82 , 
BOOTAN. 
was no less surprised to hear that, with us, almost every quarter of 
the globe, contributed to a very moderate repast. “ My food,” says he, 
“ consists of the'simplest articles ; grain, roots of the earth, and fruits. 
I never eat of any thing that has had breath; for so I should be the 
indirect cause of putting an end to the existence of animal life, which, 
by our religion, is strictly forbidden.” 
After his meal, he drank tea out of a sort of china cup, which only 
the sovereign Lama has a right to use: it would be little less than 
sacrilege, were any other person to drink from one of the same form. 
He favoured us with some dried coagulated milk, fried in butter, but of 
so stubborn a substance, that I suppose no process could ever tend to 
mollify it; I did not deem it safe, therefore, to submit it to the powers 
of digestion. He sent us also a piece of some boiled root: it was 
small, white, and knotty, of a sweetish taste, and reckoned nutritive. 
A small quantity of honey, that accompanied this present, gave rise 
to a conversation on bees. I described to him the mode of hiving 
them in England, and our profitable management of that industrious 
race. 
He said, that the common people, in his country, were at some 
pains in the encouragement of bees, and at a proper season collected 
their honey and wax. We had repeatedly seen large cakes of the 
comb, pendant from the projecting balconies, to the bottom of which 
they were attached, hanging always clear of the wall. Their thickness 
seldom exceeded six inches : every subsequent addition contributed to 
increase their breadth or length. The form was irregular, but I think I 
have seen them three or four feet long. Their being allowed to remain 
