162 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
alone, in a house hard by, but has two Bhotea boy-assistants, who 
sleep in the temple, each stretched on large planks of wood, close to 
the altar. These beds were made over to Barnes and myself: wofully 
rough and hard they were, and far from clean ; but we congratulated 
ourselves on their dryness. The springy couch of bamboo, which the 
Lepcha makes in your tent, renders the carrying a mattrass, or anything 
but blankets, superfluous. 
The altar was uncanonically placed at the west end of the building, 
the front rudely chequered with black, red, and white paint. On it 
stood seven neat hemispherical brass cups, full of water, all in a row ; 
behind them a human thigh bone, bored and pierced at each condyle; 
some common black bottles, with sprigs of Abies Webbiana, a Ju- 
niperus, and the purple small-flowered Rhododendron ; a large conch- 
shell, with the sacred Lotus carved on it; and a brass jug of beautiful 
design, evidently Chinese, in which two long peacock’s feathers 
were stuck. 
Above the altar were ranged shelves, with numerous Hindoo idols, 
brought from the plains ; on one side a box full of sacred MSS., in the 
Thibetan character, and branches of Juniper, &c., and on the other a 
rude model of the Sumbo-nath temple at Cattmandu, in Nepal. On 
the ground stood the widely-famed praying-cylinder, which I was 
charmed to see for the first time. It consisted of a leathern cylinder 
(like a Stilton cheese) placed upright in a frame: a projecting piece 
of iron strikes a little bell at each revolution, the revolution being 
caused by an elbowed axle and string. Within the cheese are deposited 
written prayers, and whoever pulls the string properly is considered to 
have repeated his prayers as often as the bell rings. 
Before the altar was a small settee, with a low form on one side 
and a little framework like a child's chair infront. The table exhibited 
a handsome Chinese carved bell, some water-vessels, an incense-holder, 
burnt juniper, and other mystical emblems ;—the chair, a broad 
brass platter, with a brass egg-cup inverted on it. Against the wall 
of the house leaned a huge tambourine and curved iron drum-stick. 
Various other little articles hung about the building, or were stowed 
away in lockers or cupboards, chiefly books, I was told, too sacred to 
be looked at every day. 
Before daylight in the following morning, we were awakened by @ 
dreadful noise, and, jumping up, I saw the two boys hammering away 
