ogether,
he thought, on account of the distance many Lamas had to travel to the
temple--just as in some Scotch country parishes they used to give two
sermons in one service for like reason! Koeppen, to whose work this note
is much indebted, says the Tibetan days are the 14th, 15th, 29th, 30th,
and adds as to the manner of observance: "On these days, by rule, among
the Lamas, nothing should be tasted but farinaceous food and tea; the very
devout refrain from all food from sunrise to sunset. The Temples are
decorated, and the altar tables set out with the holy symbols, with
tapers, and with dishes containing offerings in corn, meal, tea, butter,
etc., and especially with small pyramids of dough, or of rice or clay, and
accompanied by much burning of incense-sticks. The service performed by
the priests is more solemn, the music louder and more exciting, than
usual. The laity make their offerings, tell their beads, and repeat _Om
mani padma hom_," etc. In the _concordat_ that took place between the
Dalai-Lama and the Altun Khaghan, on the reconversion of the Mongols to
Buddhism in the 16th century, one of the articles was the entire
prohibition of hunting and the slaughter of animals on the monthly fast
days. The practice varies much, however, even in Tibet, with different
provinces and sects--a variation which the Ramusian text of Polo implies
in these words: "For five days, or _four days_, or _three_ in each month,
they shed no blood," etc.

In Burma the Worship Day, as it is usually called by Europeans, is a very
gay scene, the women flocking to the pagodas in their brightest attire.
(_H. T. Memoires_, I. 6, 208; _Koeppen_, I. 563-564, II. 139, 307-308;
_Pallas, Samml._ II. 168-169).

NOTE 4.--These matrimonial customs are the same that are afterwards
ascribed to the Tartars, so we defer remark.

NOTE 5.--So Pauthier's text, "_en legation_." The G. Text includes Nicolo
Polo, and says, "on business of theirs that is not worth mentioning," and
with this Ramusio agrees.

CHAPTER XLV.

OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.

When you leave the city of Campichu you ride for twelve days, and then
reach a city called ETZINA, which is towards the north on the verge of the
Sandy Desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut.[NOTE 1] The people are
Idolaters, and possess plenty of camels and cattle, and the country
produces a number of good falcons, both Sakers and Lanners. The
inhabitants live by their cultivation and their cattle,