142 LEGEND OF THE LAKE. 



ployed for a whole year, but no sooner was the edi- 

 fice completed than the whole suddenly tumbled to 

 pieces. Again the work was begun, and again, from 

 some unknown cause, it fell to ruins. It was rebuilt 

 a third time, but the result was just the same. The 

 king, startled and alarmed, applied to one of the 

 gigens to explain this phenomenon. Though the 

 prophet could give no satisfactory answer, he was 

 able to inform his master that in the far East there 

 lived a saint who alone of mortals possessed the 

 secret, and that if the king could extort it from him 

 the building might be completed. On receiving this 

 answer, the monarch chose a trusty lama and sent 

 him in search of the saint. 



In the course of some years the envoy travelled 

 through nearly all the Buddhist countries, visiting the 

 most famous shrines and conversing with the differ- 

 ent gigens without finding anybody answering to the 

 prophet's description. At length, disgusted with the 

 ill-success of his mission, he determined to return 

 home by those great steppes which stretch on the 

 borders of China and Tibet. One day as he 

 was riding over the plain, the buckle of his saddle- 

 girth broke, and seeing a solitary little yurta (tent) 

 not far off, he went towards it for help. On entering 

 he found a blind old man engaged in prayer, who wel- 

 comed his guest, and gave him a buckle from his own 

 saddle. He then invited the traveller to sit down 

 and drink tea, and enquired of him whence he had 

 come and whither he was going. Unwilling to dis- 

 close the object of his journey, the envoy replied 



