194 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



altar, lamps burn dimly and but faintly illumine 

 the jewel-decked figure of the great silver Tsong 

 Kapa. Here is that gloom 



Within the inner altar niche 



Whose dimness worship has made rich. 



Ladak is likewise a country of festivals. Ke~ 

 ligious ceremonies of all sorts may be numbered 

 by the score, for the Buddhist hierarchy well 

 understand the value of pageantry for attracting 

 the people. One of the quaintest of the latter 

 kind was seen by the writer at the village of 

 Sheh, to which a huge holiday crowd of pleasure- 

 loving Ladakis had been drawn ; the scene, with 

 the women's scarlet cloaks and turquoise peraks 

 under the bright sky of Ladak, being most pic- 

 turesque. One feature was the exorcism of a 

 monster dragon, which, with snapping jaws, 

 crawled round the grass plot in front of the 

 monastery, and in realism would not have dis- 

 credited Drury Lane Theatre. The charm was 

 worked by lamas, who preceded him, waving 

 branches of willow and burning juniper. The 

 chief excitement, however, was afforded by an 

 individual of the village, who, on this particular 

 day of the year, became "possessed." Dressed 

 in robes of red silk, with a mitre on his head, 

 he suddenly issued from a cell in the monastery, 



