212 
TIBET, 
Other Goseins assured me, though I could not help doubting the 
fact, that it is practicable to restore withered limbs, thus circumstanced, 
to perfect use. This is effected, they say, though not without great 
labour, and some pain, by means of long continued friction, before a 
large fire, with a certain ointment which they compound. To complete 
the full measure of his religious penance, I understood that there still 
remained two other experiments forPranpooree to perform. In the first 
of these, the devotee is suspended by the feet to the branch of a tree, 
over a fire, which is kept in a continual blaze, and swung backwards and 
forwards, his hair passing through the flame, for onepahrand a quarter, 
that is, three hours and three quarters. Having passed through this 
fiery trial, he may then prepare himself for the last act of probation, 
which is to be buried alive, standing upright, in a pit dug for the 
purpose; the fresh earth being thrown in upon him, so that he is com¬ 
pletely covered. In this situation, he must remain, for one pahr and a 
quarter, or three hours and three quarters, and if at the expiration of 
that time, on the removal of the earth, he should be found alive, he 
will ascend into the highest rank, among the most pure of the Yogee, 
(Jugi). 
The mention of Russia, produced some observations from the Regent 
and Soopoon Choomboo, upon the government of that Empire. They 
were no strangers to the reputation of the reigning Czarina, her extent 
of dominion, and the commerce carried on with China, to the extreme 
boundaries of their continent. Many overtures, they told me, had been 
made on the part of Russia, to extend her commerce to the internal 
parts of Tibet, but their disinclination to enter into any new foreign 
