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. From the summit of this pass we descended about three
kos to Lamieroo, without passing a single hut or village on the entire
road.
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