was more than
three hundred years ago when the Kalmucks went into Tibet and the same
was repeated in Peking when the European troops looted the place in
1900. But do you know why this is done? Take one of the statues and
examine it."

I picked up one nearest the edge, a wooden Buddha, and began examining
it. Inside something was loose and rattled.

"Do you hear it?" the Lama asked. "These are precious stones and bits of
gold, the entrails of the god. This is the reason why the conquerors at
once break up the statues of the gods. Many famous precious stones have
appeared from the interior of the statues of the gods in India, Babylon
and China."

Some rooms were devoted to the library, where manuscripts and volumes
of different epochs in different languages and with many diverse themes
fill the shelves. Some of them are mouldering or pulverizing away and
the Lamas cover these now with a solution which partially solidifies
like a jelly to protect what remains from the ravages of the air. There
also we saw tablets of clay with the cuneiform inscriptions, evidently
from Babylonia; Chinese, Indian and Tibetan books shelved beside those
of Mongolia; tomes of the ancient pure Buddhism; books of the "Red Caps"
or corrupt Buddhism; books of the "Yellow" or Lamaite Buddhism; books
of traditions, legends and parables. Groups of Lamas were perusing,
studying and copying these books, preserving and spreading the ancient
wisdom for their successors.

One department is devoted to the mysterious books on magic, the
historical lives and works of all the thirty-one Living Buddhas, with
the bulls of the Dalai Lama, of the Pontiff from Tashi Lumpo, of the
Hutuktu of Utai in China, of the Pandita Gheghen of Dolo Nor in Inner
Mongolia and of the Hundred Chinese Wise Men. Only the Bogdo Hutuktu and
Maramba Ta-Rimpo-Cha can enter this room of mysterious lore. The keys to
it rest with the seals of the Living Buddha and the ruby ring of Jenghiz
Khan ornamented with the sign of the swastika in the chest in the
private study of the Bogdo.

The person of His Holiness is surrounded by five thousand Lamas. They
are divided into many ranks from simple servants to the "Councillors of
God," of which latter the Government consists. Among these Councillors
are all the four Khans of Mongolia and the five highest Princes.

Of all the Lamas there are three classes of peculiar interest, about
which the Living Buddha himself told me when I visited him w