Asiatic nations
are introduced with their peculiar physiognomies and their distinguishing
costumes. Persons, places, apparel, decorations--all are formed of fresh
butter. Three months are occupied in the preparations for this singular
spectacle. Twenty Lamas, selected from among the most celebrated artists
of the Lamasery, are daily engaged in these butter-works, keeping their
hands all the while in water, lest the heat of the fingers should
disfigure their productions. As these labours take place chiefly in the
depth of the winter, the operators have much suffering to endure from the
cold. The first process is thoroughly to knead the butter, so as to
render it firm. When the material is thus prepared, the various portions
of the butter work are confided to various artists, who, however, all
alike work under the direction of a principal who has furnished the plan
of the flowers for the year, and has the general superintendence of their
production. The figures, etc., being prepared and put together, are then
confided to another set of artists, who colour them, under the direction
of the same leader. A museum of works in butter seemed to us so curious
an idea, that we awaited the fifteenth of the moon with somewhat of
impatience.

On the eve of the festival, the arrival of strangers became perfectly
amazing. Kounboum was no longer the calm, silent Lamasery, where
everything bespoke the grave earnestness of spiritual life, but a mundane
city, full of bustle and excitement. In every direction you heard the
cries of the camels and the bellowing of the long-haired oxen on which
the pilgrims had journeyed thither; on the slopes of the mountain
overlooking the Lamasery arose numerous tents wherein were encamped such
of the visitors as had not found accommodation in the dwellings of the
Lamas. Throughout the 14th, the number of persons who performed the
pilgrimage round the Lamasery was immense. It was for us a strange and
painful spectacle to view that great crowd of human creatures prostrating
themselves at every step, and reciting in under tones their form of
prayer. There were among these Buddhist zealots a great number of
Tartar-Mongols, all coming from a great distance. They were remarkable,
alike, for their heavy, awkward gait, and for the intense devotion and
scrupulous application with which they fulfilled the exact rules of the
rite. The Houng-Mao-Eul, or Long Hairs, were there too, and, their
manners b