oking at
it for a moment, he raised his head and hid his face with both hands,
saying, it was horrible to look at. He tried to dissuade the others from
examining it; but his influence failed to make any impression. Everyone,
in his turn, looked through the microscope, and started back with cries
of horror. The Lama secretary, seeing that his little animal scarcely
moved, advanced a claim in its favour. We removed the nippers, and let
the louse fall into the hands of its owner. But, alas! the poor victim
did not move. The Regent said, laughingly, to his secretary, "I think
your louse is unwell; go and see if you can get it to take some physic,
otherwise it will not recover."

No one wishing to see other living creatures, we continued the
entertainment, by passing a small collection of microscopical pictures
before the eyes of the spectators. Every one was charmed, and exclaimed
with admiration, "What prodigious capacity the French have!" The Regent
told us, "Your railways and your aerial ships no longer astonish me so
much; men who can invent such a machine as that, are capable of
anything."

The First Kalon was so delighted with the productions of our country,
that he took a fancy to study the French language. One evening, we
brought him, in accordance with his wish, a French alphabet, each letter
of which had the pronunciation written beneath it in Thibetian
characters. He ran his eye over it, and when we proposed to give him
some explanations, he replied, that they were not necessary, as what we
had written was quite clear.

The next day, as soon as we appeared in his presence, he asked us what
was the name of our emperor. "Our emperor is called Louis Philippe."
"Louis Philippe! Louis Philippe! very well." He then took his style, and
began to write. An instant afterwards he gave us a piece of paper, on
which was written, in very well formed characters, LOUY-FELIPE.

During the brief period of our prosperity at Lha-Ssa, we had also
tolerably intimate communication with the Chinese ambassador Ki-Chan. He
sent for us twice or thrice, to talk politics, or, as the Chinese phrase
it, to speak idle words. We were much surprised to find him so
intimately acquainted with the affairs of Europe. He spoke a good deal
about the English and Queen Victoria. "It appears," said he, "that this
woman has great abilities; but her husband, in my opinion, plays a very
ridiculous part; she does not let him meddle with a