An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

130 BOOTAN.concomitants of unclean crowds ;vermin, as active in their ravages asthe busiest followers of a camp ; hosts of fleas, musquitos, and rats !whose nocturnal freaks were cruelly destructive of the repose, so necessaryto wearied travellers. For my own part, after much disturbedand broken sleep, mistaking the light of the moon for the dawn of day,Iimpatiently arose, and was unspeakably disappointed on discoveringthe true time. It was scarcely one o'clock, and I was again compelledto associate with my pestiferous companions, till, eager toenjoy the fresh air, and anxious to escape their persecution, I leftthem on the earliest appearance of morning, not without visible marksof their fury.In our first walk, on Saturday the 5th of July, we took the beatenpath, which conducted us to the intrenched lines,formed by the loyalarmy when it invested Wandipore : these were about a mile from thecastle, and the works remained nearly perfect. They consisted of twothick mud walls, intersecting the hill,and forming a wide street, withsufficient space to admit a double row of huts, and a vacant interval inthe centre. A covered channel, near the surface of the ground, conductedwater to supply the castle :of this the besiegers took advantage,and opening it, obtained enough for their own camp, turning thesuperfluous quantity down the sides of the hill. By these means, itwas supposed, thatthey would deprive the besieged of water, whichwas indeed nearly the case, although the castle commanded theconflux of the rivers and the streams on either side of it ;for the pointwas almost perpendicular, and on both sides a high and steep declivityled down to the water.