122 FROM THE ALPS TO THE ANDES 
four acts: the first set forth the world; the 
second showed how man dies; in the two last 
were represented the demons who come to carry 
off the dying man, and the latter’s struggles 
to escape from their clutches—all to the ac- 
  
companiment of loud cries. It was a most 
interesting spectacle, but as the dance had 
been shortened, it only lasted forty minutes. 
On their festivals, such a ballet occupies three 
hours. 
We took different photographs and were able 
to understand the invariable formula of their 
prayers, which is very short and is comprised 
in the words: “Om mani padmi Hum” 
(“ Hail to the jewel in the lotus-flower’’). 
One strange feature I noted is that a man may 
have several wives, but at Leh, the women are 
allowed to have more than one husband. 
After two days’ further stay, we decided to 
leave, and returned by the same way we had 
come, to Srinagar, from whence we were to go 
on to Bombay, en route for Europe. When 
T had travelled for about a month with Sir 
Martin Conway, we separated. I wandered 
about here and there on my own account, 
and finally, on the 20th of November, reached 
4 Bombay where the heat was so intense that 
} I was quite ill for five days. On the 27th of