DISCOVERIES OF INSCRIBED STONES 1077 
afterwards. We therefore took to pieces the wall that 
faced south-west, and laid out all the slabs in order on 
the ground, that we might be able to put them back 
in their proper places after I had copied them. 
The first two that I attacked were small, and I copied 
them in about half an hour. But shortly after I set 
to work upon the third, I was struck by the strange 
uniformity of the lettering, and thought the same signs 
were repeated with fixed regularity. Upon examining 
them more closely, I noticed that every seventh letter was 
always the same. 1 went out of the tent, and examined 
the obo. Each and every one of the forty-nine slabs 
was inscribed with the same seven sicrns, occurrinaf and 
recurring again and again precisely in the same regular 
and uniform order. A light broke in upon me. These 
mysterious inscriptions could bear only one interpretation. 
They were repetitions of the well-known Tibetan formula 
of prayer — “ On rnaneh padineh htimO i.e. “ Oh the jewel 
of the lotus ! ” I instantly stopped my copying. The 
animals could very well do without a rest on the morrow. 
I contented myself with taking two or three pieces 
