to remain alive, and depriving
themselves of everything else, including snuff and spitting, the two most
common habits among Tibetan men.

The Lamas have great pretensions to infallibility, and on account of this
they claim, and obtain, the veneration of the people, by whom they are
supported, fed and clothed. I found them, as a rule, very intelligent,
but inhuman, barbarously cruel and dishonourable, and this was not my own
experience alone: I heard the same from the overridden natives, who wish
for nothing better than a chance to shake off their yoke.

Availing themselves of the absolute ignorance in which they succeed in
keeping the people, the Lamas practise to a great extent occult arts, by
which they profess to cure illnesses, discover murders and thefts, stop
rivers from flowing, and bring storms about at a moment's notice.
Certain exorcisms, they say, drive away the evil spirits that cause
disease. It is certain that the Lamas are adepts at hypnotic experiments,
by which means they contrive to let the subjects under their influence
see many things and objects that are not there in reality. To this power
are due the frequent reports of apparitions of Buddha, seen generally by
single individuals, and the visions of demons, the accounts of which
alone terrify the simple-minded folk, and cause them to pay all their
spare cash in donations to the monastery.

Mesmerism plays an important part in their weird dances, during which
extraordinary contortions are performed, and strange positions assumed,
the body of the dancer being eventually reduced to a cataleptic state, in
which it remains for a great length of time.

The Lamas swear to celibacy when they enter a lamasery; but they do not
always keep these vows, and they are besides addicted to the most
disgusting of all vices in its very worst forms, which accounts for the
repulsive appearance of far-gone depravity so common among the
middle-aged Lamas.

All the larger lamaseries support one or more Lama sculptors, who travel
all over the district, and go to the most inaccessible spots to carve on
rocks, stones, or pieces of horn, the everlasting inscription, "_Omne
mani padme hun_," which one sees all over the country. Unseen, I once
succeeded, after much difficulty and discomfort, in carrying away two of
these very heavy inscribed stones, which are still in my possession, and
of which reproductions are here given.

Weird and picturesque places, such as the high