Wellminstow life

The local Buddhist teacher and devotee is Ray, known as Mantra Ray for his incessant chanting. He occasionally jigs through the Mason's Handshake, dressed in a long yellow robe, a round mark of his girlfriend's Max Factor Sugarplum Red on his forehead, banging a tiny drum and chanting 'Om' to its rhythm. We shout 'Off' in counterpoint so as he trips in through the saloon door, in flagrant contravention of its 'No travellers, no badger baiters, no Buddhists' sign, and out again through the snug door the pub reverberates to the sound of Om-clank-Off!-clank-Om-clank-Off!-clank. Ray doesn't mind because more often than not after one of his solo chanting excursions he gets a new student or two. There are always a couple of extra lost souls in Wellminstow who need guidance to a higher plane and who can sit next to Ray in an enclosed space while he shepherds them on their journey deeper into themselves and not mind the smell.