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 whether any similar application had previously been made, hence the variety of opinions among the increasing throng of onlookers. Through the low archway therefore in my stockinged feet I bobbed, and the sight which met my eyes almost took my breath away. A crowded fantasy of gilt Buddhas, Bodhisatvas. Lamas, Garudas, rows of metal deities, massive bronze bells, and all the artistic attributes of the Buddhist, Lamaist, and Hindu religions, floated before my eyes. All the arts of Nepal seemed to be gathered in this one small courtyard and pagoda, with its carved and painted wood and plates of burnished brass as a background; right up into several stories it continued, finishing in a great gilt finial which flashed above like molten gold in the light of the dying sun. But hardly had I been permitted one short view of this absorbing picture, hemmed in by a packed mass of people attracted from the surrounding rabbit-warren of houses by my presence, when, suddenly, without any apparent cause, the whole crowd was thrown into violent commotion: men backed