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

;TIBET. 379Strictest privacy, and prohibiting, indiscriminately, tlie admission ofall persons to his presence, I found an obstacle almost insurmountableyet the Regent, mindful of the amity subsisting between the Governorand himself, and unwilling, I believe, by any act, to hazard its interruption,at length consented to grant me that extraordinary indulgence.As the meeting was attended with very singular and striking circumstances,Icould not help noting them with most particular attention;and though the repetition of such facts, interwoven and blendedas they are with superstition and folly, may expose me to the imputationof extravagant exaggeration, yet I should think myself reprehensiblein suppressing them. While, therefore, I divest myself of allprejudice, and assume the character of a faithful narrator, Ihope, howevertedious the detail, I propose to enter into, may be found, it will beat least received with candour and attention, by those for whose perusaland information it is intended*. It is indeed important, were itonly to mark that strong feature in the national character, of implicithomage to their great religious sovereign, and to exemplify the veryuncommon, I may almost say, unheard of effects, of early tuition. Ishall perhaps, be still more fully justified in making this relation, byadverting to that very extraordinary assurance given me by the Regent,but a few days before my departure from his court ; which, withoutfurther introduction, I shall beg leave literally to recite. At an interviewwith which he indulged me, after having givenme my audienceof leave, he said, " I had yesterday a vision of our tutelary deity,and to me, itwas a day replete with much interesting and importantPage 333' ^' ^'i-3 C