Whilst investigating the question of Khandomas from the standpoint of colloquial Tibetan I stumbled unexpectedly on the following interesting piece of information, throwing a vivid sidelight on some current beliefs and practices of modern Tibet. The abbot of the Saskya monastery is held to be the reincarnation of Padmasambhava. As the latter was the great ‘binder,’ that is subduer, of all spirits, witches, goblins and other creatures of that ilk, the Saskya abbot has in some way become the official head and master of all Tibetan witches. Belief in witches is rife all over Tibet, and any woman is liable to be declared one. The process is very simple. If a great Lama receives obeisance from the multitude he presents the devotees in return with a ‘protection-knot’ (སྲུང་མདུད་), a narrow strip of cloth which he puts round their necks. He ties a knot in it muttering some mantram over it, hence the name. Ordinary laymen receive a white strip, tapas or those who have their hair cut short (probably because they look like tapas) get a yellow or red strip, but if a woman approaches whom the Lama by his magic knowledge recognizes as a witch, she receives a black strip. From that moment she is irrevocably a witch and no protestation can help her out of the situation. In the Saskya monastery an annual feast or ceremony is celebrated in which all witches must appear personally, and the magic then displayed is so tremendously powerful that all women who are secretly endowed with the powers of witchcraft without the people knowing it, are irresistibly compelled to attend the meeting. They simply cannot help it, and so stories are told of witches working in the fields, milking cows, or otherwise engaged, being drawn away from their work and appearing in the assembly with their milk-pail, or spindle, or whatever utensil they were using at the time at any work, when they were forced to quit it and to come to Saskya. In the meeting they are then officially proclaimed witches and forced to pledge allegiance and obedience to the Saskya monastery and its head. Then the profitable and practical side of the transaction becomes manifest, for henceforth they have to pay an annual, heavy witch-tax, and in cases known to Karma himself, who came across them when living in Tibet, this tax amounted to one རྡོ་ཚད་ (see Bell, p. 104) or about Rs. 120 a year. On the other hand they are now protected by the authority of the monastery as long as they pay the tax, though they have to pledge themselves not to use their powers for evil. Then they receive the official title of ས་སྐྱ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་, though they are known to the people as འབའ་མོ་, witch. But this latter word is a term of abuse or contempt. The meaning of the two terms, however, is the same. The entries in the dicts. s.v. འབའ་མོ་ and པོ་ (and other spellings) need proper testing in the light of the above. These witches are supposed not to live up to a great age but to die young, because