Volume 1

Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot.

  • Évariste Régis Huc
Date:
[1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    him the brother of our cameleer, and as such Samdad- chiemba presented him to us. Our fir ft interview was very brief, for the two Dchiahours had scarcely- presented themselves before they disappeared. We imagined, at firSt, that they were gone to pay their respedts to the hoSt, but it was not so, for they almost immediately re-appeared with somewhat more solemnity of manner than before. Samdadchiemba marched in first : “ Babdcho [Babjo],” said he to his brother, “ prostrate thyself before our makers, and present to them the offerings of our poor family.’3 The young Dchiahour made us three salutations in the Oriental fashion, and then laid before us two great dishes, one of them full of fine nuts, the other laden with three large loaves, in form resembling those made in France. To afford Samdadchiemba the mo ft practical proof in our power that we were sensible to his attention, we forthwith applied ourselves to one of the loaves, which, with some of the nuts, consti¬ tuted quite a delicious repaSt, for never since our departure from France had we taSted such excellent bread. While engaged upon our banquet, we observed that the continue of Samdadchiemba was reduced to its simplest expression ; that whereas he had gone decently attired, he had come back half-covered with a few rags. We asked for an explanation of this change, whereupon he gave us an account of the miserable condition in which he had found his family. The father had been dead for some time ; his aged mother had become blind, so that she had not enjoyed the happiness of seeing him. He had two brothers, the one a mere child, the other the young man whom he had brought with him, and who, the sole support of his family, devoted his time to the cultivation of a small field which Still belonged to them, and to the tending of the flocks of other people for hire. This 38°