hands of lamas, were queer dolls resembling Buddhist deities. These marionette gods made complete and hurried revolutions, to the amazement of the craning throng. As soon as one set of deities had gone through their exercises, the baskets were pulled back and sent out again with a new group. A dozen times the baskets appeared, each time with different figures.

After this seemingly endless performance, the attention of the crowd was directed to a little red chanting hall of wood at the foot of the central pyramid. The yellow-and-red curtain in front of this miniature temple was drawn aside, and

tiny red lamas appeared in a sort of puppet show, dancing in a circle. One, more imposing than the rest, remained in the center of the stage, raising his hand and directing the dancers.

At the same time a regular Punch and Judy show made its appearance on the wooden shelf above the butter lamps. The tiny figures, representing nomads, started a fight, in the midst of which a camel threw its rider. The wellbehaved Tibetan mob roared with laughter.

After the Punch and Judy show the lotus baskets were sent out again and the entertainment was over.

LAMAS RELUCTANTLY PERMIT PHOTOG

RAPHY

The whole performance was naïve in the extreme, yet it was the ceremony par excellence of Choni. The only variation of it from year to year is the representation of different gods in the butter panels.

The Butter Festival being distinctly a night affair, the images are usually removed before 4 a. m. To take flashlight pictures in the course of the celebration would have been impossible because of the panic it would have created among these simple children of the grasslands. But I was very anxious to photograph the entire display of butter images, so I asked the Prince if it would be possible to have them remain in place until after sunrise.

Thanks to my host, the lamas were directed to leave the images in place until I had exposed 24 plates, the first real pictures of the butter gods.

When one takes into consideration the hostile attitude of the lamas of other monasteries (a rawhide whip was used on a missionary who attended a butter festival at Kumbum), it speaks well for the discipline among the Choni monks that at 10 o'clock on the morning after the festival, long after I had photographed the display, the head lamas came to me and asked whether they could now remove the images. The friendship of the Choni Prince, who sees to it that his orders are obeyed, is really responsible for the photographs illustrating this article.

On account of the greatly disturbed conditions in the rest of China, I had made up my mind to avoid Chinese territory in making my exit from Choni. I decided to leave by way of the Tebbu country and travel in Tibetan territory. Since the passes over the high mountains were blocked with snow, I had to postpone my departure until March, 1927.

This delay enabled me to see another Butter Festival and, what was still more interesting, the festival of Le Chon Chaker, which marks the installing of the lama onze (see text, page 576) and the banishing of demons from Choni. The ceremony takes place only once in three years, on the day after the Butter Festival.

The day of the ceremony was a busy one for the lamas, but not propitious for photography. An all-day snow began at daybreak. About 4 a. m. a lama stationed on the roof of a temple aroused everybody within earshot by beating on a huge gong. For two hours he kept up this din. The ceremony started early in the forenoon. and lasted until 4 p. m.

A veritable mob had gathered to witness the incineration of the demons and their works. All the chanting halls, galleries, and roofs were packed with people. The priests responsible for keeping order were armed with swords, thick staffs made of young poplar trunks, and the ubiquitous birch whips. It was amusing to see the good-natured Tibetans duck the blows of the whips aimed at their heads and receive them upon the thick sheepskin upholstery of their backs. Some even invited whipping from the frantic monks (see illustration, page 613).

At each side of the courtyard in front of the old chanting hall four rows of lamas sat on carpets. Those in the front

rows were officials. They were well dressed in red woolen garments that resembled Roman togas, with long embroidered streamers hanging down their backs between their shoulders. Behind them sat the poorly clad lesser monks. Twenty monks in the front rows struck cymbals in unison. Ten drums, five on each side, were held erect and beaten with curved rods. The lama onze, who had presided over Choni lamasery for the last three years, walked slowly up and down the aisle and led the chanting. in a deep bass (see illustration, page 617). He was well dressed and wore a yellow ceremonial hat. In his hand he carried a short, ornamented rod, at the end of which was a burning incense stick.

After the chanting the lamas drove the mob farther back under a rain of blows, and the dancers entered in pairs, wearing hideous masks of white, deep blue, red, and green. They performed dances similar to those already described.

WARNING IS SERVED ON HERETICS

A doubled-up miniature human figure made of red dough and covered with heavy iron chains was now brought in on a large tray. This image represented a heretic or evildoer. Beside the tray was placed a small red bench supporting a scepter, a sword, a three-edged dagger, a skull cup, a trident, a thunderbolt, a bell, a hatchet, and a sort of mallet.

The chief sorcerer came forward with a cup in one hand and a dagger in the other. In the cup an attendant placed a red ball of tsamba upon which a liquid had been poured. The Black Hat Dancer swayed slowly with this for a few moments, then threw the ball to the ground. The act was repeated several times. Finally, instead of a red ball, a red cone of barley dough bearing on one side a disk of butter was placed in the cup and, like the red balls, thrown down. The dance seemed interminable. At length the dancer knelt before the chained image and, after threatening it with each of the implements from the bench, stabbed it. Thus rendered powerless, it was taken out.

The masked dancers now lined up, ten on each side, and monks brought in long woolen rugs, which were laid down the whole length of the courtyard. After the monks were seated on the rugs the masked dancers took a position in front of the

LAMAS ASSEMBLE TO BANISH DEMONS

The retiring presiding priest paces up and down the Chaker (see text, page 615). Four rows of lamas sit ten pairs of cymbals on each side of the cleared space.

central aisle of the courtyard as he leads the chanting preliminary to the ceremony of Le Chon on strips of carpet at each side of the square. The orchestra is divided, with five drums and The important lamas sit in the front rows.