. He showed us a rifle of German make which he had bought from one of the soldiers during the rebellion for eighteen taels, or ￡3 12s.

We made Lusam Kindum a small present of a knife, and he in return presented Malcolm with a beautifully embroidered golden cap such as he himself wore, and to me gave a "scarf of blessing," or k\'artag, under which it was given, and I in return held this up to my forehead with a gentle nod. He, too, came down from the "k\'ang" and accompanied us as far as the gates, which were opened in our honour.

We again visited Chen-Lao-Pan, where the "ting" and the Colonel turned up, so that the conversation and laughter waxed strong and loud, while the tea, the cakes, and pipes were liberally distributed. All knew that Chen-Lao-Pan possessed the best of everything, and was liberal with it withal. To add to the gathering, the Colonel\'s two little daughters, both well dressed, were trotted in to pay their respects. They must have been very young, for they were very little, 268 and could scarcely walk, yet they made their curtseys all round in the most polite fashion, showing at what an early age the better educated Chinese are taught to a nicety the correct manners of society. As soon as the mayor and the Colonel, whose name was Yang, and his two little daughters had departed, we set about business, and the object of our second visit. This was the loan of some money to help us across China. Nothing could have delighted more the heart of this good-natured Chinaman than his freely lending us sixty taels, as well as giving us letters of credit to other agents throughout the country. Nor could we thank him sufficiently for the kind help he had given us. The lack of money at this time was our greatest difficulty. How could we cross China when we were penniless?

BUDDHIST PRAYER-WHEEL, WITH SCARF OF BLESSING.

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During the afternoon the Rijnharts were visited by the daughter of the Prince of Koko Nor. She was so splendidly dressed that I could not resist taking a snap-shot of her whilst being engaged in conversation with Dr. Rijnhart. We were sorry at having to leave Tankar on the morrow, especially as Rijnhart himself was coming with us and we were leaving his good wife to live alone; but we were thankful to know that in this busy little town the greatest officials were her staunchest friends.

DR. RIJNHART. DAUGHTER OF THE PRINCE OF KOKO NOR.
Tankar—Sining.

A Visit to the Monastery of Kumbum.

About 1 p.m. on October 17th, after having said "Good-bye" to Dr. Rijnhart, our hospitable hostess of the last 270 few days, and having sent off our baggage by the direct road to Sining, we started for the famous monastery of Kumbum, which lies about seventy li south-east of Tankar. Our party consisted of Mr. Peter Rijnhart, our two selves, and Lassoo, the cook. We rode our Mongol ponies, on which we fastened our saddlebags, with all that we were likely to require.

Very lucky we were to be able to pay this visit under the guidance of Mr. Rijnhart, for not only has he a more intimate knowledge of the monastery than any other living man, but having made his home for two years in Lusar, ten months of which were spent in the monastery itself, he has made friends with a very large number of its inmates, more especially with Mina Fu-yeh, one of the greatest incarnate saints in the place,[4] in whose house we were to spend the night. Just outside the east gate of Tankar we passed a party of Tibetans, in the midst of whom was a big living Buddha, who had recently been appointed abbot of the monastery of Ta Koe Ri by the Talé Lama. On his way from Lhassa he had been attacked by a party of Mohammedans. All his attendants had been killed, and he alone had escaped to the mountains, where he wandered about for twenty-three days without food, till at last he found his way to Tankar. He was now on his way to take up his appointment, having recovered from the effects of his privations.

BRIDGE IN CHINA, FIVE MILES FROM TANKAR. MISSIONARY AND MULE ON BRIDGE.

