We will make a little camp here , and later , as the moon rises , we go to Shamlegh-under-the-Snow . ' ` After a blow , ' said a Spiti man sententiously , ` it is best to sleep . ' ` There is , as it were , a dizziness at the back of my neck , and a pinching in it . Let me lay my head on thy lap , chela . I am an old man , but not free from passion ... We must think of the Cause of Things . ' ` Give him a blanket . We dare not light a fire lest the Sahibs see . ' ` Better get away to Shamlegh . None will follow us to Shamlegh . ' This was the nervous Rampur man . ' I have been Fostum Sahib 's shikarri , and I am Yankling Sahib 's shikarri . I should have been with Yankling Sahib now but for this cursed beegar -LSB- the corvee -RSB- . Let two men watch below with the guns lest the Sahibs do more foolishness . I shall not leave this Holy One . ' They sat down a little apart from the lama , and , after listening awhile , passed round a water-pipe whose receiver was an old Day and Martin blacking-bottle . The glow of the red charcoal as it went from hand to hand lit up the narrow , blinking eyes , the high Chinese cheek-bones , and the bull-throats that melted away into the dark duffle folds round the shoulders . They looked like kobolds from some magic mine -- gnomes of the hills in conclave . And while they talked , the voices of the snow-waters round them diminished one by one as the night-frost choked and clogged the runnels . ` How he stood up against us ! ' said a Spiti man admiring . '
I remember an old ibex , out Ladakh-way , that Dupont XXXXX missed on a shoulder-shot , seven seasons back , standing up just like him .
Rampur Sahib Sahibs Shamlegh Shamlegh-under-the-Snow Spiti blacking-bottle cheek-bones fire snow-waters