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82 as to my personality, as she seemed to respect me all the more for it. Then, leading in the conversation that followed, she told me that Gelong Rinpoche's abode was at a day's distance, and that this Lama was the holiest of all the priests to he found throughout the whole Jangthang (Jang-thang, as 1 explained, literally means 'northern plain,' hut in Tibet itself the appellation is applied to its western steppes), Continuing, the old hostess said that a visit to the holy man always resulted in great spiritual benefit, and urged me by all means to call on him. There was a river, she said, in my way, the waters of which were too cold to be forded, and she offered me the use of one of her yaks. Her son was away just then, but she expected him back in the evening, and he could accompany me in the morning, as she wanted him too to pay a visit to the holy man. All this was very acceptable to me, but one thing that troubled me was the sorry condition to which my boots had become reduced ; and I asked the dame if I could not mend them. Mending in this case meant, as I was told, patching the worn-out places with yak's hide, which required, however, two days' soaking in water before it became soft enough to be sewn. My hostess said that they — she and her son — were to stay only one more day in that particular spot where I had chanced upon them, and suggested that I might make a stay of two or three days at Gelong Rinpoche's, so as to give myself the time to do some mending. She offered that I should, on the morrow, put on her son's spare pair of boots and proceed to the holy Lama's in them, saying that I might give them back to her son after reaching my destination. In the night, just as I was going to sleep, the son turned np, and more conversation ensued amongst us, chiefly concerning the saintly man, of whom the mother and the son knew no end of wonderful things, altogether superhuman in character.