child. He told us that the Regent
had commanded him to come here expressly on our account, that he might
see we wanted nothing, during the time we were in the regions subject to
the Tale-Lama. He then presented to us two young Thibetians, on whom he
pronounced a long and pompous eulogium. "These two men," said he, "have
been specially appointed to serve you on the way. Whatever you command
them to do, that they must do punctually. As to your refreshments,"
added he, "as you are not accustomed to the Thibetian cookery, it has
been arranged that you shall take them with the Chinese Mandarin."

[Picture: Chinese musical instruments]

After a brief conversation with the Lama Dsiamdchang, we had, in fact,
the honour to sup in the company of Ly, the pacificator of kingdoms, who
lodged in a chamber contiguous to our own. Ly-Kouo-Ngan was very
complaisant, and gave us a great deal of information about the route we
were to pursue, and which he himself was now travelling for the eighth
time. That we might be enabled to have every day correct notions of the
countries through which we were passing, he lent us a Chinese work,
containing an itinerary from Tching-Tou, the capital of Sse-Tchouen to
Lha-Ssa. This book is entitled, "Oui-Tsang-Thou-Tchi," that is to say,
"A description of Thibet, with engravings." This compilation, from
various Chinese notices of Thibet, was drawn up by a Mandarin named
Lou-Houa-Tchou, who, in the 51st year of Kien-Long (1786), was charged
with the commissariat of the Chinese army. Father Hyacinthe, the Russian
archimandrite at Peking, published a translation of this sort of
geography of Thibet. M. Klaproth, after having revised, corrected, and
enriched with notes, the work of the Russian translator, inserted it in
the _Journal Asiatique_. {235} The portion of this Chinese work which
concerns the route from Lha-Ssa to the province of Sse-Tchouen, and which
we had daily before us during our journey, is extraordinarily exact; but
this dry and laconic itinerary can be of no interest except to persons
occupying themselves specially with geography, or who travel through the
places it mentions. It is merely an arid nomenclature, stage by stage,
of the places you find on the way. To give an idea of it, we will
transcribe the article relative to our first day's journey.

"From Detsin-Dzoug to the halt of Tsai-Li.

"From Tsai-Li to the inn at Lha-Ss