And the consequent interposition of Gulab Singh to take down their
pride and ease them of a little of their wealth, both of which he
accomplished in the style to which he was so partial, by slaughtering
some hundreds of them and reducing their airy habitations to ruins.
At a place called Moulwee we came to a curious block of massive rock
standing close beside the path, with one of the red-topped houses
built into its side. Above this was a colossal figure with four arms,
rudely cut on the face of the rock, and above all was perched an
implement, something after the fashion of a Mrs. Gamp's umbrella of
large proportions, together with sundry sticks and rags, which seem
to be the common style of religious decoration in these parts.
The figure was about eighteen feet high, the lower extremities being
hidden behind the building at the base of the rock. It resembled in
some measure the sculptures occasionally seen among Hindoo temples,
but no one appeared to know anything whatever of its origin or history.
Close to this there were an immense number of stones collected
together, bearing inscriptions in two different characters, one of
which resembled slightly the Devanagree or Sanscrit. Seeing such a
profusion about, I appropriated one which happened to be conveniently
small, and carried it off in my pocket.
The sun being intensely powerful, we called a halt at a village
named Waka, perched among the rocks, where we found a rattletrap of a
baradurree, which saved us the trouble of pitching our tents. Opposite
to us was a curiously worn mass of concrete mountain, which might
easily have been mistaken for artificial lines of fortification,
had not the scale been so large as to preclude the possibility of any
but giants or fairies having been the engineers. At the head of the
valley there was a fine snow-covered mountain, which helped to keep
us cool in an otherwise excessively hot position. The cook having
been rather overcome by his exertions to-day, we got our dinner at
the fashionable hour of nine P.M.
AUGUST 7. - Starting from Waka at cock-crow, we marched up a steep
ascent, through a bleak-looking range of hills, to Khurboo, where we
bivouacked under a tree and got breakfast about noon.
Afterwards, I examined more minutely the inscription on the
stones, which, as we advanced into the country, appeared to
increase considerably in number. They consisted in almost every
case of the same word, containing five letters in one character
and six in the other, though I occasionally there were additional
letters, and sometimes, though very rarely, a stone with a different
inscription altogether. After a good deal of difficulty I succeeded
in unearthing a Lama from the village to help me in my researches,
and a strange-looking dignitary of the Church he turned out to be when
he did make his appearance. He was a bloated and fat old gentleman,
dressed in a yellowish red garment of no particular shape, and looked
altogether more like a moving bundle of red rags than anything else,
human or divine.
Finding that nothing was required of him more expensive than
information, he appeared delighted to show off his learning, and by
means of the sepoy, who was the only one of our party acquainted with
both Thibetan and Hindoostanee, I ascertained that the words carved
upon the stones were "Um mani panee," and meant, as far as I could
make out, "the Supreme Being." As the old gentleman repeated the
mystic syllables, he bobbed and scraped towards a strange-looking
monument close by, in an abject, deprecatory way, as if in extreme
awe of its presence.[18]
On inquiring the origin of this new structure, which was built of
stones and plaster, and decorated with red ochre, all we could get out
of him was a fresh string of "Um mani panees," and a further series
of moppings and mowings, accompanied by a sagacious expression of
his fat countenance, indicative of the most entire satisfaction at
the clearness of his explanations, and a sense of his own importance
as a Lama and an expositor of the doctrines of Buddh.
He also explained the only other inscription which I had seen;
and according to the interpretation of the sepoy, it ran thus: -
" As God can do so none other can."[19]
Not another piece of information could I elicit relative to the
religion beyond the continual "Um mani panee, Um mani panee!" which
our friend seemed never tired of mumbling; and although the sepoy was,
I believe, considerably more adapted for the extraction of reluctant
supplies of food for our kitchen than for eliciting such information
on the subject of theology as I was in search of, the real cause of
failure was more to be attributed to the extreme ignorance of the
particular pillar of the Church that we had got hold of, than to any
little literary failings of the interpreter. Such were the quantities
of the inscribed stones about this place, that in one long wall I
estimated there must have been upwards of 3,000, and this in a country
where inhabitants of any sort are few and far between, and where none
appear who seem at all capable of executing such inscriptions.
AUGUST 8. - Having suffered a good deal yesterday from the heat
of the sun, we started this morning by a bright moonlight, at about
half-past four A.M.
Entering the Pass of Fotoola, we ascended gradually for some five kos,
and reached a considerable elevation, with a good deal of snow lying
about on the mountains. A peak on the right was 19,000 feet above
the sea level, and few of those in our immediate vicinity were under
17,000 feet.
