ABORS AND GALONGS. 109 



<c Guru." Before him were flowers and little cups, the offerings of his worshippers. 

 Behind him was painted the rainbow background, faint lined on a white ground, 

 and above him his nimbus, with its light-green centre and its gold and red and blue 

 floral border. On either hand posed his attendant fiends. On his right Guda a little 

 red devil in a watchful attitude, on his left Sindong, 1 a blue dancing devil with a light- 

 green head. These unpleasant satellites had large halos behind them. It is most 

 difficult to give a lucid description of the ornamentation of the pillars, the capitals 

 were so thickly painted and heavily gilded as to give the effect of tile plaques, the 

 design being lotus leaves in blue, green, gold and chocolate. These colours figured 

 everywhere over the beams and wood-work in different conventional designs. Some 

 rather beautiful, and one or two somewhat garish, banners hung on the walls. To 

 the left of the door two big prayer-wheels were fastened to a wooden press ; this and 

 one or two stools and a table were new and of white wood and had the incongruous 

 look of laundry furniture. A big drum was hanging to the right of the door and two 

 copper and brass trumpets were fastened to a pillar. Near the altar was a large white 

 shell. But the most interesting feature in the whole building was to be found in the 

 masks' 2 hanging above the door and from the pillars. There were two of each colour, 

 blue, green, white and reddish brown, hanging in pairs. The faces were sinister 

 enough but on the forehead of each grinned a tiara of little white skulls. So we left 

 the low dark pillared room with its arabesques in green and gold and brown and 

 its crude designs in w T hite and blue to the malevolent influences brooding there, and 

 came out into the clean sunlight. 



In the afternoon Dopo came down again with my supply of milk, eggs and vege- 

 tables, by means of which negociations I am making quite a collection of tangkas in 

 change for rupees. He vouchsafed some information that may perhaps be reliable. 

 His other name, he tells me, is Tashi Pezong. With reference to a remark by Kinthup 

 that he went to Giling (3 m. from Bi-pung) in search of salt, his pretext while prepar- 

 ing his logs can hardly have deceived the inhabitants if Dopo truthfully denies that 

 there is any salt in the valley, declaring that it comes over the Doshung la — from 

 Geling in or beyond Khongbo. I have not personally found any evidence or traces of 

 salt in the valley. Apparently all the caretakers of the " parish churches " are 

 regular Lamas with lesser brethren under them, and these live in the houses cluster- 

 ing round the close. Yortong tsogan is in the charge of one Lama who has ten 

 servants under him. These temples have all a second and smaller upper chapel, the 

 shrine of Cho. 



I have also Dopo's unsupported testimony for the following information. The 

 Memba Mumpa or Pema koiba have been established in the valley south of the main 

 range for quite a long time. Dopo knows this to be the fourth generation. The 

 septs are Kailing-bo, Brim-tsi-pa, Narang-po, Dung-tsam-bo, Sherpa and Basor-pa, 

 the first four being all found in Yortong. There are also Kambas, whose language is 



1 It is suggested, with considerable diffidence, that this may be identified with Yama-g Sin-rje, the death-god and 

 Lokpal o£ the south (see " Buddhism", pp. 84 to 86 and 367). 



2 They appeared to be made of papier mache. 



