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Finding that nothing was required of him more expensive than information, he appeared delighted to show off his learning, and by means of the sepoy, who was the only one of our party acquainted with both Thibetan and Hindoostanee, I ascertained that the words carved upon the stones were "Um mani panee," and meant, as far as I could make out, "the Supreme Being."
Each as he entered the court and passed along the rows of wheels, by simply stretching out his arm set the whole of them in motion, at the same time repeating "Um mani panee" in a dolorous voice to himself.
To have inquired the meaning of this would only have again resulted in the comprehensive information contained in "Um mani panee," so we rested in our ignorance, and passed on, much to the relief of the chaunter.
The first time I ordered "a chop," I thought I had amply explained every necessary particular; a certain portion of flesh, and a gridiron: at seven o'clock, up came a cotelette panee, faute de mieux. I swallowed the composition, drowned as it was, in a most pernicious sauce. I had one hour's sleep, and the nightmare, in consequence.
The eternal "Um mani panee" formed a very large part of the decoration, being painted over the walls in every variety of coloured letters. In the inner part of the temple was a large coloured statue, with eight arms, and two-and-twenty heads. The heads were placed in threes, looking every way, in the shape of a pyramid, a single head crowning the whole.
It was suspended from his neck, in company with a collection of square leather charms, fastened by a string to his coat. On my asking him what the structure meant, he immediately begun to set it in motion, and piously ejaculating "Um mani panee," passed on without another word, but in evident pity for my benighted spiritual condition.
In each of these there was a letter of the words "Um mani panee," and the pots being filled with water, he was employed in strewing each with a few grains of corn from a heap at his side, keeping up at the same time a loud mournful chant, and swaying himself to and fro, in time with the music.
The lamps were then lighted, and we were presented with the usual offering of bouquets of roses, plentifully bedewed with goolabee pánee, or the distilled tears of the flower, to speak poetically; and having admired the children of the family, who were brought out in their best dresses and jewels, took our leave.
Not another piece of information could I elicit relative to the religion beyond the continual "Um mani panee, Um mani panee!" which our friend seemed never tired of mumbling; and although the sepoy was, I believe, considerably more adapted for the extraction of reluctant supplies of food for our kitchen than for eliciting such information on the subject of theology as I was in search of, the real cause of failure was more to be attributed to the extreme ignorance of the particular pillar of the Church that we had got hold of, than to any little literary failings of the interpreter.
They were generally in rows of eight and ten, and well thumbed and worn they looked, but others of larger dimensions were placed by themselves, decorated with the words "Um mani panee," in the Lanza character, all round the barrel.
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