, a long staff in the form of a cross was in his
right hand, and his shoulders were covered with a mantle of purple
coloured silk, fastened on the chest with a clasp, and in every respect
resembling a cope. Hereafter we shall have occasion to point out
numerous analogies between the Roman Catholic worship and the Lamanesque
ceremonies.

The spectators generally appeared to give very slight heed to their
Living Buddha, their attention being much more closely applied to the
Buddhas in butter, which, in truth, were much better worth looking at.
The Tartars alone manifested any tokens of devotion; they clasped their
hands, bowed their heads in token of respect, and seemed quite afflicted
that the pressure of the crowd prevented them from prostrating themselves
at full length.

When the Grand Lama had made his circuit, he returned to his sanctuary, a
proceeding which was adopted by all the spectators as a signal for
abandoning themselves without reserve to transports of the most frantic
joy. They sang themselves out of breath, they danced themselves out of
breath, they pushed one another about, they shouted and bawled loud
enough to frighten the desert itself, they seemed all at once to have
become a collection of lunatics. As, with all this disorder, there was
risk of the illuminations and the butter works being overturned, Lamas
armed with great lighted torches were stationed, at intervals, to stay
the waves of the immense mass that rolled to and fro like a sea beaten by
the tempest. We could not long endure the pressure, and the Kitat-Lama,
perceiving the oppression under which we laboured, invited us to return
home. We adopted the proposition all the more readily, that the night
was far advanced, and we felt the need of repose.

Next morning, when the sun rose, not a trace remained of the Feast of
Flowers. All had disappeared; the bas-reliefs bad been demolished, and
the immense collection of butter had been thrown down a ravine to feed
the crows withal. These grand works, on which so much pains, so much
time, we may also say, so much genius had been expended, had served
merely as a spectacle for a single evening. Every year they make new
flowers, and every year upon a new plan.

With the flowers disappeared also the pilgrims. Already, at daybreak,
you saw them slowly ascending the tortuous paths of the mountain,
returning to their homes in the desert sorrowfully and silently; for the
heart of man can endure