Page:Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet (1879).djvu/43

xlii up huge piles of stones on the crests of mountain passes; and the Tibetan is actuated by the same feeling when he mutters his Om mani padmi hum, as the Peruvian when, on passing a heap of stones, he bows and reverentially exclaims, Apachicta muchhani!

The analogy pointed out by Warren Hastings, and which I have ventured to carry a little farther, strikingly suggests the importance of taking a comprehensive view of such questions as those of the physical structure of a great mountain range, or of the best means of establishing commercial intercourse between inhabitants of a lofty plateau difficult of access, and those of tropical valleys separated by snowy mountains. If the frightful gorges of the Andes did not prevent the Yncas from exchanging the products of the sierras for the coca of the montañas, there is nothing that a wise policy may not overcome to hinder the Lamas of Tibet and the Rulers of India from establishing a friendly interchange of commodities between the lofty plateaux of the one, and the fertile tropical valleys of the other.

The inhabitants of Tibet belong to the great Mongolian family, and they are described by Huc as a people with small, contracted, black eyes, thin beard, high cheek bones, flat noses, wide mouths, and thin lips. The skins of the upper classes are as white as those of Europeans, but the ordinary complexion is tawny. They are of middle height, and combine agility and suppleness with force and vigour. They are said to be generous and frank, brave in war, religious, and fond of display. They must be hardy mountaineers, and have developed most of the natural resources of their country. They have domesticated the yak, breed ponies in large numbers, sheep and goats, cultivate such cereals as will ripen in their climate, work the