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Updated: June 26, 2025
It is also done in order to display the wonderful skill of the executioner in handling the big sword. I was not aware of this at the time, and only learned it some weeks after. It is usually at the third stroke that the victim is actually beheaded. The Lamas were still clamoring for my head, but the Pombo made a firm stand this time, and declined to go on with the execution.
The arch-idolater who made idols of his own rebuked Pombo in the name of Man for having broken his idols "for hath not Man made them?" the arch-idolater said; and concerning the idols themselves he spoke long and learnedly, explaining divine etiquette, and how Pombo had offended, and how no idol in the world would listen to Pombo's prayer.
Then came a lot of undeveloped photographic plates, box after box of which they opened in broad daylight, destroying in a few moments all the valuable negatives that I had taken since leaving Mansarowar. The Pombo, more observant than the others, noticed that the plates turned into a yellowish color on being exposed to the light. "Why is that?" he asked.
When the sun was high in the sky, the Pombo, with a great number of Lamas, rode down from the monastery, a short distance away. He went to his tent. Soon after, my cases of scientific instruments were brought outside and opened, the soldiers and Lamas displaying an amusing mixture of curiosity and caution over everything they touched.
The soldiers, who had been harsh and rough, listened open-mouthed to the friendly talk between the Rupun and myself, a practice not common in Tibet between captor and prisoner. Following their chief's example they, too, became quite kind and respectful. They placed a cushion under me and tried to make me a little more comfortable. Toward the evening the Rupun was summoned before the Pombo.
The day on which he set out from Pombo, he travelled some seven leagues, and he halted in a village called Cacamarca, and here they found seventy thousand pesos of gold in large pieces, to guard which the Governor left two Christians from the cavalry in order that when the rear-guard should arrive, it might be conducted well guarded.
The opening of the tent was over twenty feet long. Some soldiers came and dragged me close in front of it, so that I could witness all that went on. Two powerful Lamas entered the tent with the Pombo. A number of other people who were inside were turned out. They closed the tent for a few minutes, and then opened it again.
Having arrived in the land of Pombo, the Governor provided and commanded that the soldiers should be lodged with the best order and caution possible, because he had news that the enemy were increasing every moment, and it was held to be certain that he would come here to assail the Spaniards, and because of this, the Governor caused the patrols and sentinels to be increased, always spying upon the progress of the enemy.
It is a long journey from London to World's End, and Pombo had no money left, and yet within five weeks he was strolling along Last Street; but how he contrived to get there I will not say, for it was not entirely honest.
And whether the view of him, at last, excited Pombo's eagerness, or whether his need was greater than he could bear that it drove him so swiftly downstairs, or whether as is most likely, he ran too fast past the beast, I do not know, and it does not matter to Pombo; but at any rate he could not stop, as he had designed, in attitude of prayer at the feet of Duth, but ran on past him down the narrowing steps, clutching at smooth, bare rocks till he fell from the World as, when our hearts miss a beat, we fall in dreams and wake up with a dreadful jolt; but there was no waking up for Pombo, who still fell on towards the incurious stars, and his fate is even one with the fate of Slith.
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