silver rupee, and flung it into
the lake as an offering to the God Mahadeva. Then, with hairless faces
and heads, they dressed and came to pay their salaams to me, professing
to be now happy and pure.

"Siva, the greatest of all gods, lives in the waters of Mansarowar,"
exclaimed my bearer in a poetic mood. "I have bathed in its waters, and
of its waters I have drunk. I have salaamed the great Kelas, the sight of
which alone can absolve all sins of humanity; I shall now go to heaven."

"I shall be satisfied if we get as far as Lhassa," grumbled the sceptical
Mansing, out of ear-reach of the Tibetans.

Chanden Sing, who was well versed in religious matters, explained that
only Hindoo pilgrims who had lost both parents shaved their heads on
visiting Mansarowar, as a sacrifice to Siva, and if they were of a high
caste, on their return to their native land after the pilgrimage, it was
customary to entertain all the Brahmins of the town to a banquet. A man
who had bathed in Mansarowar was held in great respect by everybody, and
commanded the admiration and envy of the entire world.

The Mansarowar Lake is about forty-six miles round, and those pilgrims
who wish to attain a greater state of sanctity make a _kora_ or circuit
on foot, along the water-line. The journey occupies from four to seven
days, according to circumstances, and one trip round will absolve the
pilgrim from ordinary sins; twice the circuit clears the conscience of
any murder; and three times will make honest and good a person who has
killed his or her father, mother, brother or sister. There are fanatics
who make the tour on their knees, others accomplish the distance lying
down flat at each step on their faces like the pilgrims to Kelas.

According to legend, Mansarowar was created by Brahma, and he who shall
bathe in its waters will share the paradise of Mahadeva! No matter what
crimes he may have previously committed, a dip in the holy lake is
sufficient to purge the soul as well as the body! To please my men,
therefore, and perhaps bring myself some luck, I too hurled a couple of
coins into the water.

The purifying ablutions being over, I ordered Chanden Sing to take his
rifle and follow me into the Gomba, as the Lamas were so polite that I
feared treachery on their part.

The large square building, with its walls painted red and its flattish
dome of gilt copper, rose by the water-side, and was both picturesque and
handsome in its severe simplic