For the first fifteen li our road lay along the left bank of the Hsi Ho, till we crossed it by a bridge close to the village of Hsang Ho Ri (Sounding River). On the way we overtook strings of camels laden with the yearly tribute of pulo and incense from the Talé Lama to the Emperor. We noticed several caves in the cliffs inhabited by men—fortunate beings, for they had no rent to pay. At Hsang 273 Ho Ri is a small inn where flour and tea can be bought, and close by were some opium fields. This bridge was one of the many in Kansu which are built on the cantilever principle. They are plentiful throughout the Western Himalayas, but this was the first we had seen in China. We now had a stiffish climb to the top of a pass called the Wu La, whence we got a magnificent view over range after range of mountains, stretching away to the south. The descent was comparatively easy, and we were able to note the results of the recent Mohammedan rebellion. Every village that was not in ruins had loop-holed walls and fighting towers which had been specially erected. Our 274 companion, Rijnhart, had spent some time in General Wei\'s[5] camp, he and his wife doctoring the wounded, thereby saving many a life, and earning the gratitude of their patients. He was, therefore, well qualified to point out various spots along our road where skirmishes or serious fighting had taken place. Many of the villages had been deserted, but the people were now returning, and beginning to again get their fields under cultivation. It will, however, be many a long day before grain and market produce regain their normal price. Rich and fertile though this little bit of Kansu is, it will be fully two years before it can recover from the trying times it passed through in 1895.

BRIDGE OF SHANG-HO-RI (SOUNDING RIVER) ON THE ROAD TO TANKAR.

Once, just about sunset, we missed our way, and once one of the horses, while being led, slipped down a steep bank into a ravine, luckily without injuring himself or any one else. Otherwise our ride was devoid of incident, but the moon was high in the heavens by the time we arrived at our destination. We were quite unexpected, so it was some time before we could get any one to pay attention to our knocking at the stout wooden doors of the monastery; but at length it was opened by one of the great man\'s servants, who, as soon as he recognised Mr. Rijnhart, was all civility. The door we went in at was not the front door, as only the owner of the house was supposed to use that, and it would have been a great breach of etiquette on our part to have gone in by it. Our door led us into the stable yard, and while word was being taken to Mina Fu-yeh that Mr. Rijnhart, or Lin Hsien-shêng, as he was generally called, had arrived with two foreign friends, we busied ourselves looking after the horses, loosening girths, getting straw, etc. In a few moments we went upstairs, and, after passing through an open court ornamented in the middle with a flower bed, were ushered into the presence of one of the holiest men on the eastern border of Tibet. 275

AUDIENCE ROOM OF THE KAMBO (ABBOT) OF KUMBUM.

The pictures around the room are representations of many idols embroidered or painted on silk scrolls. In the gilded cupboard to the right, behind each pane of glass, is a beautiful image of some Buddha. In front of the writing Buddha stands a copper prayer cylinder. Beside the Kambo, who sits behind the table, lies a stick on the end of which is an embroidered cylinder, suspended, which hangs over the left end of the table: this is used by him to touch the heads of worshippers who bow before him.—This description, and the photograph from which the picture is taken, have been kindly supplied by Mr. Peter Rijnhart, the missionary at Tankar.

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MINA FU-YEH (BUDDHA).

Mina Fu-yeh[6] is a man twenty-seven years of age, or twenty-eight by Chinese calculation, and has been in the monastery since he was seven. Considerably below medium height, and of slight build, he has a very pleasant face, especially when lit up by a happy smile, as it often is. It struck us both that the sedentary indoor life he is more or less bound to live was telling on his constitution, and that if he had spent more of his time in the open air, instead of in reading, writing, and meditation, his health would benefit greatly. However that may be, it did not interfere with 278 his hospitality, for the moment we were seated he told us that food was being prepared, and that it would shortly be ready. He was living in a small room about twelve feet square, with massive stone walls, squatting on the "k\'ang" or raised platform which occupied the greater portion of the room. On this "k\'ang" was a low square table only a few inches high, holding a beautiful tea-cup made of stone, with a silver cover. On his right was a darkly-stained cupboard, wherein he kept his books, writing materials, and other nick-nacks. Hanging on the wall opposite him, and in no way harmonising with the other surroundings, was a coloured picture of the day illustrating some English boys and girls out of school. This had been given him by Mr. Rijnhart, who meanwhile told him all about us—who we were, where we had come from, and gave him a general outline of our journey, in all of which he took considerable interest, and, through Rijnhart, he asked us several questions, including the inevitable one, "Aren\'t you cold in those thin clothes?" No Chinaman or Tibetan seems able to grasp the European fashion of wearing tight clothing; to them our outer clothe............