VOL. LXVII.] fHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. IQS 



sisting a family are not easily found, it seems not impolitic to allow a set of 

 brothers to agree in raising one, which is to be maintained by their joint efforts. 

 In short, it is usual in Thibet for the brothers in the family to have a wife in 

 common, and they generally live in great harmony and comfort with her; not 

 but sometimes little dissensions will arise, an instance of which Mr. Bogle 

 mentions in the case of a modest and virtuous lady, the wife of half a dozen of 

 the Tayshoo Lama's nephews, who complained to the uncle, that the two 

 youngest of her husbands did not furnish that share of love and benevolence to 

 the common stock which duty and religion required of them. In short, however 

 strange this custom may appear to us, it is an undoubted fact that it prevails in 

 Thibet, in the manner here described. 



The manner of bestowing their dead is also singular: they neither put them in 

 the ground like other Europeans, nor burn them like the Hindoos; but expose 

 them on the bleak pinnacle of some neighbouring mountain, to be devoured by 

 wild beasts and birds of prey, or wasted away by time and the vicissitudes of 

 weather in which they lie. The religion of Thibet, although it be in many of 

 its principal dogmata totally repugnant to that of the Bramins or of India, yet 

 in others it has a great affinity to it. They have, for instance, a great venera- 

 tion for the cow; but they transfer it wholly from the common species to that 

 which bears the tails, spoken of hereafter. They also highly respect the waters 

 of the Ganges, the source of which they believe to be in Heaven; and one of 

 the first effects which the treaty with the Lama produced, was an application to 

 the governor-general, for leave to build a place of worship on its banks. This 

 it may be imagined was not refused. On the other hand, the Sunniasses, or 

 Indian pilgrims, often visit Thibet as a holy place, and the Lama always entertains 

 a body of 2 or 300 in his pay. 



The residence of the Delai Lama is at Pateli, a vast palace on a mountain 

 near the banks of the Barampooter, about 7 miles from Lahassa. The Tayshoo 

 Lama has several palaces or castles, in one of which Mr. Bogle lived with him 

 five months. He represents the Lama as one of the most amiable as well as 

 intelligent men he ever knew; maintaining his rank with the utmost mildness 

 of authority, and living in the greatest purity of manners, without affectation. 

 Every thing within the gates breathed peace, order, and dignified elegance. 

 The castle is of stone or brick, with many courts, lofty halls, terraces, and 

 porticos; and the apartments are in general roomy, and highly finished in the 

 Chinese stile, with gilding, painting, and varnish. There are two conveniencies 

 to which they are utter strangers, stair-cases and windows. There is no access 

 to the upper rooms but by a sort of ladders of wood or iron; and for windows 

 they have only holes in the ceilings, with penthouse covers, contrived so as to 

 shut up on the weather-side. Firing is so scarce, that little is used but for culi- 



VOL. XIV. C c 



