Read Online Mandala of Sherlock Holmes by Jamyang Norbu - Free Book Online Page B

specimens we were to obtain for him in the highlands of Thibet.
    ‘… remember, I want the Blue Poppy and the Stelleria decumbens, root and all… and don’t get discouraged by the spines … the Gentiana depressa must be of the dwarf variety otherwise …’
    Offering tactful but non-committal replies, I managed to finally extricate Mr Holmes and myself from the company of Symington, who would have even walked with us down the street with his endless catalogue of botanical needs, if we hadn’t luckily chanced upon a ticca-ghari at the gate of the bungalow. We hurriedly boarded the carriage and fled.
    Sherlock Holmes leaned back on the cracked leather seat of the ghari and chuckled. ‘The etymology of the word “enthusiasm” can be traced back to the Greek enthousia, meaning to be possessed by a god or demon. But it never occurred to me till today how true the word has remained to its origin.’
    ‘I’m afraid I put you in a false position, Mr Holmes,’ I apologised, ‘by claiming that you were an explorer.’
    ‘Nonsense, Huree. Your explanation, though spontaneous, was prescient. On the conclusion of this case I intend to undertake an exploration and make my small contribution to the furtherance of human frontiers.’
    ‘But why Thibet, Mr Holmes?’
    ‘Is it not obvious? It is one of the last of the secret places of the earth, defying the most adventurous of travellers to force open its closed doors.’
    ‘You will never get there,’ I thought to myself.‘You, Mr Holmes, may be the world’s greatest detective, but the priestly rulers of Thibet do not love foreigners, especially Europeans. No man ever gets even close to the Holy City without an official passport, and none are ever issued to white men. Even I only succeeded in reaching about halfway to Lhassa before the authorities discovered my true identity and nearly had my bally head cut off’
    ‘Of late…’ continued Sherlock Holmes, ‘… I have been tempted to look into the problems furnished by nature rather than the more superficial ones for which our artificial state of being is responsible. Of these the ultimate problem is the meaning of our existence. It is in the hope of some explanation that I must go to Thibet which, rightly or wrongly, has been reported to be the last living link that connects us with the civilisations of our distant past, and where is preserved the knowledge of the hidden forces of the human soul’ He lit his pipe and puffed meditatively. ‘There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion. It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner.’ 4
    The carriage trundled down Hornby Road towards the Mumba Devi Temple, and I performed my duty as a guide explaining to Mr Holmes the cult of the goddess Mumba (a fof m of Parvati, consort of Shiva) from whom the city had taken its name. Mr Holmes, like Strickland (thus unlike most other Englishmen) was a good listener, and his interest genuine and scientific. It was therefore a great pleasure for me to explain to him the sights of the city, frequently illuminating my discourse with jolly interesting and pertinent anecdotes. It is not generally known, for instance, not even to the citizens of this fair metropolis, that there was human occupation in the area even during the Stone Age. Very recently, Paleolithic stone implements have been found at Kandivli in Greater Bombay by a scientific acquaintance of mine, a Mr Cunningham of the Royal Asiatic Society.
    North of Greater Bombay are the Kanheri caves (which is a very jolly holiday spot) and the site of an ancient Buddhist University. More than a hundred caves have been discovered filled with gigantic Buddhist sculptures. The Portuguese who obtained the islands in 1534 presented them to Britain in 1661 as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, sister of the king of Portugal, when she married Charles II. Ever since then, under the aegis of the Viceroy of India, Steward of our Most Gracious Majesty, the