The lotus is a plant
peculiar to the lukewarm and temperate waters of India and Egypt. There
is not one of its genus, or even of its family, in Thibet."
The words, however, are not, as M. Jacquemont says, Thibetian,
but Sanscrit; and, although one of the characters in which they are
clothed is the current Thibetian, it would appear that neither their
true pronunciation nor actual meaning is known to the people who thus
make such frequent use of them.
The sentence itself is in the mouths of all. In the monastery of Hemis
alone, probably as many as a hundred wheels are in continual motion,
bearing it within their folds not less than 1,700,000 times. The very
stones by the wayside present its well-known characters in countless
numbers, and the hills repeat it, and yet to those into whose daily
religious observances it thus so largely enters, it comes but as
a vain and empty sound, without either sense or signification. The
Lamas themselves, no doubt, believe that the doctrine contained in
these marvellous words is immense, and the higher dignitaries of
the Church may know their derivation; but, to the great majority,
even the mystic meaning and dim legendary history which the true
pronunciation and rightful origin of the words would bring to their
minds, are unknown, and they are thus deprived of that large amount
of comfort and consolation which they would otherwise derive from
the glowing and all-powerful sentence --
"Oh, the jewel in the lotus, Amen!"
CHAPTER C
A Sketch of the History of Cashmere.
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