s and friends are wiser and less brutal. They rightly
believe that, if voracious animals will not partake of the meal proffered
them, it is because the body is that of a sinner against whom God is
angry. And who better than the Lamas could make peace between God and
him? So let the Lamas eat it all.

In the case of not finding sufficient Lamas to perform these rites, the
body is either disposed of by throwing it into the water, or else, the
relations having first partaken of a morsel of the flesh, it is bound to
a rock to let animals or time do the rest.

The Lamas are said to have a great craving for human blood, which, they
say, gives them strength, genius and vigour. When sucking wounds that are
not poisoned, they drink the blood, and also on certain occasions wounds
are inflicted for the sake of sucking the blood. At other times the cups
cut from human skulls, found in all monasteries, are filled with blood,
and the Lamas in turn satisfy their thirst out of them.

But enough of this. It is sickening to set it down, though my book would
be incomplete if I had made no mention of the cannibalism of the Lamas.

When a saintly Lama dies, or some old man much respected by the
community, either parts of the flesh, or, if cremation has been applied,
some of his ashes, are preserved and placed in a _Chokden_ erected for
the purpose; and, judging by the number of these structures one finds all
over Tibet, one feels inclined to think that half the population of the
country must have been saints, or else that the standard of saintliness
in the sacred land of the Lamas is not prohibitively high.

[25] In the case of a sect called Bombos, the circuits are made in the
reverse fashion, as also are their prayer-wheels turned from right to
left.

CHAPTER LXVII

Another commotion--Two hundred soldiers--A stampede--Easy
travelling--A long _Mani_ wall--Mosquitoes.

COMING out of our tent in the morning, we noticed an unusual commotion
among the Tibetans. A number of mounted men with matchlocks had arrived,
and others similarly armed immediately went to join them from the tents.
They seemed excited, and I kept my eye upon them while I was cooking my
food. There were some two hundred in all, picturesquely garbed. They
seemed to be good horsemen, and looked well as they rode in a line
towards us. A little way off they stopped and dismounted, and the leaders
came forward, one stalwart fellow in a fine sheepskin c