3 08 
TIBET. 
pets above six feet iong; drums stretched over a copper cauldron, 
such as are termed nowbut, in Hindostan; the gong, a circular Chi¬ 
nese instrument of thin hammered bell-metal, capable of producing 
a surprising sound; cymbals, hautboys; and a double drum, shallow, 
but of great circumference, mounted upon a tall, slender pedestal, 
which the performer turns with great facility, striking either side 
with a long curved iron, as the piece requires a higher, or a lower 
tone: these, together with the human tibia, and sea conch, a large 
species of the buccinum, compose, for the most part, their religious 
band. Harsh as these instruments, individually taken, might sound to 
a musical ear, yet when joined together in unison, with the voices of 
two or three hundred boys and men, managed with varying modu¬ 
lation, from the lowest and softest cadence to the loudest swell, they 
produced to my ear an effect extremely grand. 
Other musical instruments are in the hands of the people of Tibet. 
The mother of Teshoo Lama, on my visit to her (wdiich I shall parti¬ 
cularly describe hereafter), sung to me a very pleasing air, which she 
played at the same time on the guittar, her husband also accompany¬ 
ing her with the fkgelet. 
From many of the prejudices, essentially interwoven with the reli¬ 
gion of the Hindoos, especially such as relate to their various and 
perplexing distinctions of casts, the Tibetian is almost entirely exempt. 
I was attended by them, with an assiduity and attention, that left me 
little mom to suspect the existence of such prejudices. I have been 
served with tea, from the same vessel with the sovereign Lama, for 
this always constituted a part of the ceremonial, at every interview 
