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

220 TIBET.force of prejudice. The table was spread with raw joints of freshmutton, and some of the same, boiled. We certainly preferred theboiled mutton, which was cold, and exquisitely tender and sweet ;butthe Tibetians shewed a different taste : and though both of us, wereequally pleased, neither envied the opposite propensity of the other;but we were all afterwards equally disposed to join in deep draughtsof chong and a social pipe, in the use of which, practice had now renderedme tolerably expert.A road to Lassa branches off between these hills, east by south fromGangamaar, which village is subject to that government. We continuedour journey nearly north, and about a mile and a half fartheron, met with a hot well, which was surrounded with a stone wall,and covered with canvas.Within the enclosure, a tent was pitched,which seemed crowded with people. I soon learned, that the virtuesattributed to this spring, were various and powerful, not being confinedto invalids of any particular description, but extending to all the sickand aged, whether they seek a cure from infirmity or from disease.The mode of treament, is to continue immerged in the water, for someminutes up to the chest, and on coming out to be covered with warmclothing: this is repeated five or six times- a day. The mercury of thethermometer stood in the open air at 44°;when plunged into the waterit rose to 88°. The vapour arising from the surface had a sulphureoussmell ; and on all sides, to the extent of two hundred yards, was seenmuch white incrustation.The surface of the ground on which we travelled, was a mass ofhard matter, like scoria ; it sounded hollow, as the horses (rod upon