An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

;126 BOOTAN.beech, birch, maple, pine fir, yew, and cypress, were among the numberwe saw also by the road side, with no small satisfaction, bushes loadedwith ripe blackberries. Insignificant as this fi-uit is, yet, recallingdomestic partialities to the imagination, and the image of those sceneswhich youth and health formerly endeared, we plucked and ate themwith avidity.A cold philosopher might have contemptuously passedby such trivial trash ; but he would not have formed any conceptionof the luxurious treat which we enjoyed.About noon, we emerged from these dark woods, and came at onceupon a clear level ground, where we found a few of the Raja's servantsin low sheds, which they had formed of jooughs, sitting about a! fire of dried fir leaves. We alighted horn our horses, and were admittedof their party. Drenched as our clothes were with rain, thewarmth of the fire, and the hot tea which their hospitality preparedfor us, enabled us to pursue our way with additional spirit. Theirpreparation of tea with butter, salt, and flour, the leaf being boiledtill it is tender, and all the ingredients intimately blended together,was a regale, from which at first our tastes revolted with disgust ;butso early a reconciliation, placed in the strongset point of view, theforce of habit, both in creating and effacing prejudices; and, strangeas it may appear, convinced me, that this kind of tea-gruel, wantsonly the recommendation of custom, to be esteemed a luxury.At a short distance from this place, we passed by a village of considerableextent, situated on tiie side of a hill, which was almost whollycultivated.Tiie country now began to open, and improve on our view.Proceeding onwards we forded a stream, notdeep, but running with