282 TO DAKJILING : FIRST HIMALAYAN JOURNEY 
on my way, taxing my memory for all ifc ever knew of 
the geographical distribution of the shepherd's purse, and 
musing on the probability of the plant having found its 
way thither over all Central Asia, and the ages that may 
have been occupied in its march. (Him. J., i. 221.) 
Nor was imagination only stirred by Nature. It was 
equally moved by the diverse expressions of human aspiration. 
The temple of Wallanchoon stood close by the convent, 
and had a broad low architrave : the w\alls sloped inwards, 
as did the lintels : the doors were black, and almost covered 
with a gigantic and disproportioned painting of a head, 
with bloody cheeks and huge teeth ; it was surrounded by 
myriads of goggle eyes, which seemed to follow^ one about 
everywhere ; and though in every respect rude, the effect 
W'as somewdiat imposing. The similarly proportioned gloomy 
portals of Egyptian fanes naturally invite comparison ; 
but the Thibetan temples lack the sublimity of these ; and 
the'uncomfortable creeping sensation produced by the many 
sleepless eyes of Boodh's numerous incarnations is very 
different from the awe with which we contemplate the 
outspread wings of the Egyptian symbol, and feel as in 
the presence of the God who says : ' I am Osiris the Great : 
no man hath dared to lift m-y veil ' (i. 228). 
It is interesting to note the traveller's full and careful 
method of observing on his march, and his scrupulous pains 
to avoid partial generalisations or the errors of the ' personal 
equation.' This method of recording observations, which left 
nothing to chance or the uncertainties of memory, is set forth 
almost parenthetically in the description of his descent from a 
Himalayan pass 16,000 feet high, when in the magical light of 
a young moon everything w-as bathed in beauty and imagina- 
tive suggestion, but all pleasure w^as lost in the headache and 
giddiness and bodily lassitude brought on by exertion in that 
thin air. 
Happily [he wTites], I had noted everything on my way 
up, and left nothing intentionally to be done on returning. 
In making such excursions as this, it is above all things 
desirable to seize and book every object worth noticing on 
