A VISIT TO THE SELENGINSK LAMASERY 95

"You have been in many countries," he said to me through the interpreter, "and have talked with the wise men of the West; what is your opinion with regard to the shape of the earth?" " I think," I replied, "that it is shaped like a great ball." " I have heard so before," said the Grand Lama, looking thoughtfully away into vacancy. "The Russian officers whom I have met have told me that the world is round. Such a belief is contrary to the teachings of our old Thi- betan books, but I have observed that the Russian wise men predict eclipses accurately ; and if they can tell before- hand when the sun and the moon are to be darkened, they probably know something about the shape of the earth. Why do you think that the earth is round ? " "I have many reasons for thinking so," I answered; " but perhaps the best and strongest reason is that I have been around it." This statement seemed to give the Grand Lama a sort of mental shock. " How have you been around it! " he inquired. " What do you mean by ' around it ' ? How do you know that you have been around it f " "I turned my back upon my home," I replied, " and traveled many months in the course taken by the sun. I crossed wide continents and great oceans. Every night the sun set before my face and every morning it rose behind my back. The earth always seemed flat, but I could not find anywhere an end nor an edge ; and at last, when I had traveled more than thirty thousand versts, I found myself again in my own country and returned to my home from a direction exactly opposite to that which I had taken in leaving it. If the world was flat, do you think I could have done this ? " "It is very strange," said the Grand Lama, after a thoughtful pause of a moment, " Where is your country ?

How far is it beyond St. Petersburg ? "