“I overhauled two pilgrims whom I had passed on the road several days earlier, on the other side of Kantze. They were bound for Lhasa and had adopted a mode of progress designed to acquire additional merit for their journey; they lay flat on the ground with their arms stretched out in front of them and, hoisting their bodies forward with their hands and elbows, gained about a yard at a time. They then stood up with arms outstretched, lay down again and gave another heave towards Lhasa; they still had the best part of five hundred miles to do before they got there. They wore leather knee-pads and had a sort of wooden runners on their hands which made it possible to slide forward, when they stretched themselves out on the ground, without taking all the skin off; but it struck me as a very arduous method of crossing Tibet, and they were covered with dust and sweat.”