A few months later I formed one of a small party who embarked on a more important expedition than the last named, although we traversed the same road. It is a journey which has frequently been made since, from Simla to Cashmere, going as far into the land of the Great Llama as the inhabitants will allow the stranger to do--which is not very far; but, in the early sixties there were but few white men who had even skirted Thibet. In the afternoon of life, when stirring the fire has become preferable to stirring adventure, it seems (to the writer at all events) very like an attempt at self-slaughter to have travelled so many hundreds of miles along narrow goatpaths, with a _khud_ (precipice) of thousands of feet on one side or the other; picking one's way, if on foot, over the frequent avalanche (or "land slip," as we called it in those days) of shale or granite; or if carried in a _dhoolie_--which is simply a hammock attached by straps to a bamboo pole--running the risk of being propelled over a precipice by your heathen carriers. It is not the pleasantest of sensations to cross a mountain torrent by means of a frail bridge (called a _jhula_) of ropes made from twigs, and stretched many feet above the torrent itself, nor to "weather" a corner, whilst clinging tooth and nail to the face of a cliff. And when there is any riding to be done, most people would prefer a hill pony to a _yak_, the native ox of Thibet. By far the best part of a _yak_ is his beautiful silky, fleecy tail, which is largely used in Hindustan, by dependants of governors-general, commanders-in-chief, and other mighty ones, for the discomfiture of the frequent fly. A very little equestrian exercise on the back of a _yak_ goes a long way; and if given my choice, I would sooner ride a stumbling cab-horse in a saddle with spikes in it.