He was sullen and furtive.

I judged him at sight to be half Hindu, half Tibetan.

He had a dark complexion, between brown and tawny; narrow slant eyes, very small and beady-black, with a cunning leer in their oblique corners; a flat nose much broadened at the wings; a cruel, thick, sensuous mouth, and high cheek-bones; the whole surmounted by a comprehensive scowl and an abundant crop of lank black hair, tied up in a knot at the nape of the neck with a yellow ribbon.
His face was shifty; his short, stout form looked well adapted to mountain climbing, and also to wriggling.

A deep scar on his left cheek did not help to inspire confidence.

But he was polite and civil-spoken.
Altogether a clever, unscrupulous, wide-awake soul, who would serve you well if he thought he could make by it, and would betray you at a pinch to the highest bidder.
We set out, in merry mood, prepared to solve all the abstruse problems of the Buddhist religion.