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

;270 T 1 C E T.cumstance which shews their limited knowledge of the sciences, bothof geograpliy and astronomy.The Gosein alluded to by the Regent, whose name is Pranpooree,exhibited so extraordinary an instance of religious penance, that I cannotresist the temptation of relating some particulais of his life.Having been adopted by an Hindoo devotee, and educated by himin the rigid tenets of his religion, he was yet young, when he commencedthe course of his extraordinary mortifications. The first vow,which the plan of life, he had chosen to himself, induced him to make,was to continue perpetually upon his legs, and neither to sit downupon the ground, nor lie down torest, for the space of twelve years.All this time, he told me, he had employed in wandering throughdifferent countries. When 1 inquired how he took the indispensablerefreshment of sleep, when wearied with fatigue, he said, that at first, toprevent his falling, he used to be tied with ropes, to some tree or postbut that this precaution, after sometime, became unnecessary, and hewas able to sleep standing, without sucli support.The complete term oithis first penance being expired, the next lieundertook was to hold his hands, locked in each otlier,over his head,the fingers of one hand, dividing those of the other, for the same spaceof twelve years. Whether this particular period is chosen in complimentto the twelve signs of the zodiac, or to the Indian cycleof twelve years, I cannot decide. He was still determined, not todwell in any fixed abode;so that before the term of this last vow couldbe accomplished, he had travelled over the greater part of the continentof Asia. He first set out, by crossing the Peninsula of India, through