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44 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
moment to see a virgin huntress of the forest draw aside
the curtain of greenery, step forward and make a charming
curtsey to our prosaic procession, and then turn and with
a merry silvery laugh disappear behind the thickets. But
she never came. The woods were silent ; not even a shep-
herd’s pipe was heard. I scarcely dared to speak for fear
of breaking the spell. The effect it had upon my men
was to send them to sleep. Turn about they nodded
over their punting-poles, and on we drifted—drifted
—
drifted with the river.
When the sun set and the lurking-places of the forest
grew darker, the gnats began to dance for their supper,
and I was the supper they danced for, for of course they
preferred Christian blood to Mohammedan !
Upon reaching the mountain of Masar-tagh, we had a
change in the scene—the rugged terraced flanks of holy
All’s mountain, its foot washed by the stream. A little
lake, lying immediately west of the mountain, discharges
through a deep-cut channel into the river, forming a tiny
waterfall that was a tossing plume of white foam as we
passed it. The broken water at the foot of the fall was a
favourite spot for asmans, fine whopping fish. Here Kasim
was in his element. Before leaving Lailik he had provided
himself with a long flexible rod, at one end of which a hook
was fixed, with its barbs pointing downwards. Upon
striking its object, the hook became loosened, but not
separated from the rod, for it was fastened to it a little
higher up with a cord. Kasim, taking his station like a
harpooner on the edge of the boiling cataract, waited
with his eyes intently fixed and his weapon poised until
a peculiar movement of the water told him a fish was there.
Then, flinging his rod with all his might, so that it whistled
through the air, and the shaft vibrated, and the spray
flew, he the next moment had a big asman dangling and
writhing at the end of his harpoon. Our fisherman was so
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