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

298 TIBET.the Berhampooter, in the language of Tibet styled Erechoomboo. Itflows in a wide extended bed, and, as though the soil gave it an unwillingpassage, it has forced itself through many channels, and formeda multitude of islands in its way. But though its bed appears so wideextended from hence, I was told, that its principal channel is narrow,deep, and never fordable. At this place, it receives the tributary watersof the Painomtchicu, which I traced from it source, soon after myentrance into Tibet, to this termination of its course. Its individualityand its name, are here lostin association with the superior body, likevarious other streams, which come both from thenorth and from thesouth, and contribute to the magnitude of the Berhampooter, before itpasses Lassa, and penetrates the frontier mountains, that divide Tibetfrom Assam. In this latter region, it receives a copious supply, fromthe sacred fountains of Brahma-koond, before itrushes to the notice ofEuropeans below Rangamatty, on the borders ofBengal, where it becomesa mighty river, exceeded in size by few that are yet known in the world.From hence it hastens on to meet its sister stream, the Ganges.These far- famed rivers are nearly related in their birih, as well asunited in their termination; after their junction, under the commonname of Megna, or Pudda, they run together but a short course, beforethey mix their waters with the sea, which flows up tlnough a thousandchannels to mingle with its expected guests, intersecting a large territory,termed the Sundrabunds,now destitute of inhabitants, but famedfor the beauty of itsgroves.In infinite meanders, tiiey pervade an extremely intricate labyrinth,the borders of which are sometimes visited by inland navigators, when