64 A -tun-tst 
bird who pivoted round with much agility, kicking out 
right and left, in front and behind, put him temporarily out 
of action—metaphorically speaking. 
My landlady, whose young sister was one of the revellers, 
gave me a plateful of dainties—little round cakes made of 
pastry with a great deal of pig’s fat in it, filled with chopped 
up walnuts and spices—and in the evening, having lighted 
up the family altar with a row of tiny brass butter lamps, 
she placed other little cups full of grain in front of the 
gods—again recalling Vaé propitiation ; for these offerings 
to the deities are no part of true Buddhism I believe, and 
the debased Lamaism of Tibet really seems to have been 
grafted on to an original Vat worship. 
On the last afternoon I went up to the lamasery on the 
hill to watch the service for half an hour, but it is not a very 
wonderful place and in its internal decoration boasts only 
the relics of its former glory. The one living Buddha or 
reincarnation sat cross-legged on a dais at the far end of 
the temple, and the seventy or eighty priests present, many 
of them only small boys, sat on the floor in rows, mumbling 
the responses. From time to time the band struck in with 
a wild crash, the wail of the conch-shells, the jingle of 
cymbals, and the blare of the long trumpets sounding very 
strange in the big dimly-lit hall. Many people were, like 
myself, standing round looking on, and the younger priests 
at least were more intent on watching the crowd than on 
their devotions. 
Presently, on a signal from the usher—an oldish lama 
with a wrinkled face continuously wreathed in smiles, who 
stood just behind the Buddha’s throne—the people began 
to file round the temple, each as he passed in front of the 
Buddha placing a small strip of white silk on a pile already 
gathered, and receiving in exchange a blessing which con- 
sisted of nothing more material than a tap on the head 
from the left hand of the Buddha, palm upwards; and they 
had to pass before him in an extremely uncomfortable 
doubled-up position to get that. The pilgrims for the most 
part retained their gravity till they were half-way down 
the temple again, when they began to giggle in a most 
unseemly manner, evidently in contemplation of the trick 
they were about to play on the old man; for at least half 
