Micawber spent a good part of his life luxuriously waiting for some! to turn up, but Micawber was man while the Panchen's retinue more in number than a full blown ment. There are 1,500 animals {he camp and report has it that each animal eats every day $1.50 worth of fodder. There are 1,500 camp followers, including a well equipped brass band of 40 instruments, hundreds of drabas and lamas, ores of writers and secretaries and a miscellaneous following picked up at different points between Nanking and Jyekundo.
When the Panchen was alive they had something to do and something to think about and they had day by day the glorious prospect of again seeing their native land and their beloved Drashe Lhumbo. Now they are fighting and quarrelling among themselves and accusing each other of "eating" more' money than the Specified allowance, The fact that the precious body of the Panchen lies in a box in their very midst, and the Tibetan brass band dispenses free music every day, has little or no religious effect upon what has now become very largely a disunited and disorganized band of selfish, self-seeking, dissatisfied Tib-evans. Their only desire now is to be finished with the make-believe and get home.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.