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

;liOOTAN. , 157according to report, were extremely inconvenient to them, as theyjwere inflexible ; in consequence of which they were obliged to digholes in the ground, before they could attempt to sit down.He had a very curious creature, he told me, then in his possessiona sort of horse, with a horn growing from the middle of hisforehead.He had once another of the same species; but it died. I could notdiscover from whence itcame, or obtain any other explanation thanburra dure! a great way off! I expressed a very earnest desire tosee a creature so curious and uncommon, and told him that we hadrepresentations of an animal called an unicorn, to which his descriptionanswered; but it was generally considered as fabulous. He againassured me of the truth of what he told me, and promised I shouldsee it. It was some distance from Tassisudon, and his people paid ilreligious respect ; but I never had a sight of it.The last story I shall notice, is an account the Raja gave me ofan adventure of his own, designed not less tomagnify our opinion ofhis zeal, than to add respect to his religious character in the estimationof his own disciples : it was introduced in consequence of our conversationturning on Tibet. He painted to me the difficulties of theway, and the wide disparity of country and of climate. " I haveseen, I have experienced, and speak from my own knowledge ; for,"continued he, " some years ago, putting on the appearance of a mendicantor fakeer, I made a pilgrimage to Lassa, and visited the holytemples, sacred as the seats of the superior objects of our worship.My journey was performed allthe way on foot, with one companion.I walked over, and saw, every part of the extensive city of Lassa; I paid