Among the most curious things in Thibet are the praying-wheels. They are little wooden drums covered round the sides with leather, and fitted vertically in niches in the walls. A spindle running through the centre enables them to revolve at the slightest push. They are generally in rows of eight and ten, and well thumbed and worn they usually are. Others, of larger dimensions, are placed by themselves, decorated with the words, “Om mani padmi hum,” in the Lanza character, all round the barrel. In the vicinity of the monasteries are various small temples, like chapels of ease, rudely decorated with grotesque figures in red and yellow, and having queer-looking structures fastened on the top of them, generally a trident, with tufts of hair attached, or strips of colored calico, horns of animals and other rude devices. [Illustration: PRAYING MACHINE. Instead of saying prayers they set a machine in motion, each revolution counting as a prayer. The more prayers one says or turns, the more sure he is to get to Heaven. Sometimes the wheel is set so as to be turned by water or machinery, and these machine-prayers are counted as good as others.] In one place there is a praying-wheel turned by water; but one cannot ascertain whether the benefit accrues to the water, or to the possessor of the stream, or to the public generally. Sometimes the people carry portable wheels, and one often meets them provided with huge brass ones, with a wooden handle. They are suspended from their necks, in company with a collection of square leather charms fastened by a string to the coat, the whole collection presenting a very odd appearance. THE MYSTIC SENTENCE OF THIBET. [Illustration: PRAYING WHEEL WHIRLED IN THE HAND.] There is one sentence which the Thibetans and Mongolians have continually in their mouths. The same sentence is written upon their monuments, temple-walls, relic-houses, prayer-wheels--indeed, almost everywhere. It is OM MANI PADMI HUM. These are words from the Sanskrit language. “Om,” among the Hindus, is the mystic name of divinity, which begins all their prayers. It corresponds to our interjection Oh! only that it is uttered with a religious emphasis, due to its hidden, sacred meaning. “Mani” means jewel; “padmi,” the lotus; and “hum,” amen. So the whole sentence is, “Oh! the jewel of the lotus. Amen.” But the Thibetan Buddhists have attached mysterious meanings to each of the six syllables of the sentence. These meanings grew out of the legendary history of the introduction of Buddhism into Thibet; but even this is all but forgotten, and the words are repeated by the millions of Thibetans without the slightest knowledge of their force, but with a superstitious belief in their sacredness, which is unshaken and immovable as the rocks themselves THE INCARNATION OF BUDDHA IN THE GRAND LAMA. [Illustration: STONE WITH THE MYSTIC SENTENCE, “OM MANI PADMI HUM.”]