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

350 TIBET.tor would willingly have silenced their importunities, by the active applicationof a long whip, which he was just upon the point of exercising;when I stopped his hand, and, being not altogether unprovided for theencounter^ I opened a passage amidst the crowd, to the right and left,by the most effectual and potent of all instruments, the influence ofmoney. It had the power of magic. The road was cleared in aninstant ;and while the eager mendicants were busied in scrambling forthe different pieces I had thrown to them, we made the best of our timeto pursue our way. Though they were less numerous, yet all alongour route this day, knots of beggars repeatedly beset us. Many forthe love of God, and his prophet, solicited alms of us in Persian. Iwas told, they came from Turkestan and Cashmeer. Some Mogulfakeers spoke the language of Hindostan;one of them told me he hadcome even from Surat,and naturally enough inquired of me intelligencerespecting his friends, whom he had left,he said, when almosta child.Thus I unexpectedly discovered, where I had constantly seen theround of life, moving in a tranquil regular routine, a mass of indigenceand idleness, of which I had no idea. But yet it by no meanssurprised me, when I considered that wherever indiscriminating charityexists, it will never want objects on which to exercise its bounty,but will always attract expectants more numerous, than it has themeans to gratify. No human being can suffer want at Teshoo Loom-V » boo. It is on this humane disposition that a multitude even ofMussulmen, of a frame probably the largest and most robust in theworld, place their reliance for the mere maintenance of a feeblelife;