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

BOOTAN. 39acceptance of the challenge, turned out more to the credit of our politeness,than to our exhibition of any superior dexterity.Great part both of the preceding and the present day was employedin receiving the visits of the inhabitants of Buxadewar, whocame to take leave previously to my departure, which Ihad fixed forthe next day.Early on the morning ofTiiursday, the 22d of May, we went to payour last visit to the Soobah.The interview was employed in apologiesfor our detention, on his part,and in acknowledgments for our politeand attentive reception, on mine. After several compliments, we tooka cup of tea, and the usual spirituous liquors ; and he conducted meto the bottom of the stairs, where he presented me with a white pelonghandkerchief:we then shook hands, and parted.The Soobah was about thirty years of age, of a middling stature, hisperson good, neither meagre nor corpulent ;his complexion clear, andnot quite of so deep a hue as that of most of his countrymen, thoughthey are all much less swarthy than the natives of Bengal. His countenancewas open and ingenuous ; and if any opinion of the internalcharacter may be formed, from the general outline and gesture of theperson, Ishould judge him to possess an artless and benevolent mind.Easy in his manners, and gracefulin his deportment, his orders weredelivered in the mildest tone of voice, totally exempt from every dictatorialair of authority.Buxadewa,-., call.d alsoPassaka, is a place of great „am,al strength;and, being a h^ontier station of these mountains, has been renderedf-^« Plate I.