were in view of some portion of an important Buddhist ceremonial. The bell had now reached the outer door and was rapidly approaching, the crowd became more impressively hushed and awed; nearer it advanced until I could tell it would pass through the entrance at the side of which I painfully crouched. And then the "Great Lama" came. I was astonished. A shabby diminutive boy of about ten years of age, bareheaded, wearing a greasy sort of "half coat" cut in a special fashion, and a dark maroon skirt, looking neither to the right nor the left passed rapidly down the human lane prepared for him, round the courtyard and into the darkness of the temple door. In one hand he held a wand, and suspended from his neck by a cord was a largish bell, which, falling on to his projecting waist-band, was jerked forward at every step, and in this manner caused to ring. Apparently oblivious of his surroundings, yet conscious of his unique position, and that the way would be prepared for his coming, he passed like an automaton before my eyes and disappeared. The crowd and myself
