September 20, 1906] 



NA TURE 



5'9 



Waddell c:ivos us the translation of a Tibetan pro- 

 phecy, ooiaied bv himself a year before our expedition 

 was "heard of, iind that he adds:--" How the astro- 

 loffers of Tibet were able to predict this distressful 

 storm which was in store for their country, so lonjj 

 before it happened, and to specify th.at it should 

 occur in this very year, is amazing." This is good 

 evidence, not, indeed, of any mystic power in Tibet, 

 but that the astrologers there know the tricks of their 

 trade as well as any Zadkiel. The prediction is 

 beautifully vague. A Chinese or a Russian coup 

 d'dtat. or a civil war, would have suited it equally 

 well, but it was apparently designed to fit some 

 internal commotion. From' what Colonel Waddell 

 tells us of the headstrong character of the Grand 

 Lama, and of the cabals and intrigues at Lhasa, that 

 was a highly probable event. 



Thr vnhiiiie is really a very readable and clear 



other hand, it seems a pity that Colonel Waddell 

 scarcely does himself justice. ' We have some interest- 

 ing and sometimes (no doubt quite justifiably) pun- 

 gent remarks on the L.iiii.iist system as seen from 

 the outside — the squalor, dirt, and ignorance of the 

 poor, the intrigues and cruelties of the Government, 

 the backward state of trade and agriculture, the 

 decline in population, and so on. We have accounts 

 of the services in the churches, of the images, of the 

 roadside texts, of the appearance of the monasteries, 

 and of one curious hermitage and its ghastly ininates; 

 but of the inner meaning of the religion, the central 

 truths, or what are held as truths, which give to all 

 these outward matters a meaning, which at one time 

 at least must have afforded strength and vitality to 

 the system, we learn little or nothing. Some 

 passages translated from the Litany (pp. 403-4) have 

 both poetic beauty and religious feeling. Perhaps 



nd its Myste 



account of the British invasion of Tibet. To that, 

 eighteen chapters out of twenty-three are devoted, the 

 others being a popular introduction on the history 

 of Tibet and descriptions of Gyantse and Lhasa. The 

 account of the expedition, which thus makes up the 

 bulk of the book, is most interesting. The expedition 

 seems 10 have been excellently planned and excellently 

 carried out ; but no serious opposition was offered 

 until too late, and the desperate bravery of the hastily 

 raised Tibetan peasantry, badly armed and badly led, 

 was no match for the highly trained troops of the 

 little English army, with its superior organisation, 

 guns, and generalship. Only on two occasions did 

 there seem any possibility of even temporary disaster 

 for the invaders. The description of these two 

 anxious moments makes exciting reading, and is 

 quite in the style of the best war correspondents. 

 In what is told us of Lamaism in Tibet, on the 



NO. 1925, VOL. 74I 



this may be partly due to Colonel Waddell 's fine 

 translation ; but the absence of anything either super- 

 stitious or childish is striking. The texts on the way- 

 side, put up for the edification of passers by (p. 210), 

 are good, sound sense. Both of these, and they are 

 the only passages quoted, seem at utter variance with 

 the kind of tone and spirit described as animating 

 the Lamas. The mystic spell, as it is called on 

 p. 29, Otn! Mani padme. Hung\ is there translated 

 "Hail! Jewel in the Lotus flower!" and reference 

 is made to the figure of the Spirit of the Mountains 

 on p. 23 ; but that figure represents the god, not as 

 in, but as standing on the top of, a lotus, and the 

 expression seems to us odd and forced if it really 

 conveys that sense. Why should the Spirit of the 

 Mountains be called the jewel in the lotus? The 

 lotus is not a mountain flower. This at least requires 

 explanation, and Colonel Waddell, as a Tibetan and 



