Note 2 — Little Thibet.
Reading edition
Finding that nothing was required of him more expensive than information, he appeared delighted to show off his learning, and by means of the sepoy, who was the only one of our party acquainted with both Thibetan and Hindoostanee, I ascertained that the words carved upon the stones were “Ûm mani panee,” and meant, as far as I could make out, “the Supreme Being.” As the old gentleman repeated the mystic syllables, he bobbed and scraped towards a strange-looking monument close by, in an abject, deprecatory way, as if in extreme awe of its presence.2