r
imperial. At certain periods of the year, the revenues are distributed
to the Lamas according to the station which they have obtained in the
hierarchy. Those who have the reputation of being learned physicians, or
able fortune-tellers, have often the opportunity of acquiring possession
of the property of strangers; yet they seldom seem to become rich. A
childish and heedless race, they cannot make a moderate use of the riches
they acquire; their money goes as quickly as it comes. The same Lama
whom you saw yesterday in dirty, torn rags, to-day rivals in the
magnificence of his attire the grandeur of the highest dignitaries of the
Lamasery. So soon as animals or money are placed within his disposition,
he starts off to the next trading town, sells what he has to sell, and
clothes himself in the richest attire he can purchase. For a month or
two he plays the elegant idler, and then, his money all gone, he repairs
once more to the Chinese town, this time to pawn his fine clothes for
what he can get, and with the certainty that once in the Tang-Pou, he
will never, except by some chance, redeem them. All the pawnbrokers
shops in the Tartar Chinese towns are full of these Lama relics. The
Lamas are very numerous in Tartary; we think we may affirm, without
exaggeration, that they compose at least a third of the population. In
almost all families, with the exception of the eldest son, who remains a
layman, the male children become Lamas.

The Tartars embrace this profession compulsorily, not of their own free
will; they are Lamas or laymen from their birth, according to the will of
the parents. But as they grow up, they grow accustomed to this life;
and, in the end, religious exaltation attaches them strongly to it.

It is said that the policy of the Mantchou dynasty is to increase the
number of Lamas in Tartary; the Chinese Mandarins so assured us, and the
thing seems probable enough. It is certain that the government of
Peking, whilst it leaves to poverty and want the Chinese Bonzes, honours
and favours Lamanism in a special degree. The secret intention of the
government, in augmenting the number of the Lamas, who are bound to
celibacy, is to arrest, by this means, the progress of the population in
Tartary. The recollection of the former power of the Mongols ever fills
its mind; it knows that they were formerly masters of the empire,--and in
the fear of a new invasion, it seeks to enfeeble them by all the means