And the Rev. Mr. Jaeschke writes to me from Lahaul, in British Tibet:  “Our Lama (from Central Tibet) tells us that the owner of a house and the members of his family when they die are carried through the house-door; but if another person dies in the house his body is removed by some other aperture, such as a window, or the smokehole in the roof, or a hole in the wall dug expressly for the purpose.  Or a wooden frame is made, fitting into the doorway, and the body is then carried through; it being considered that by this contrivance the evil consequences are escaped that might ensue, were it carried through the ordinary, and, so to say, undisguised house-door!  Here, in Lahaul and the neighbouring countries, we have not heard of such a custom.”

(Duhalde, quoted by Marsden; Semedo, p. 175; Mr. Sala in N. and Q., 2nd S. XI. 322; Lubbock, p. 500; Sonnerat I. 86; Liebrecht’s Gervasius of Tilbury, Hanover, 1856, p. 224; Mag.  Asiat. II. 93.)

[1] M. Bonin visited in 1899 these caves which he calls “Grottoes of
    Thousand Buddhas” (Tsien Fo tung). (La Geographie, 15th March,
    1901, p. 171.) He found a stele dated 1348, bearing a Buddhist prayer
    in six different scripts like the inscription at Kiu Yung Kwan. (Rev.
    Hist. des Religions, 1901, p. 393.)—­H.  C.

CHAPTER XLI.

OF THE PROVINCE OF CAMUL.

Camul is a province which in former days was a kingdom.  It contains numerous towns and villages, but the chief city bears the name of CAMUL.  The province lies between the two deserts; for on the one side is the Great Desert of Lop, and on the other side is a small desert of three days’ journey in extent.[NOTE 1] The people are all Idolaters, and have a peculiar language.  They live by the fruits of the earth, which they have in plenty, and dispose of to travellers.  They are a people who take things very easily, for they mind nothing but playing and singing, and dancing and enjoying themselves.[NOTE 2]

And it is the truth that if a foreigner comes to the house of one of these people to lodge, the host is delighted, and desires his wife to put herself entirely at the guest’s disposal, whilst he himself gets out of the way, and comes back no more until the stranger shall have taken his departure.  The guest may stay and enjoy the wife’s society as long as he lists, whilst the husband has no shame in the matter, but indeed considers it an honour.  And all the men of this province are made wittols of by their wives in this way.[NOTE 3] The women themselves are fair and wanton.