-Ssa; it still flourishes, containing
upwards of 8,000 Lamas. In 1419, the soul of Tsong-Kaba, who had become
Buddha, quitted the earth and returned to the Celestial Realm, where it
was admitted into the Heaven of Rapture. His body, which remained in the
Lamasery of Kaldan, preserves to this day, it is alleged, all its
original freshness, and, moreover, by a perennial miracle, lies a little
above the earth, without being supported or raised upon anything. It is
added, that the mouth still, from time to time, addresses words of
encouragement to those Lamas who have made marked progress towards
perfection--words altogether inaudible for the less eminent of the
community.

Besides the reformation which Tsong-Kaba introduced into the liturgy, he
rendered himself further famous by a new edition of the "Body of
Doctrine," left by Chakdja-Mouni. The most important of his other works
is entitled _Lam-Rim-Tsien-Bo_ (the Progressive Path to Perfection).

Upon the most superficial examination of the reforms and innovations
introduced by Tsong-Kaba into the Lamanesque worship, one must be struck
with their affinity to Catholicism. The cross, the mitre, the dalmatica,
the cope, which the Grand Lamas wear on their journeys, or when they are
performing some ceremony out of the temple, the service with double
choirs, the psalmody, the exorcisms, the censer, suspended from five
chains, and which you can open or close at pleasure; the benedictions
given by the Lamas by extending the right hand over the heads of the
faithful; the chaplet, ecclesiastical celibacy, spiritual retirement, the
worship of the saints, the fasts, the processions, the litanies, the holy
water, all these are analogies between the Buddhists and ourselves. Now,
can it be said that these analogies are of Christian origin? We think
so. We have indeed found, neither in the traditions nor in the monuments
of the country, any positive proof of their adoption, still it is
perfectly legitimate to put forward conjectures which possess all the
characteristics of the most emphatic probability.

It is known that, in the fourteenth century, at the time of the
domination of the Mongol emperors, there existed frequent relations
between the Europeans and the peoples of Upper Asia. We have already, in
the former part of our narrative, referred to those celebrated embassies
which the Tartar conquerors sent to Rome, to France, and to England.
There is no doubt that the barb