| caption: |
Chapter Thirteen. The Camp On a Peak |
| caption: |
spot where ambush had occurred |
| text: |
On the path to Chentang, one of the dobashi pointed to where a couple of months ago an old man of Chentang had been ambushed by three men from the Yimsungr village of Sangpurr. Lying in the bushes at the side of the path, he said, they had waited till the old man had passed, then they had speared him in the back as he tried to escape, and cut off his head. I was used to this kind of tale, yet the idea of the poor old man, running for his life with a spear in his back, shattered me for a moment. Perhaps, it was that those other stories had all been told to me in friendly, peaceful country, where they appeared more or less as fairy tales of some bygone day, but here in Yimsungr country the proximity of hostile tribes provided reality enough for the gruesome account. |
