Page:Three Years in Tibet.djvu/59

Rh I told my guests, in a most knowing way, all about Shabbe Shata's intrigue against the Tangye-ling, which was designed to increase his own power, and the secret of which affair was not then generally known, the recital seemed to make a great impression on them, and to have had the effect of convincing them that I was the person I pretended to be. So my ordeal was at an end; but there was yet in store for me the most unexpected discovery I was to make about these men.

No longer curious as to my antecedents, my gentleman guest now asked me: " You say you are going to Nepāl: may I ask you who is the person you are directed to, and if you have ever been in that country?" I had never been there before, but I had a letter of introduction with me. From whom, to whom, could that be? The letters, I said — for I had had two given me — were written in favor of me by Mr. Jibbahaḍur, an official of the Nepalese Government, then residing in Calcutta, and addressed to the Lama of the Great Tower of Mahāboḍha in Nepāl, whose name, though I just happened to forget it, was on the letters. This piece of information seemed greatly to interest the gentleman, who could not help saying : " Why, that is strange! Mr. Jibbahaḍur is a friend of mine: I wonder who can be the person to whom the letters are addressed; will you permit me to look at them?" And the climax came when I, in all willingness, took out the letters and showed them to my guest, for he ejaculated: "Well, whoever would have thought it? These are for me!"

I may here observe that in Nepāl, as I found out afterwards, the word friend conveys a much deeper meaning, probably, than in any other country. To be a friend there means practically the same thing as being a brother, and the natives have a curious custom of observing a special ceremony when any two of them tie the knot of friendship between them. The ceremony