172 



T0NGL0. 



Chap. VII. 



quite at our disposal. A better tribute could not well 

 have been paid to the honesty of my Lepcha followers. 

 Our host only begged us not to disturb his people, nor to 

 allow the Hindoos of our party to smoke inside. 



Simonbong is one of the smallest and poorest Gumpas, 

 or temples, in Sikkim : unlike the better class, it is built of 



SIMONBONG TEMFEE. 



wood only. It consisted of one large room, with small 

 sliding shutter windows, raised on a stone foundation, and 

 roofed with shingles of wood ; opposite the door a wooden 

 altar was placed, rudely chequered with black, white, and 

 red ; to the right and left were shelves, with a few Tibetan 

 books, wrapped in silk ; a model of Symbonath temple in 

 Nepal, a praying-cylinder,* and some implements for com- 

 mon purposes, bags of juniper, English wine-bottles and 



* It consisted of a leathern cylinder placed upright in a frame ; a projecting 

 piece of iron strikes a little bell at each revolution, the revolution being caused 

 by an elbowed axle and string. Within the cylinder are deposited written 



