One is a marble shaft on a granite pedestal; a second is entirely granite, and the third partly granite and partly porphyry.

The first and third bear inscriptions in Chinese, Mongol, and Thibetan.

One inscription announces that the emperor Yuen founded the Monastery of Eternal Repose, and the others record a prayer of the Thibetans.

Archimandrate Avvakum, a learned Russian, who deciphered the inscriptions, says the Thibetan prayer _Om-mani-badme-khum_ is given in three languages.[C] [Footnote C: Abbe Hue in his 'Recollections of a journey through Thibet and Tartary,' says:-- "The Thibetans are eminently religious.

There exists at Lassa a touching custom which we are in some sort jealous of finding among infidels.