necessarily one; but him, for his
yielding and somewhat feeble character, he viewed rather
in the light of a tool than as one of his active accomplices.
Those whom (if anybody) he admitted to an unreserved 15
participation in his counsels were two only: the
great Lama among the Kalmucks, and his own father-in-law,
Erempel, a ruling prince of some tribe in the neighborhood
of the Caspian Sea, recommended to his favor
not so much by any strength of talent corresponding to 20
the occasion as by his blind devotion to himself and
his passionate anxiety to promote the elevation of his
daughter and his son-in-law to the throne of a sovereign
prince. A titular prince Zebek already was: but this
dignity, without the substantial accompaniment of a sceptre, 25
seemed but an empty sound to both of these ambitious
rebels. The other accomplice, whose name was
Loosang-Dchaltzan, and whose rank was that of Lama,
or Kalmuck pontiff, was a person of far more distinguished
pretensions; he had something of the same 30
gloomy and terrific pride which marked the character of
Zebek himself, manifesting also the same energy, accompanied
by the same unfaltering cruelty, and a natural
facility of dissimulation even more profound. It was by
this man that the other question was settled as to the
time for giving effect to their designs. His own pontifical
character had suggested to him that, in order to
strengthen their influence with the vast mob of simple-minded 5
men whom they were to lead into a howling
wilderness, after persuading them to lay desolate their
own ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they should
be able, in cases of extremity, to plead the express sanction
of God for their entire enterprise. This could only
be done by addressing themselves to the great head of 10
their religion, the Dalai-Lama of Tibet. Him they easily
persuaded to countenance their schemes: and an oracle
was delivered solemnly at Tibet, to the effect that no
ultimate prosperity would attend this great Exodus unless
it were pursued through the years of the _tiger_ and the 15
_hare_. Now the Kalmuck custom is to distinguish their
years by attaching to each a denomination taken from one
of twelve animals, the exact order of succession being
absolutely fixed, so that the cycle revolves of course
through a period of a dozen years. Consequently, if the