At Darjeeling I learned that my plan of traveling to Lhassa was not feasible--that the Tale Lama ("sea of wisdom") and the great palace, and a city whose three productions, according to Chinese travelers, are lamas, women and dogs--many of whose streets are lined with houses built of ox and rams' horns; and a people whose mode of salutation is by uncovering the head, thrusting out the tongue and scratching the right ear, and whose manner of disposal of their dead is by cutting the corpses in pieces and giving them to "sacred dogs," raised and nurtured in convents for the express purpose--would have to be known only through the reports of others. The Thibetan traders in Darjeeling reported that the _Pugla Diwan_ of Sikkim had become a great man in Thibet, and had seized everything _en route_ from Lhassa during the year, and, having stored all in huge warehouses, would allow nothing to pass into Sikkim and Bengal. Previous travelers and missionaries had all of them entered the country in the disguise of priests or of Chinese or Mogul traders, having a knowledge of the Thibetan or some allied language; and even then so greatly fearing detection as to be unable to learn very much of the condition and capabilities of the land or the habits and usages of the people. That foreigners should be so rigorously excluded from Thibet is doubtless owing to Chinese influence--to the fear and jealousy of British power and possession in the East, the southern boundaries being rigorously guarded by a _cordon_ of Chinese garrison-stations on the highlands of the Himalayas.