222 
TIBET. 
gradually dissolve and incorporate, forming the loose mass into a com¬ 
pact hillock. This always attracts the same respect, and passengers 
continue to add to the heap, long after all traces of the body are lost, 
and its existence forgotten. Thus also the piety of theTibetians, offers 
a similar rite, to the bodies of those whom chance may have led to the 
spot, where the fragment lay at the instant of its fall, though-the fatal 
effects of it may not have been certainly known. 
While labouring through this heap of fragments, the traveller is 
suddenly surprised by a most gigantic figure of the chief idol in their 
temples, Mahamoonie, carved upon an immense stone in relief, and 
imaged in the usual attitude, sitting cross-legged. I cannot praise the 
sculptor for his execution; yet ugly and mishapen as the thing is 
which he has produced, something at least must be said in praise of 
his laborious and persevering industry. 
Proceeding onwards, we passed a pretty cluster of small houses, 
situated on a. high bank on the other side of the river, which ran below 
it. A little farther on, we crossed a very rude bridge, composed of 
large flat stones as a platform, laid upon pieces of workmanship equally 
rude, which rattled when trod upon, so that the passenger could not 
help thinking them extremely insecure. 
Our quarters were next at Shoohoo, famous for exhibiting a few 
willow trees, in the midst of which our tents were pitched; and here 
we were happy to alight, after a toilsome stage of upwards of twenty- 
six miles. 
We advanced early in the morning of Friday, the 19th of Sep¬ 
tember, at first along the same sort of narrow valley through which our 
