is poised in myriads. Scarlet, green, dun, light-blue and
dark-blue, barred, ribbed, transparent or mailed, the
dragon-flies vibrate motionless over every piece of water
in this water-logged city, but the Lu-kang and Lha-lu are
their favourite haunts. The Lu-kang, or serpent-house,
is so named because of the common belief that in the
The surviving elephant at Lhasa in his compoun at Lu-kang.
central island lives a serpent devil who needs an annual
propitiation to keep flood waters from the town ; the
tradition re-appears also in a part of the Jo-kang itself,
where the underground waters can be reached through
a narrow and dark channel, and at the Lha-lu house a
quarter of a mile away from the Lu-kang across the
swamps. In each of these places there is approximately
