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

B O OT AN. 27In the afternoon our tent came up, a party of Booteeas having beensent to bring it over the steep and difficult part of the way. Tlieelephant followed soon after, much to our astonishment, for the road,seemed in some places too narrow even for the safe passage of a horse,jOur tents were at length pitched, but with great difficulty ;for therewas scarcely soil enough upon the rock to admit the pins. Theyafforded a subject of admiration to the crowds of Booteeas that werecontinually assembling to gaze at us.A strong similarity of feature runs through the whole race. Theyare much fairer and more robust than their neighbours, the Bengalees,with broader faces and higher cheek-bones. So wide a differenceindeed is evident between these individuals of the human species, thatwere a stranger to both, desired to give an opinion of them, whenplaced together, he would not hesitate to pronounce them natives ofregions the remotest from each other, and could never suppose thatthey belonged to a contiguous soil.In the evening we made a visit to the Soobah^' of Buxadewar, whoadvanced to the entrance of his apartment to receive us ;when, inconformity to the custom of BoOtan, I presented a white pelong handkerchief:he gave me one fn return, and shook hands as the exchangewas made. We advanced, and took our seats : his was placed in thecorner of the room, close under a window : here he sat opposite to us, • /on a scarlet cloth, having a square piece of tiger's skin in the centre,^spread upon a stage of wood, which was elevated about a foot from ^^^-vv.the floor. On his right hand was a silver vessel, containing a fire of* Provincial Governor.E