proceeded to inspect at our ease, but with due discretion, this incarnation of Buddha and his abode.
The Grand Lama appears to be about sixty. Like all the priests of his creed, he wears his hair short, and being beardless by nature, he has no need to shave. His features are regular, especially by comparison with those of his doctor. He has rather a broad face, but the black eyes are very intelligent, the mouth is delicate, and the eyelids very clearly defined. He is easy in his gestures, and has a good deal of unction in his voice. I should not be at all surprised if he ruled the fraternity excellently, for he gives the impression of being a man of mark. From time to time he takes a pinch of red snuff, which he puts out on to the nail of his thumb from an oval jade bottle with a silver stopper. He takes care that we are served with some tea with butter in it, which is the favourite drink of the Mongols and the Thibetans, and which I found very much to my liking upon tasting it for the first time.
Behind my host there stands upon a slab a gilt statue, which represents the Grand Lama of Lhassa, The Grand Lama seems to be very like him, and has the same smiling physiognomy.
There is nothing in the tent which indicates any effort at cleanliness or luxury. The whole of the furniture seems to be about equally neglected, and the only apparent value possessed by anything is a row of small jade vases placed upon a coffer covered with some yellow material opposite to the entrance; an altar has been raised, and some sacred images are enclosed in a sort of tabernacle or movable chapel, the shape of which reminds me of those I have seen in Italy; and, as is the case in Italy and also in Spain, these sacred images of Buddha are carried to the residences of such persons as ask for them, in order to facilitate their cure, which the doctor also helps to effect by means of remedies that have received the priestly benediction. Among these remedies are some truly extraordinary ones, of so singular an origin
