Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/298

 against the walls or retired into recesses, children, with which the place swarmed, were swept to the sides in startled and crying heaps, while I was pushed unceremoniously from the doorway into a tight corner, jammed between a huge metal elephant with its rider nearly half life-size, and a dragon crawling up a lintel, whose spines of bronze pressed heavily into my back. Too astonished to attempt resistance I crouched in my uncomfortable position, while a passage was made through the living mass to the door, the scared children were hushed, and a solemn silence fell where before had been noise and laughter. Then broke on my ears the faint methodical sound of a tinkling bell some distance away, and a hoarse voice in my ear informed me that the "Great Lama arrives." The thin notes of the bell came nearer and nearer, visions of a grey-haired High-Priest with richly embroidered vestments, acolytes and incense, and all the gorgeous panoply of a religious procession, flashed across my mind, as it became evident that these suddenly improvised preparations