Chaf. XIIT. 



ADVENTURE WITH A PRIEST. 



271 



they retired I could hear them laughing and 

 talking about what they had seen. 



The chamber in which the head-priest, whom I 

 have described, was wont to repose after the 

 fatigues of the day, was behind the one occupied 

 by me, and it appeared it was necessary to come 

 through mine in order to get into it. I had ex- 

 amined the chamber and learned to whom it 

 belonged in the course of the evening. Not 

 caring to be disturbed by having my door opened 

 and a person walking through my room after I 

 was in bed and asleep, I had suggested to the 

 priest the propriety of going to bed about the 

 same time as I did. When the crowd therefore 

 had left my windows, I heard one or two persons 

 whispering outside and still lingering there. T 

 called out to them and desired them to go away to 

 their beds. " Loya, Loya ! "* a voice cried, " the 

 Ta-Hosan (high-priest) wants to go to bed." 

 " Well," said I, come along, the door is not 

 locked." " But he has not had his supper yet," 

 another voice replied. " Tell him to go and get it 

 then, as quickly as possible, for I do not wish to 

 be disturbed after I go to sleep." 



The fatigue of climbing the mountain-pass, and 

 the healthy fresh air of the mountains, soon sent 

 me to sleep, and I dare say the priest might have 

 walked through the room without my knowing 

 anything about it. How long I slept I know not, 



* Mode of addressing mandarins and high government officers — a 

 term of respect. 



