ABSTRACT
Every Tibetan believes as implicitly in the oracle as a guide in his daily affairs as ever did the ancient Greeks and Romans. The sorcerers dress up in the fantastic equipment of the old religion, with flags and tufts of wool on their head-dress, and a dragon coat with a breastplate, till they fall down on a seat "possessed," and then deliver an oracular reply. For, notwithstanding its un-Buddhistic character, the gross form of heathen sorcery was so deeply rooted in the minds of the people that that crafty ruler, brought it into the order of the Lamas. The rooms have polished wooden floors, and their neat lacquered furniture, refined taste, and cleanness suggested a dainty house in Japan, rather than one in inartistic Tibet. The Karmashar Magician in the town is the oracle chiefly consulted by the common people, and makes an augury for the year which is placarded up on the walls of that monastery.
