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

;1 5G BOOTA N.giving but a pale and feeble blossom : the pomegranate finds a morecongenial soil, and produces the largest andmost excellent fruit ofits kind.We were treated, on our arrival, with tea, Sec. which was followedby strawberries, and another fruit, growing wild, smaller, but notunlike a ripe sloe. The weather was clear and temperate : there wasa delightful, silent serenity in this retreat ; and the eye dwelt withsatisfaction on the different shades of verdure^ in the variegated scene.Two musicians, placed at a distance, played upon reed instruments,in wild and not unharmonious strains, while tlie Raja held us inconversation, on the customs and produce of foreign countries ;subjects on which he sought for information,with insatiable avidity.I selected the most striking peculiarities of all nations for his entertainment,and he, in his turn, told me of wonders, for which I claimno other credit, than that of repeating with fidelity the story of myauthor.In the first place, he mentioned a race of people, of uncommon stature,inhabiting a prodigiously high mountain, whose base was manyday^ journey in circumference. The country lay east of Bootan ; andbeing far distant, his subjects had never had any intercourse with itbut two of these people had, some years ago, wandered hither, andthey were the admiration of all the inhabitants; being not less, accordingto his description, than eight feet high. They stayed but a shorttime, and seemed happy at the thoughts of returning to their giganticbrethren.In the same range of mountains, north of Assam, he informed me\Jthere were a species of human beings, with short straight tails, which,tV^V^