Page 614 - Microsoft Word - Belicena respaldo
P. 614

valleys, we were advancing at maximum speed through the plain of the valley Gangri towards
               the North, trying to arrive as soon as possible to the river Yaru-Zang-Bo or High Brahmaputra.

                      By  this  river  we  will  only  nagivate  four  hundred  kilometres  but,  according  to  the
               appreciation of von Grossen, in four  or  five days we would perambulate a distance that, by
               land, through the path of Yung-Lam, demanded  time five times longer.

                      In a prefixed point of the shore were waiting us two rafts of firm construction, apt to
               transport each one of them ten persons and a tonne of charge: more than enough to cover our
               needs. The kâulikâs were in charge to contract them and the price was high, because we had to
               pay them the travel to Sadiga and the cost of the tugboats that brought them again to the High
               Brahmaputra.

                      The  skilled  ferrymen,  stimulated  by  the  promise  of  a  great  extra-remuneration,  or
               frightened for the dangerousness of the kâulikas monks, driving nimbly the tugboats through
               the  centre  of  the  watercourse,  taking  adventage  to  the  fullest  the  speed  of  the  river.  And
               meanwhile, the abundant current was approaching me rapidly to the objective of the mission, I
               contemplated admired one of the sceneries more extraordinary of the Earth, only comparable,
               in  a  lesser  measure,  to  the  plateau  of  Tiwanaku  in  America.  Because  such  river  «Son  of
               Brahma»,  that  furrowed  longitudinally  a  cold  valley  situated  at  4.000  high,  had  its  shores
               guarded  by two mountain ranges so famous for the elevation of their  mountains as for the
               concepts  that  deserved  to  the  most  ancient  Religions  of  the  Humanity:  at  the  right  was
               extended  the  Himalyas,  in  whose  system  affirms  the  Asian  tradition  that  is  located  in  the
               Mount Meru, the Olympus of the Indos; and at the left were the mounts Gangri, mountain
               range that culminates at the West with mount Kailas, the Abode of Shiva.

                      One week later we were marching to the Yushu, in the N.O., trying to accelerate the
               worday through the acquisition of yaks, because existed an itinerary of apertures and passages
               that allowed to pass with those animals. After perambulating  an  uninterrupted set of small
               valleys, crossing numerous mountain belts, the overflowing river Saluen and many other minor
               torrents, we reached one day to the shores of the Mekong, at some 80 km. from Chamdo. At
               that heigh the kâulikâs had already inquired that the expedition os Schaeffer advanced us in
               just fifteen days: little time for such latitudes where the duration of the journeys was measured
               in months; a lot if it was saving the life of Oskar Feil.

                      Happily the good weather accompanied us the whole journey and it would remain thus
               till the end. We passed the right shore of the Menkong and we took the Path of the Lamas, with
               the hope to shorten the distance that separated us from Schaeffer marching faster than his
               column  and  stopping  the  indispensable  to  rest.  Anyhow,  the  progress  was  slow  until  the
               exasperation, because the famous «Path» consisted in a narrowed and elevated carriageway that


                                                           614
   609   610   611   612   613   614   615   616   617   618   619