The
character most common on the inscribed stones, and one of those now in
actual use, he told me was Romeeque; the other, the square character
on the stones, is obsolete, and is called Lantza;[21] while a third
character, which was the one he was most conversant with, but which
did not appear upon any of the stones, he called Tyeeque.
His explanation of the stones was, that at the last day a certain
recording angel, whom he called Khurjidal, would pass through the
land, and inspecting these mounds of inscribed stones, would write
down the names of all those who had contributed to the heap. What the
inscription was he seemed unable clearly to explain, but believed it to
refer in some manner to the Supreme Being. Whatever it was, all those
who had contributed their share towards its dissemination, by adding
stones to the mounds, were certain of future rewards, while those
who had omitted to do so were as equally certain of punishment.[22]
This explanation of the difficulty caused me some qualms of conscience
on account of the future prospects of the unfortunate writer whose
particular stone I had appropriated; but for fear the Gopa himself
might be the sufferer, I thought it better not to confide my emotions
to him, but to leave the case in the hands of Khurjidal.
Pages:
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197