THE DOON 239 



I do not remember. There were four other officials 

 of inferior dignity who also bore the title of mohunt; 

 the remainder were ordinary priests. The fraternity 

 did not reside together. The mohunt had a rather 

 fine dwelling, close adjacent to the garden of the 

 tomb. The rest lived where they pleased in the city. 

 Their houses, however, mostly belonged to the estab- 

 lishment, and were passed on, as each monk died, to 

 his successor. 



The religious calm that had so impressed me at the 

 tomb did not extend to its guardians. The community 

 was full of quarrel and dissension. Want of discipline 

 was partly the cause, but chiefly the distribution of the 

 revenues. The mohunt was rich, at least as riches 

 were then regarded in the Doon ; and so in a less 

 degree was the heir apparent. The four lower officials 

 were in just comfortable circumstances ; the rest of 

 the monks were poor, many of them in absolute 

 indigence. This state of things naturally caused dis- 

 content, and the more so because it was not believed 

 to be in accordance with the intentions of the founder. 



In a Christian monastery any monk may hope to be 

 abbot, but by these monks no such expectation could 

 be indulged in. The mohunt was succeeded by the 

 heir apparent, and the heir apparent was chosen when 

 a lad from the outside, something in the manner as is 

 the Grand Lama of Thibet. The rules for the selection 

 were never explained to me ; the area for it was wide. 

 The then mohunt was a native of some village in the 

 Himalaya beyond Mussoorie. The heir apparent had 

 been brought from the further confines of the Punjaub. 



