The Sherpa and the Snowman

A Yeti Reconnaissance 81
let drop in conversation. This reticence, I think, was due as much
to shyness as anything else, but it was certainly suggestive that
the Sherpas were by no means out to say what would be nice to
hear, and not interested in cashing in on the interest I displayed.
One a man evening middle-aged named Nimah, from a village
far up the valley, chanced to come into a house where I was
calling. He gave a graphic account of an adventure that had
befallen him. "On a winter afternoon," he declared, "eight years
ago, a party of four of us were coming back from a salt-buying
expedition in Tibet. On the last stage of our as so journey, often
happens to travellers, we found ourselves later than we had
expected, and were forced to stop the night in a deserted herdman's
hut a few hours' journey from our home. Dusk fell as we
were collecting firewood and drawing water to cook our evening
meal. To our we surprise heard what we was someone
thought
calling out and coming in our direction. The noise came nearer,
and we recognised it as the yelping call of a Yeti. All are Sherpas
frightened of meeting a Yeti, so we huddled together in the hut
and shut ourselves in, scared even to start a fire or to stir outside
for the rest ofthe night. The sound came closer and closer, and we
heard it just outside our hut, when it changed to a chattering, as
ifit was threatening us. None of us had ever seen a Yeti, although
we were familiar with the accounts given by other people.
Eventually it moved off and the calling died away in the
distance. After dawn next we morning went outside and looked
in the shallow snow that lay on the ground. Coming close up
to the hut, and leading away out of sight, were a set of newlymade
tracks of a creature walking on two legs. The marks were
very like those of a small naked human foot, the toes clearly out
lined, but not quite the same as a man's since they all looked to
be the same length."
An eerie tale, told simply and without embroidery. I queried
the at once story by suggesting that it had really been a wolf
which had gone past howling, and not a Yeti at all.
"But everybody knows wolves," Nimah retorted. "This call
was not the same; it was a shorter and less drawn-out wail;
and how do you explain the chattering noise? We see wolf