Did I say the Kamkatdales are grateful? I will give you an instance of
their gratitude. A traveller met a poor boy. He remembered his face, and
said, "I think I have seen you before." "You have," said the boy; "I
rowed you down the river last summer, and you were so kind as to give me
a skin, and some flints; and now I have brought the skin of a sable as a
present for you." The traveller, perceiving the boy had no shirt, and
that his skin dress was tattered, refused the present; but seeing the boy
was going away in tears, he called him back, and accepted it. A Chinese
servant, who was standing by, pitied so much the ragged condition of the
boy, that he gave him one of his own thin nankin shirts.
THIBET.
I cannot tell you much about Thibet; and the reason is, that so few
travellers have been there. And why have so few been there? Is it because
the mountains are so steep and high, the paths so narrow and dangerous?
All this is true; but it is not mountains that keep travellers out of
Thibet; it is the Chinese government; for Thibet belongs to China, and
you know how carefully the emperor of China keeps strangers out of his
empire.
How did the Chinese get possession of Thibet? A long while ago, a Hindoo
army invaded the land, and the people in their fright sent to China for
help. The Chinese came, drove away the Hindoos, and stayed themselves.
They are not hard masters, they govern very mildly; only they require a
sum of money to be sent every year to Pekin, as tribute.
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