Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/205

Rh say there were 3000 spectators. I was led through three courts, and after climbing two iron-plated ladders, which serve for stairs in this part of the world, arrived in an antechamber hung round with arms. Here I waited some time before I was conducted into the presence chamber, through a dark entry and down two steps. The Rajah was seated on his throne or pulpit (for that is what it is like), raised about two feet above the floor. He was dressed in the festival habit of a gylong or priest, being covered with a scarlet satin cloak, and a gilded mitre on his head. A man kept twirling the umbrella over him. The pulpit was gilded, and surrounded with silver ewers and vases, and the floor was covered with carpets. His officers to the number of twelve were seated on cushions close to the wall. After making my bows, which, according to the ceremonial of this country, ought to have been prostrations, and laying my presents before him, I was conducted to a cushion prepared for me in the middle of the apartment. Several copper platters with rice, butter, treacle, tea, walnuts, Kashmirian dates, apricots, cucumbers, and other fruits were set before me, together with a little wooden stool. All this passed in silence. Then a man entered with a silver kettle full of buttered tea, and having poured a little into his palm and drunk it off, filled a dish for the Rajah, and went round to all his officers. Now every Bhutanese carries a little wooden cup for such occasions, black glazed in the inside, wrapped in a bit of cloth, and lodged within the tunic, opposite to the heart and next the skin; but not being so well provided, I got a china cup. After all the dishes were filled, the Deb Rajah said a grace, in which he was joined by all the company; and then he opened his mouth and spoke to me. When we had finished our tea, and every man had well licked his cup and deposited it in his bosom, a flowered satin gown was brought me. I was dressed in it as a khilat; a red handkerchief was tied round me for a girdle, and I was carried to the Rajah, who bound my head with another, and squeezing my temples, put something on my head, which I afterwards found to be the image of the god Sakya, and muttered some prayers over