PRAYING MACHINE. 203 



times worked by water-power ; and I will describe 

 it, as its adoption might save the breath of certain 

 long-winded priests of other sects and denomina- 

 tions than that of the Buddhists of Thibet. It 

 consists of a cylinder revolving on a spindle which 

 is filled with layers of round pieces of paper 

 covered with hieroglyphics, supposed to be the 

 sacred mystic sentence* of the Buddhist faith 

 written repeatedly in concentric circles. The 

 operator turns the cylinder round, yelling out his 

 prayer whilst he does so. 



Having seen all that was worthy of notice in 

 Ladak, we started for Cashmere, keeping along the 

 banks of the Indus for three marches, and passing 

 through Nurila, Lamieroo, and Drass, halted at 

 Pandrass, where we had three days' hunting 



* The sacred sentence of the Buddhist faith, which is con- 

 spicuously displayed on all the "choctains," "dhagopas," manis, 

 topes, or shrines, throughout India, is " Aum mayii padnd hoong," 

 and it seems to be a kind of creed in a concentrated form, as, 

 according to Sir William Jones, it signifies, "Let us adore the 

 supremacy of that divine Sun, the Godhead, who illuminates all, 

 from whom all things proceed, to whom all must return, and 

 whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our 

 progress towards his holy seat." 



