282 TO DARJILING : FIRST HIMALAYAN JOURNEY 



on my way, taxing my memory for all it ever knew of 

 the geographical distribution of the shepherd's purse, and 

 musing on the probability of the plant having found its 

 way thither over all Central Asia, and the ages that may 

 have been occupied in its march. (Him. J., i. 221.) 



Nor was imagination only stirred by Nature. It was 

 equally moved by the diverse expressions of human aspiration. 



The temple of Wallanchoon stood close by the convent, 

 and had a broad low architrave : the walls sloped inwards, 

 as did the lintels : the doors were black, and almost covered 

 with a gigantic and disproportioned painting of a head, 

 with bloody^cheeks and huge teeth ; it w^as surrounded by 

 myriads of goggle eyes, which seemed to follow one about 

 everywhere ; and though in every respect rude, the effect 

 was somewhat imposing. The similarly proportioned gloomy 

 portals of Egyptian fanes naturally invite comparison ; 

 but the Thibetan temples lack the sublimity of these ; and 

 the]uncomfortable creeping sensation produced by the many 

 sleepless eyes of Boodh's numerous incarnations is very 

 different from the awe with which we contemplate the 

 outspread ,, wings of the Egyptian symbol, and feel as in 

 the presence of the God who says : * I am Osiris the Great : 

 no man hath dared to lift my veil ' (i. 228). 



It is interesting to note the traveller's full and careful 

 method of observing on his march, and his scrupulous pains 

 to avoid partial generalisations or the errors of the ' personal 

 equation.' This method of recording observations, which left 

 nothing to chance or the uncertainties of memory, is set forth 

 almost parenthetically in the description of his descent from a 

 Himalayan pass 16,000 feet high, when in the magical light of 

 a young moon everything w^as bathed in beauty and imagina- 

 tive suggestion, but all pleasure was lost in the headache and 

 giddiness and bodily lassitude brought on by exertion in that 

 thin air. 



Happily [he writes], I had noted everything on my way 

 up, and left nothing intentionally to be done on returning. 

 In making such excursions as this, it is above all things 

 desirable to seize and book every object worth noticing on 



